I don't rotate my truck tires until the rear ones are worn out then I buy new for the front and move the still almost new ones to the rear. At this time you know if the old front ones are out of balance and installing new, newly balanced tires onto the front almost gives you a complete new set for the price of only two tires. I do notice that with lots of gravel roads and towing heavy that the rear tires don't last long but is it worth it to rotate them to extend their life by wearing out all 4 tires and be driving on fairly worn tires on the front. What do other people do?

 

I rotate my tires about every 5000 miles. I move the tires front to back only, as some rotation practices move the rears forward and the fronts swap sides in the rear. I rotate them myself too unless there's a light tire vibration or if the set on there has a road warranty. Even at that, I dont like how the tire guys thrash my rims so I prefer to do it myself.

I rotate my tires specifically because it keeps the tires wearing evenly and will stop erratic wear patterns in the front. They last a lot longer for me if I do. Most vehicles will show considerable wear differences on the front tires compared to the rears, but these Dodge trucks are especially notorious for really bad wear on the front tires if they're not rotated often. The link front suspension on the Dodges just wasnt a great design.

But.....that said, I'm kind of a stickler about how my vehicles drive and run too. If my tires wobble in the slightest amount then I'm usually in the tire shop the next day having them re-balanced. For as much as tires cost anymore, they better run smooth or I'll have them re-balanced everyday. If they cant get 'em to run smooth then I'll have new tires put on there rather than have to drive around with a therapeutic vibrating seat and steering wheel. Plus its horrible for the shocks, suspension, and steering components when tires are bouncing around under there.

 

On my 92 I rotate every 5000, rear to front and balance, cross the front to the rear. I run a lot of gravel, I don't tow a lot but when I do I'm usually sitting around 20,000 gross, truck alone weighs in at 8200 current set of tires I have 30k miles still between 1/4 and 1/2 tread.

 

When you are "off pavement" run in 4wd. That prevents the rear wheels from spinning and pretty much stops the premature wear. As for rotation, my situation is different. 6 months of the year I run with all season mud and snow tires, the other 6 months I run with studded snow tire. I clean the tires and wheels at the end of each season and have them re-balanced ready to go. My summer tires I cross rotate to the front and the spare goes to the right rear. My 01's winter tires are not only studded, but directional as well. In any case rotation is front to back, back to front.

 

I rotate mine every 3000 miles. I do them myself because out local Discount is bad about damaging lugs. I pay close attention and use a prybar to lift the wheels off and on so I don't drag them over the threads, then I wore brush the threads and blown them and the nuts off before reinstalling.