Afternoon all,

I know a lot has been written on here and other forums about whether to rotate tyres or not but I would like members opinions on the following.

I will shortly need two new tyres on the front as they are approaching 3mm of tread and I prefer to change at 3mm for safety (with winter coming up). The rear tyres currently have 5.5mm of tread remaining, so I was thinking about rotating the rear to the front (left rear to left front etc.) and putting the new tyres on the rear. Anyone done this and had any problems with ride / handling etc. afterwards? Interestingly, I have heard of a number of FL2 owners reporting higher tyre wear on the rear than the front.

I know on the old FL1, the tyres with the greater diameter had to be fitted to the rear but I understand this does not apply to the FL2, although I have been advised to do this on any car regardless.

Thanks. Gone:
2002 FL1 TD4 GS Zambezi Silver
2007 FL2 TD4 GS Izmir Blue

From TyresontheDrive website:

Quote:

Current thinking stresses the importance of keeping the best tyres on the rear wheels of the vehicle, whether it is front or rear wheel drive. The reason for this is that if the rear wheels lose grip before the front ones, an over steer will occur, which is harder to control than the corresponding understeer which will happen if a front wheel is lost. So our tyre rotation service consists of moving the rear wheels to the front, and the front to the rear, but crossing them when moving to the rear.

Interesting quote about crossing the wheels over. Thanks for that.

Chris Gone:
2002 FL1 TD4 GS Zambezi Silver
2007 FL2 TD4 GS Izmir Blue

If youre swopping tyres around you just need to make sure ones you have fitted arent directional type, if so you need to keep them on the same side so they rotate in the direction as stated by the arrow on the sidewall,
Crossing those type to the other side of the car will mean they are rotating the wrong way to what they were designed for,

I swapped my General Grabber AT's front to back when it was obvious I was scrubbing the shoulders on the fronts.

No ill effects, no instability, no extra noise, nothing. It evened the wear out and allowed me to replace the set knowing I had got the best from the set. I will do the same again assuming I still have this Freelander in two years.

Hello.
Where in Portugal, in every tyre garage, they tell that in a 4x4 vehicle, you should always change the 4 tyres at the same time.
Is this true?

I would change all 4 if the tread between front and rear tyres aren't too great, say 1 mm and you can afford it. Otherwise you should change tyres with the same make and model so the rolling diameters of new and old are similar. I read horrible stories of drive train failure caused by the difference in diameters of front and rear tyres.
Member Stuartc in this forum who works for a well known tyres manufacturer said that the diameters of the same size tyres and manufactured from same company are quite different.

Land Rover swapped mine front to back on a service whilst replacing the alloys, it was noticeably unstable to drive, quite sensitive.......just had 4 new ones and it is back to being the firm, stable and positive drive it was!

Not sure if that was just my Wranglers, the wear pattern they had or something else. But I won't be doing it again! 2013 FL2 - Black Edition Auto
2013 FL2 - Black Edition Manual GONE!
Founder of the 'Microscopic LR Spoiler Badge Club'
Destroyer of chrome rears.....

Each tyre on my car will never leave the position they started in.
I mark all locations before going in for service!
Rotate at your own risk even more so with different brands or tread patterns.
Uneven wear is sign of an underlying problem - tyre pressure, alignment or mechanical issue.
Rolling circumferences of different brands of same sizes are different.
Highly recommend adhearing to LandRover authorised brands/sizes.
If using other brand, highly advise replacing all tyres at same time including spare. MY15
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I can speak from painful experience

Always put new tyres on the front axle, if you put them on the rear the haldex will try to engage the rear axle drive about every half mile or so as it will think the front axle is losing traction due to the smaller diameter causing the wheels to go slightly faster than the rear.

If not, the result ( a few months later), is the haldex will fail and at around £500 to £600 a pop, it is a costly choice   MY2014 SD4 XS
Ipanema Sand

MY10 TD4-e GS Manual
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