In response to my question about rotating tires on a syncro, Bill
Davidson wrote:
>I think there is a lot of debate on this.
>The owner's manual shows (p 115 form my 1990) a 4 wheel rotation.. rears to
>front, fronts to rear... and they say "Tires should always remain on the
>same side of the vehicle."
>
>Tire shops tell me this is bunk... that it is left over from when radial
>tires were relatively new and reversing their rotation could harm the
>sidewalls. That is not the case nowadays.
>
>That said, I have been following the recommended pattern in the owner's
>manual and working in my two spares by taking my fronts to spare and then
>the spares to rear. However, thinking about a Westy and how the weight is
>all on one side I imagine that the wear pattern will be different on the two
>sides... And that could be a problem for Syncros. (I know how the load is
>distributed makes a difference to a good alignment man.) Because of that, I
>may begin to do a pattern that gives them some time on each side of the
>vehicle... I don't think I have so many miles on them yet that it will be
>too late.
>
>So the non-VW pattern goes something like this: RR to RF, RF to LR; LR to
>LF, LF to RR.... (If you want to do a 5 or six tire rotation you can say
>take the fronts to spares and then the spares to rears)... I don't think the
>pattern matters much as long as you make sure each tire gets to all the the
>positions eventually... for an equal amount of time. ... and that you keep
>using the same patter of rotation... I find it helpful to make a drawing of
>the pattern and put it in the owner's manual so I remember.

What do people think about this strategy?  I want to put up a
recommendation page on vanagon.com, and I'd like to get it right :-)

Ron
--
--                      /\_/\      ____
Ron 'Coyote' Lussier   (     )     \ _/__                   Lenscraft
coyote@lenscraft.com    \   /       \X  /       229 8th Street Unit 4
1.415.241.0815           \_/          \/      San Francisco, CA 94103