Tires can be pricey, so we all will make sure that they last longer and we try our best to extend their lifespan. In order to get the maximum usage out of your tires, you need to do a few main things including rotating your tires and maintaining proper tire pressure. In this article, we will discuss rotating the tires.
Walmart will do the most basic tire rotation at $2.50 for each tire. This does not have balancing though, which is important and necessary. Walmart does have a lifetime balance & rotation package which is available at $14.00 per tire which is a good deal!
Why Is Walmart a Good Option to Rotate Your Tires?
Walmart is an ideal option due to its affordability. Most centers do the tire rotation between $25 to $50 for all four wheels, still charging far more than Walmart which is $10 for all four of them. Additionally, you can save a lot of money by using the $14 per tire lifetime balance and rotation package.
Just keep in mind that the rotation and balance package is for the lifetime of tire and you can only get it done by using this package every 7,500 miles. You will get 6-7 rotations and balances if the tires last about 50,000 miles.
When Should You Get Your Tires Rotated?
The best way to get it done when you change your oil, you should rotate your tires too. But how many miles it includes? It used to be every 3,000 miles to get your oil changed, however, modern lubricants tampered the number and had a major impact on it.
These days the recommendation of manufacturers is to perform oil services about every 5,000 to 7,500 miles. If your vehicle uses full-synthetic oil, then the mileage can be changed to up to 15,000 miles. 15,000 miles are too much for a tire rotation, however, it also depends on the quality of your tires and your driving style, 5,000-75,00 miles is about the average distance between tire rotations.
Unluckily, the average distance is not applicable to all vehicles. For FWD (front-wheel drive) and RWD (rear-wheel drive) vehicles this amount can be considered true, however, the tires of 4WD (four-wheel drive) and AWD (all-wheel drive) need to be rotated more frequently. It can be between 3,000 and 5,000 miles.
It indicates that if you are driving RWD or FWD vehicle, you need to get your tire rotated whenever you get your oil changed. If you are using a AWD or 4WD vehicle, you might have to get your tires rotated between the oil changes and when you get your oil changed.
Walmart is a good option for you to use for any drive type vehicle; however, you might just get your tire rotated from the same place where you are getting your oil change. You can use Walmart’s balance and rotation package if you drive a 4WD or AWD vehicle and the tires rotation can be done between the oil changes.
Why Is the Reason to Rotate Your Ties?
When you drive around your tire gets wear, it is a normal thing, but all of them will not get the same amount of wear. FWD vehicle will get more wear on the front tires and vice versa with RWD vehicles. Furthermore, right and left tires will get different wear because of the weight distribution of your vehicle.
If you do not do the rotation of your tires, the tire that is getting the most wear on it will ask for replacement sooner than the others. Additionally, the replacement will be needed far sooner than they normally would need replacing if you maintain your tire rotation periods.
Your tires’ rotation will simply spread the wear evenly between all 4 of them, boosting their lifespan in return.
Can You Rotate Your Own Tires and How Should You Do it?
Yes, you can definitely rotate them. It is not too difficult to rotate your tires and you do not have to purchase too many tools for it. If there is a tire changing kit and a spare tire in your car, you will have all that you will need. The only bad part is that you cannot check the balance of your wheels until you have a wheel balancer to do it.
If your wheels were balanced when you received them, and there is no losing of weights, and you do not experience vibration while driving, you may not need the wheel balancing. If you do want to get your wheels balanced by yourself, you could balance them by purchasing the equipment from a hardware store.
Before you play musical tires, there are two things that you need to do. First of all, you need to find out whether your vehicle is an FWD, RWD, or AWD/4WD. After that, you have to check if you are using non-directional tires, directional tires or staggered tires (different size fronts to rears).
This information is necessary because your tire rotation pattern will depend on these factors and it will make the different. The basic method of wheel rotation for non-staggered and non-directional wheels is the rearward cross, forward cross and X-pattern. Directional staggered wheels contain only one pattern on each of them, regardless of the drive configuration.
- Forward Cross – FWD vehicles use forward cross. The front wheels are brought directly back, and the back wheels are brought forward and switched left to right, and vice versa.
- Rearward Cross – RWD vehicles use rearward cross. It is similar to the Forward cross excluding the front wheels are crossed from left to right and right to left.
- X-Pattern – AWD and 4WD vehicles use X-pattern. With the x-pattern both front and back tires are exchanged from left to right.
- Front to back – All vehicles with directional tires use front to back pattern. The front wheels are simply exchanged with the back wheels.
- Side to side – All vehicles with staggered wheels use side-to-side pattern, all of them should be RWD though. The left-hand side tires are simply changed with the right-hand side wheels.
Final Words
If you want to get the tire rotation of your tires but you want someone to do it for you, but want it done at cheap price, Walmart can get the job done for at low price of $2.50 a tire. On the other hand, you could get your oil changed along with the tire rotation to kill two birds with one stone, or you could just do it yourself to save the money (free of cost). Just remember to rotate your tires.
