Which tires wear faster: front or rear?

Napalm

Napalm

Caught the Bug
After putting on my new set of tires, I started to wonder about tire wear. I figured I'd research to try and find which pair of tires wore faster, the front or the rear.

I've done a little research and couldn't find a definitive proof on either or. It seems to be that every where I look has a different answer. I'm starting a thread about it to get everyone's facts and/or opinions so it'll be here if anyone has this question in the future.

Tire shops recommend you put your best(or newest) tires on the rear for safety reasons, but from a tire wear standpoint, which one wears faster, the front or rear?

Thanks in advance for all of your input. :)

(And just so no one has to say it, I do plan to rotate every 3,000 miles. Just thought it was an interesting topic)
 
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Fronts wear faster due to steering. Also anyone who recommends best on the rear for safety is a little off. If you loose a rear tire you maintain proper steering control where as if you loose a steer tire you could (not likely) lose control of the vehicle.


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I spend all my hwy driving on twisty mountain roads. I'm rarely on the freeway. My tires actually wear pretty even front to back. But they wear differently. The front will start to get cupped out and the rears wear pretty square. So I rotate to keep the tread blocks wearing evenly.
 
Journeyman said:
I spend all my hwy driving on twisty mountain roads. I'm rarely on the freeway. My tires actually wear pretty even front to back. But they wear differently. The front will start to get cupped out and the rears wear pretty square. So I rotate to keep the tread blocks wearing evenly.
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I'm doing the same thing. With my new tires sitting at home waiting on me to come in, how often are you rotating to keep the wear even? Also is there any way to keep the fronts from cupping so quickly? I've replaced my ball joints and just replace the unit bearing on the drivers side. That seems to be the only one cupping. I've been doing a five tire rotation every 5k miles.
 
The spare wears least. JK! I was always told, that the fronts wear faster, due to turning, but I have nothing to back that up with. That's just from my dad working at service stations, when he was young.


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Napalm said:
LoL!!! Now that is funny!!
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When you've looked at several sets of Rubicon take offs, you find out how many people don't do 5 tire rotations! I started looking on the internet, and find conflicting evidence, too. If we could find someone, that hasn't rotated tires, at all, on a JK, maybe we could get an answer.


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notnalc68 said:
When you've looked at several sets of Rubicon take offs, you find out how many people don't do 5 tire rotations! I started looking on the internet, and find conflicting evidence, too. If we could find someone, that hasn't rotated tires, at all, on a JK, maybe we could get an answer.


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That's exactly why I started this thread. I saw a ton of conflicting evidence on the web, none of which answers the question. I wanna get insight from everyone from their experience.
 
QuicksilverJK said:
Fronts wear faster due to steering. Also anyone who recommends best on the rear for safety is a little off. If you loose a rear tire you maintain proper steering control where as if you loose a steer tire you could (not likely) lose control of the vehicle.


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So I am a little off. You are way more likely to need to perform an emergency brake and steer avoidance than blow a tire (don't keep them that long and watch the side walls). If your better tread tires are on the rear your back end will track with you in an emergency and not try to pass you or fishtail causing a spin out. $0.02
 
Front wear faster due to steering and engine weight. Rears will wear faster if you're burning rubber on a regular basis.
 
From my dealership experience, under normal highway driving conditions, the fronts will always wear faster. The shoulders from turning as well as the tread blocks. The change of direction causes the excessive shoulder wear and chopping and cupping. Because the rears only job is (typically) to move us forward, they won't experience the same stresses as the front. You take a mildly chopped or cupped set and put them in the rear, when it's time to rotate they should have smoothed out. Rotating a m/t at three thousand should completely prevent any of those symptoms from ever showing. So two times for every oil change. A/Ts you could take them a bit farther. Once every oil change. Seen lots of neglected tires come in and the fronts are shot. Rears are always in good shape.

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Labricon said:
So I am a little off. You are way more likely to need to perform an emergency brake and steer avoidance than blow a tire (don't keep them that long and watch the side walls). If your better tread tires are on the rear your back end will track with you in an emergency and not try to pass you or fishtail causing a spin out. $0.02
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So in an emergency brake and steer application you think the best tread should be on the axle that does the least braking and doesn't steer the vehicle? I'm not trying to be combative, but I don't follow the logic. Also I agree a blowout is less likely but my experience is in heavy tractor trailer combos. I saw the after affects of a blown steer tire where the 3rd trailer ripped the top of the truck off like a tin can.


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Best case is all four being in good repair. I am talking about choosing between decent tires where there is a difference in tread depth. My experience is based on having done a lot of emergency driving in all seasons and road conditions and working closely with our driver training program for police. I can see where you are coming from in the trucking industry, but I am dealing more with personal passenger vehicles. Once you start talking about severely worn tires I think we both agree that replacement is best.
 
Labricon said:
Best case is all four being in good repair. I am talking about choosing between decent tires where there is a difference in tread depth. My experience is based on having done a lot of emergency driving in all seasons and road conditions and working closely with our driver training program for police. I can see where you are coming from in the trucking industry, but I am dealing more with personal passenger vehicles. Once you start talking about severely worn tires I think we both agree that replacement is best.
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I can see that, especially in a high performance type application.
thank you for your service as a LEO too. Very under appreciated job as of lately, and it drives me crazy.


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Thank you.

Reading through this thread it appears that for the most part we all agree the fronts get the worst beating and that the best solution is regular rotation.
 
Lil Nasty said:
I'm doing the same thing. With my new tires sitting at home waiting on me to come in, how often are you rotating to keep the wear even? Also is there any way to keep the fronts from cupping so quickly? I've replaced my ball joints and just replace the unit bearing on the drivers side. That seems to be the only one cupping. I've been doing a five tire rotation every 5k miles.
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I try to rotate and balance when I service the jeep. Every 5,000 miles ish. When the tires were new I could get away with not rebalancing them. But now their in the second half of their life and need to be balanced with every rotations
(Toyo RT's 35x12.5
 
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If you're seeing that kinda wear in a 5k rotation then rotate more often. It could be suspension, tire pressure, the type of tire. Mts will show faster than most any other tire.

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Journeyman said:
I try to rotate and balance when I service the jeep. Every 5,000 miles ish. When the tires were new I could get away with not rebalancing them. But now their in the second half of their life and need to be balanced with every rotations
(Toyo RT's 35x12.5
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Cool. By the sounds of it I'll be moving to every 3000. I'll be running toyo mt 37x12.5


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