5 tire rotation discussion

[AustyPosty]

^ is exactly what I do. JLUR gets 5 tire rotations as it looks dumb if the spare doesn't match and I'm probably going to a different tire every time they need replaced. On the JT, the stock spare is still under there...and the other 4 are 37s. No, the difference in size won't matter because spider gears exist. If I had a rear LSD I'd have to make sure the spare ended up on the front, but otherwise it will work just fine to get me home/off the trail/ to a tire shop. There's a reason no truck manufacturers recommend 5 tire rotations. Most don't come with a matching wheel or tire anymore. Almost every car that still comes with a spare comes with a donut. And yet some act like a few mm more wear will make the vehicle undriveable? Even if you're super paranoid, put the spare on the passenger front and thanks to the fad it isn't even connected to the powertrain at that point. 20% more tread life vs 20% higher cost when buying tires makes it pretty obvious that you aren't gaining anything either way.

I see what you're saying, but personally If i planned a multi-day off-road trip and I got an unrepairable flat on day one, i'd be pissed to have to do the rest of the trip on 3 37s and 1 33 inch tire. especially if it was a trail like the Rubicon. At that point you'd be better off just turning around and postponing the trip...

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[WILDHOBO]

It will throw some traction codes running a undesize spare. Most advice will tell you that you really do not want to run a undersize wheel on any drive axle and to rotate the undersize spare to the front axle that is no engage in 4WD.

This scenario of running a undersize spare should be looked at as an emergency situation until you can get the vehicle to safe place to get the full size tire/wheel repaired or replaced. You do not want to be driving 60+ miles at highway speeds on a undesize spare.

Correct. Very bad.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Correct. Very bad.

Again...donut spare.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Again...donut spare.

Donut spares are not less diameter. They are narrower and most often have different sidewall heights, but are designed to have the same outer diameter to prevent damage to drivetrain components.

 

[AustyPosty]

Donut spares are not less diameter. They are narrower and most often have different sidewall heights, but are designed to have the same outer diameter to prevent damage to drivetrain components.

I wouldn't trust a donut spare to get me off a rock crawl trail. A bagel maybe, but not a donut.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Donut spares are not less diameter. They are narrower and most often have different sidewall heights, but are designed to have the same outer diameter to prevent damage to drivetrain components.

There isn't damage from wheels turning at different speeds? If there was every windy mountain road would be impassable. That's what spider gears are for. I've broken a rear drive shaft and driven an XJ 300 miles home in 4wd/ front wheel drive. Yes I'm cavalier about running damaged as I've been there and done that. As far as the comment about getting a flat on the 1st day of a multi day trip... the transmission swap trailside happened on the 1st day of a 5 day trip. Ran slick rock, deer valley, and strawberry pass with the blown up trans strapped down in the back of that old waggy. It's pretty rare to cut a side wall in my experience. If I cut one 1st day on the Rubicon I'd wheel the wife's jeep over to Placerville and get a new tire installed on the wheel. My brother in law flopped his waggy on its side and broke his front driveshaft at the bottom of cadillac hill, as we were on the way out to go get a replacement axle shaft for my xj from the house. Towed it back down to where my wife and mother in law were camped, left there at 10pm in the JK. Picked up the spare axle shaft and a waggy front from the house at 3am. We were back to their camp above rubicon springs by 7:30am. Sure you can bring every spare in the world to avoid driving... but all that extra weight just leads to more breakage in my experience. I used to be the bring spare ujoints, shafts, etc guy before the transmission failure. At that point I realized that spare parts lead to more failures and you'll probably not have the ones you actually need anyway. Like ujoints. Broken several and been involved in the repair of at least a dozen. Every time they take an ear or yoke with them, so the spare is useless without a trip for parts. We could haul 2 full sized spares like the trophy truck guys...and odds are you'd have a hub or knuckle failure instead. I'll stick with tools and being light and fast at this point. We've run the entire Rubicon in 13 hours, you aren't as far from spare parts as you might think.

 

[Minty JL]

Who has 5 tires lol

Yolo, send that shit

 

[Blackjeepjk]

My turn. I’m 5 tires rotation religiously. 3-5k miles.
1 jack to rotate
20% longer life, 20% increased cost
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Broke a moto metal wheel in 2020, COVID times.
could not get a match. So I bought a 5 wheel/tire set.
Don’t understand all the talk about spare tire jacks and winches, 40’s won’t fit under there. It goes in bed or on bed carrier

 

[bill61]

Desperate situations call for innovation.

 

[Krobarr]

Thank you! So it seems like it’s really just a time thing, like, do you want to buy 4 tires at 4 years or 5 tires at 5 years. (Or whatever time lines up with the mileage of the tire).

The other benefit is that if you ever blow one tire, your spare is far more equally worn down and will not cause any added strain on driveline components when added full time into a four tire rotation at that time. If that happens, the new spare tire would only get that, a spare! I wouldn’t rotate it in cause the circumference will be noticeably longer and would contribute to more wear on driveline components again. I would finish wearing out the four and then buy another four new tires end return to a five tire rotation at that time!

 

[Krobarr]

There are couple of additional benefits to 5 tire rotation though. If you’re only ever having those 4 tires on the ground, when you do need your spare due to a puncture, it’s going to be of a different diameter than the other 3. Rotating it in regularly ensures it wears at the same rate as the other tires, always ready to be swapped in without any size differential concerns. Also, if you never rotated your spare in, eventually it would just become too old and you’d have to toss it out, so you would have gotten zero miles out of that spare tire. On the other hand, the 5 tire rotation does require you to buy a matching 5th rim, which depending on the cost of your wheels might be a good chunk of change.

However, the matching fifth rim looks great!

 

[Krobarr]

I get the 0 miles thing, a “might as well get your money’s worth” thing.

For the sake of anyone who might read this later though-spare diameter only matters if you’re using it truly as a 5th wheel (and therefore need it to match) vs an emergency spare. Maybe if you’re running 40’s and have like a 32” spare or something but for most folks, having to put on a 31 or 32” spare with your 33s or 35s for a few miles to get to a tire shop isn’t going to mess anything up. They’ll spin at different speeds (but they were doing that already).

This is true, but if you’re blown tire is not repairable, then you’re in a bit of a situation where you now have only three tires that are at a far less diameter than the fourth and that can cause problems or accelerate wear on all four tires and driveline.

 

[Mr Miami]

Stupid me. Here I thought this thread would end up with one or two comments stating that a five tire rotation will just get you 20% more miles on the set. Wow, I never realized it was this complex.

 

[Krobarr]

I have a hard time coming to grips with the math, time and effort of having a matching spare tire and wheel that sits under the bed exposed to the elements and doing a 5 tire rotation.

Wrangler, sure no problem but not this guy and the Gladiator.

I had five 37” Mickey Thompson Baja Boss’ on my old 2020 Gaser JTR and drove over 56,000 Miles on them. They were getting worn down and likely could’ve got another 5,000 miles, but traded the 2020 in for ac2022 JTRD. Will be upgrading new to tires for it this spring, probably MT Baja Boss’ again!

 

[Krobarr]

I tried a 5 tire rotation a couple of times on my first truck with an underbed spare.
What convinced me to go to 4 was the time it took to clean all of the mud and mess off of the spare when I went to rotate it in. Not a bit item, but it overweighed the slight benefits of the 5 way for me if I had to do that all the time for years.. I will check my spare every time I rotate tires our of habit though. And replace it with a similar size after 6-7 yrs if I have the truck that long so it isn't dry rotted.

I always put the face of my rim facing down underneath, the wheel remained fairly clean and it was never an issue of too much extra time to put it on. The benefit of longer tire life between purchases far outweighed the Fobs to me.
Additionally, I contacted Mickey Thompson and they sent me this rotation guide. They also connected me with one of their techs and the calculated the best tire pressure for me to get the most amount of tire life out of my tires. They also said Don’t rely on a chalk test for Bias Ply Tires, as it doesn’t work for them.

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