John,
I've owned a couple of brand new SUVs in the past 10 years. The owners
manuals recommended side to side rotation.... all tire shops do side to
side. The first time I had ever heard of NON side to side rotation was in my
Vanagon Owner's Manual... I asked the tire shop where I bought my MXT's...
he looked at me like I was crazy... the owner of the shop... He said that
may have been the case 30 years ago or so when radials first came out, but
modern tires don't have a problem with it. My mechanic that works on and
drives Vanagons says the same thing.

Further, I think NON side to side could be a problem on the Westy since one
side is always heavier than the other and will wear differently...
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: John Brush <jbrush@AROS.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, April 17, 2000 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: [Syncro] Rotate the spare??

>> 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.
>
>
>I have a set of michelin ltx's and they need to be rotated. The wait is
>way too long at the place I bought them, so I am doing it myself. I am
>really concerned about rotating from one side to the other. In the 'old'
>days, I saw the destruction when the belts would come right through the
>otherwise okay tread, so I worry a lot about that happening to my babies.
>
>I called the shop that installed them, and the kid thought I was nuts to
>worry about it, so now I am more worried :-) what does he know??
>
>Remember the old TV show
>"who do you trust?"  Well, I ask the same question here.
>
>For now, its front to back only, but that is not maxing my tread as I
>might like.
>
>Perhaps a show of hands from those how rotate side to side vs front to
>back along with the brand of tire? Anyone have their belts bust through
>the tread lately? :-)
>
>Regards from Utah,
>
>John
>81 transporter
>