I am going to rotate the tires this weekend. I don't have a lift so i am going to jack it up. Where can I place the jack so I could take the front and back off at the same time??? Is it even possible?? How does everyone else do it, probably with a lift. Thanks Bart

 

I dont think that's possible. You gonna half to put a jackstand in the mix somewhere. Unless you can perfectly center the jack. Personally I would not attempt it. I take mine to a tire shop and have them do it. They don't charge me so it works out.

 

I use a TIRE store.No way I'm gonna rotate tires on anything by hand or in the driveway.It can be dangerous also.

 

Bart
a three and half ton floor jack and four 3000 lb jack stands on my garage floor with air impact wrench and I'm done in 20 min. If you have it done always check lug nutz with a four way.

 

Yeah, get some jack stands.

If getting jack stands isn't an option, you could take one tire off, put the spare in its place and then work your way around the truck until you finally get back to where the spare is.

I had a heck-uva time getting my rear wheels off after removing the lug nuts. The hubs had rusted enough to create a "weld" with my aluminum rims. Initially I smacked the inside edge of the tire (not the rim) with a small 2lb hammer and that didn't work so I got a big sledge and after several hard hits they broke free. If I had been trying to change a flat on the side of the road somewhere remote I would have been pretty mad at ol' DC.

 

I bought a lifetime rotation from Firestone. I cant remember how much I paid but it should be a good value if you keep your truck for awhile.

 

Thanks for the info. I was going to use jack stands. I wish I had a lift, it would make a lot of maintanence work easy. BART

 

I rotate my tires straight front to rear every 5000 mi when I change my oil. I grab the front with a floor jack and the rear with a bottle jack at the same time. I use a electric impact wrench and torque the lugs to 135 ft lbs. It only takes about 20 min and I know it is done right, plus much faster than going to a tire dealer and waiting for a tire monkey to do it.

 

I rotate the tires myself also. I use a 3 1/2 ton floor jack and use the spare as a temporary placeholder so I don't have to use jackstands.

As for the rear wheels, sometimes they are tough to get off because of rust. I usually loosen up the rear lug nuts a little and drive it up and down the street a few times to break them loose. Otherwise you will be fighting with them to get them off.

I usually jack the rear end from the reinforced section of the axle where the shocks are mounted. The front I usally jack from a frame rail.

 

I have five of the aluminum wheels so do a five tire rotation. Just drop the spare first & take off one at a time. I put a thin coating of rustproofing on the hub flanges to keep the rears from seizing up. Just chassis grease would also work. It's a bit of a dirty job to do the rotation myself, but give me a chance to look things over underneath. Check brake pads, etc. Besides, I'm retired, so need something to keep me occupied.

 

Wow! I'm retired also.Hope it dosen't come down to rotating tires myself

 

I rotate my own on my trucks and our Durango. I bought an extra bottle jack and raise one side at a time. The other side with the emergency brake set holds the truck side to side and from rolling. I only rotate front to back. Criss cross can cause vibrations like tire balance problems from tire wear patterns. I don't trust the tire guys at the dealerships. When I've needed tires balanced, they always come back with something amiss. On my '03 it was a damaged rim. On my '98 I watched as they dropped my truck off the lift on the right side. It made some marks on the frame but no real damage. I'm glad it wasn't raised up high. I also like to torque the lug nuts to 135ft/lbs in the proper pattern.
I like the idea of driving around the block with loosened lug nuts to free up the rear wheels. It reminds me of the old trick of running the rears on jack stands and hitting the brakes to loosen the drums when we had drums on the rear. That was with the wheels off and a couple of lug nuts on loose so the drums didn't come off and let the wheels cylinders splatter.
Some manufacturers recommend you don't rotate. The tires wear into their patterns and rotating can cause pulling or vibrations.

 

i've got 2 3ton jacks and lots of jackstands... i just jack up the rear and support it on jack stands, then use my 2 jacks on the front. usually done in 30min with impact gun use... [and torque wrench afterwards]

and remember to put some antiseize on the hubs to keep them free

 

I'll have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. During my history of rotations (last 9 or 10 years if not more) I have always rotated the rears straight to the fronts then crossed the fronts on the way to the back. If you have even the slightest amount of feathering or chopping from the tires that were originally on the front, the fact that they're on the drive axle (in our case) in addition to going the opposite direction, will smooth them out like new, providing there's no alignment or air pressure issues that caused any substantial uneven wear, plus each tire will conceivably be at one corner of the vehicle at some point in time. My wife's '02 Jeep Liberty Sport 4x4 (independent front suspension) had 46k miles on her P235/70R16 Goodyear Wrangler SR/A's when I replaced them last week with Bridgestone Dueler A/T REVO's. I only replaced them due to the winter approaching; they still had 4 to 5/32nds of tread left on them....only rebalanced one (had to repair tire with a patch plug & rebalance) during the 46k miles. My '03 RAM 2500 had the LT265/70R17 BFG Rugged Trails (I recently installed LT33x12.50R17 Mastercraft Courser C/T's), and I rotated them the same way. When I took them off at 21k miles, they still had 11/32nds of tread remaining, and were smooth as silk.
Greg

 

I use to be of the old school not to reverse rotation on a tire but that went away. On a dually, you have to turn them opposite directions anyway if you do it right. This was true of the older radial tires but it should not make a difference any more.