Rotating tires? Not me!

[fergyfer]

I've owned 22 vehicles in my 27 years of driving so I haven't owned many long enough to replace tires! But several years ago I owned a 90 suburban. It had good tires on it and I'd had it for a year when I was preparing for a 2000 mile trip. I had everything checked out and the shop recommended rotating the tires. I had them done. On the trip I had a blowout after a rear tire started thumping. Then a few weeks later another blowout on the other rear tire. Shortly after my front tires started thumping and I replaced them before they blew. At the same time, our 90 mazda was due an oil change and the shop asked my wife about rotating the tires. She had them do them and within a month we had to replace all four tires after they developed lumps. I started wondering if rotating was actually helping or hurting the tires. A year later I had a 90 full size blazer that had pretty good Michelin X's in 31 10.5 on it that had worn about half life but were in good shape and rode smooth. My wife took it for an oil change and they rotated the tires! Within a month, we were having to buy tires for it as they all developed thumping. I haven't rotated a tire since and that was years ago. I've never had a tire do that before and since the "rotation period of my life". I mentioned this to a co-worker a year ago when he had his car in the body shop for an extended period of time. He was driving a rental car. He was talking about a thumping coming from one of the tires. A couple days later, he had a blowout and when the rental company told him he had to pay for the tire, he asked them about tire rotation. They had just had the tires rotated on that car within a month ago! I'm just curious what others have experienced and your thoughts on this!
By the way, I put new tires on my jeep 2 years ago and have never rotated them, and they are wearing perfect and still look like new tread...

[alfonso2501]

Fergyfer, I’m sorry about hearing about that, but I think you just had a string of bad luck. I have mine rotated about 2 times a year, give or take. The boys @ wally world do it for 6 bucks. By the time I’m finished shopping their done. I’ve also never had a blow out before either, must have dirtied your shorts when that happened! How fast were you going? What type of tire were you running?

[Grant@Tirerack]

That sounds more like a very bad run of luck to me as well. There is nothing inherent with rotating tires that could cause them to blow out.

[fergyfer]

I don't remember how fast but I believe the tire just came apart and didn't lose air pressure.
I've wondered since those experiences if maybe that since the tires had not been rotated on a regular basis, that then rotating them caused them to come apart... I don't know. All I can tell you is that the after that happened to the mazda, we just replaced the front tires when they needed it and the back tires never even showed any wear and we had the car for 11 years...

[pennypicher]

Don't belive in rotation either. I put 102k on a set of Michelins on my Aerostar. Rotated them twice! Change because of snow coming. Could have made it another few months. Next set had 88K and still had nubbies on the sides when I gave them up. So I don't think rotating is for everyone. Oil changes the same thing. 4-5000. Have 334K on the orignal motor.

[fergyfer]

Oil changes, I think, depend on what kind of driving you do and how quickly the miles pile up. I try to keep them within 3-4000 miles but my wife's car might go 8 months before we reach that mileage. I think good oil makes a difference too. Valvoline is the only oil I will use. I saw a lubricant break down test years ago where a salesman for specialty lubricants for machine shops was displaying a test where you could see how quickly lubricants would break down under heavy stress. We talked him into letting us test our motor oil and a couple guys had old trucks that burned oil and had a few spare cans behind the seat. I remember one of them was penzoil and one was quaker state. One of them lasted 3 minutes and the other 4, which was not bad. I didn't have any spare cans of oil, but I used my dipstick and after several dips, I got enough to cover the plate and do the test. My valvoline lasted the entire time we stood there (longer than 20 minutes) and we shut it off to clean it and apply someone elses oil to it! So, I haven't allowed any brand but Valvoline in my engines since!