Tire Rotation - Flipping Tires.. worth it?
#1
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Tire Rotation - Flipping Tires.. worth it?
I am running street tires on my car and doing some HPDE events. I noticed since my camber is probably stock, the outside edges of the tires are wearing off in a rouded fasion (not shocking with high speed corners).
How much gain would i get by having discount tire flip my tires to the other side of my car. Would cost about $100 they said since its like putting on a new set of tires.
Should even out the wear for the inside and outside since my camber is stock, just wasn't sure if you guys would recommend it.
I didn't add, I am running the Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval Indy 500s (non RFTs), they are directions but not asymetrical. Looks like flipping them shouldn't be a big deal.
Anyone care to comment?
How much gain would i get by having discount tire flip my tires to the other side of my car. Would cost about $100 they said since its like putting on a new set of tires.
Should even out the wear for the inside and outside since my camber is stock, just wasn't sure if you guys would recommend it.
I didn't add, I am running the Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval Indy 500s (non RFTs), they are directions but not asymetrical. Looks like flipping them shouldn't be a big deal.
Anyone care to comment?
Last edited by LeMans05C6; 10-01-2010 at 02:36 PM.
#2
Melting Slicks
Best thing to do is put a more aggressive street alignment on it. Then you will wear the insides more on the street and the wear on the outsides won't be as nasty. Overall it will even itself out more or less.
The track is where you are really beating up the tires, so getting them off of the outer edges is what really improves the life.
If you are starting from new tires, try something like -1.5 degrees in the front and -1.0 in the back and that should do it. Depends on how many HPDE events you do. More events and you can use more negative camber. The other benefit is that it will be faster and more capable on the track. If your present tires are wearing on the outside and you want to get more out of them, be more aggressive and they won't wear all that much more on the outside.
Flipping tires gets more wear out of them, but if you don't do it at the right time you will end up with more wear on one side or the other, and you really beat them up on track days, as you have found.
Charging you $100 to flip the tires seems a bit steep to me, but then again I'm cheap...
The track is where you are really beating up the tires, so getting them off of the outer edges is what really improves the life.
If you are starting from new tires, try something like -1.5 degrees in the front and -1.0 in the back and that should do it. Depends on how many HPDE events you do. More events and you can use more negative camber. The other benefit is that it will be faster and more capable on the track. If your present tires are wearing on the outside and you want to get more out of them, be more aggressive and they won't wear all that much more on the outside.
Flipping tires gets more wear out of them, but if you don't do it at the right time you will end up with more wear on one side or the other, and you really beat them up on track days, as you have found.
Charging you $100 to flip the tires seems a bit steep to me, but then again I'm cheap...
#3
Burning Brakes
In my area, $25 per tire to unmount, flip, mount and balance is pretty standard. Fortunately I have friends with a tire machine and balancer because I do it all the time, every set of tires that wear unevenly (I need more negative camber also).
#4
Instructor
if it is a nice day and will not rain,I will flip mine at lunch time at the track if it starts raining then guess what i gotta flip them back,I have been told directional tires are for rain removal during rotation, anyways when I flip them I see no performance downgrade.
#5
Burning Brakes
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Best thing to do is put a more aggressive street alignment on it. Then you will wear the insides more on the street and the wear on the outsides won't be as nasty. Overall it will even itself out more or less.
The track is where you are really beating up the tires, so getting them off of the outer edges is what really improves the life.
If you are starting from new tires, try something like -1.5 degrees in the front and -1.0 in the back and that should do it. Depends on how many HPDE events you do. More events and you can use more negative camber. The other benefit is that it will be faster and more capable on the track. If your present tires are wearing on the outside and you want to get more out of them, be more aggressive and they won't wear all that much more on the outside.
Flipping tires gets more wear out of them, but if you don't do it at the right time you will end up with more wear on one side or the other, and you really beat them up on track days, as you have found.
Charging you $100 to flip the tires seems a bit steep to me, but then again I'm cheap...
The track is where you are really beating up the tires, so getting them off of the outer edges is what really improves the life.
If you are starting from new tires, try something like -1.5 degrees in the front and -1.0 in the back and that should do it. Depends on how many HPDE events you do. More events and you can use more negative camber. The other benefit is that it will be faster and more capable on the track. If your present tires are wearing on the outside and you want to get more out of them, be more aggressive and they won't wear all that much more on the outside.
Flipping tires gets more wear out of them, but if you don't do it at the right time you will end up with more wear on one side or the other, and you really beat them up on track days, as you have found.
Charging you $100 to flip the tires seems a bit steep to me, but then again I'm cheap...
#6
Melting Slicks
Don't know, I just realigned the car and reset the toe to the higher negative camber and now just drive it with more negative camber on the street. If you put more negative camber into it you're going to have to get it realigned.
I originally set my toe to zero and marked the tie rods. Then on the street I crank 1/2 a turn of toe in per side and for the track I crank a half a turn out (one full turn from the street position).
I originally set my toe to zero and marked the tie rods. Then on the street I crank 1/2 a turn of toe in per side and for the track I crank a half a turn out (one full turn from the street position).
#7
Drifting
Even if you do all the above camber, caster, & toe adjustments (and you should), you will still see more wear on the outside than inside of your tires. So you should flip them side-to-side also, and that will even out the wear.