argonaut

I have a set of Nitto 555RII. They are fairly old, with 1 to 2/32 of tread left. They are directional. Last time out at Pocono my alignment slipped and the front right tire got scrubbed on the inside edge. Its not horrible but basically scrubbed the tread off and now I have a smooth ring around the inside edge, about 1 in wide (you can faintly see the tread but its basically smooth). No sign of cords showing at all.

This weekend I will be on Summit Point Shenandoah, a track with a majority of left hand turns, putting most wear on the front right tire (the scrubbed one).

I don't have time to unmount and flip the tires before the weekend.

My question is - can/should I run these tires backwards? I.e. swap the fronts from side to side so that the tire in better condition is on the front right. Since there is so little tread left anyway, I don't think the tread will be an issue if I run them backwards but I don't know if there is something about the internal construction that would prohibit running the tire backwards.

My front camber is -1.6 and I'm setting the toe at zero. Any suggestions on what you'd do: leave the bad tire on the front right? changes to camber or toe settings?

Any thoughts will be appreciated, thanks - Brad

MungoZ06

Based on sage advice that I paid for here, I reversed my Nitto RII's to equalize wear.
The advice was/is that the "directional" only matters in wet conditions.

robvuk

sgsvette

drivinhard

Anybody remember the Penske Indy cars in '93 or '94 when they ran their rear wets backwards?

Last C5

And you don't have enough tread left to worry about running them in the rain anyway. I flipped my 555s after the left front started to go away badly and they worked fine.

argonaut

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the info. I will run it backwards with confidence now.

xsiveone

You can rotate the directional tires on the same axle as long as the tires are the same size (obvious). It won't change the direction of the tire unless you dismount the tire and flip it on the rim. Are you just going to rotate it on the same axle or are you going to flip it on the rim?

The Nitto 555 R2's appear to be just a directional tread pattern because of the rain grooves and I agree that it should only matter in the rain. It might make some funny noises though if you were to flip them and have the "arrow" tread pattern running backwards.

On asymmetrical/directional tires (GY F1SC, Michelin PS2, Pirelli P Zero Assimetrico, etc..), they put a different compound and tread pattern on the inside and outside of the tread. In the literature it says that it isn't just for wet performance. It has to do with steering response and stability. I wouldn't flip those and run them backwards. Again, they should be running in the right direction if you rotate them on the same axle though.