According to my brother-in-law, who is a Discount Tire manager, radial
tires, even the early ones, were not unidirectional; the whole thing was an
old wives' tale of sorts.  No one really knows where the rumor started, but
it stuck; he says he still has customers who insist that tires simply be
rotated front to back.

Karl Wolz

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
|David Beierl
|Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 12:16 PM
|To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
|Subject: Re: 5 tire rotation was: How to get spare tire out
|
|At 11:59 AM 3/6/2011, Dave Mcneely wrote:
|>I am curious as to why folks would not include the spare in the
|>rotation.  That is obvious for cars with compact spare tires, but
|>with a regular, full size spare like we have with the Vanagon's
|>.......... why?  I can see why some might not for cars that they
|>just drive in town, where a spare might be expected only to serve to
|>get from home to a tire shop.  Buying only four tires at a time is
|>cheaper than buying five at a time.  But if one drives a vehicle on
|>long distance trips, and especially if one ventures out to remote
|>locations, having a capable spare is a necessity.
|
|I think people got out of the habit when radials came in, because the
|early radials would take a set and have to stay on the same side of
|the vehicle to get good cord life.  Then it was reinforced by the
|advent of the single-use spare.  Just my guess.
|
|Yours,
|David