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I didn't make this a hypothetical anything. Nobody said anything about bald tires but you. It's still better to have the tires with the deeper tread depth on the rear versus the front.
When driving in heavy rain at speed.
Not when trying to accelerate, steer, and brake at all other times.
The links just rehash the same thing. And concede the same thing "After all, in a front wheel drive vehicle the front tires are responsible for steering, transmitting acceleration, and most of the braking forces."
It's a case of tire manufacturers promoting their own vested interest, picking out a scenario and emphasizing it over all the other scenarios in order to sell more tires. How so? Because the average person knows the front controls the steering and braking and wants the newer tires on the front. When told at the counter the new tires will be installed on the rear they are likely to go ahead and replace all four tires.
Stopping is the single most important aspect of driving. Spinning out is dangerous and often results in injury or death, but so does failing to stop in time. It really doesn't matter how much rear traction you have if you can't control the steering and stop in time.
Go to Tire Rack and read the reviews for your car. After you select a tire, look at the all-in cost of installing both tires (they give you this for local shops). Then call the local shop and ask for prices and if they can beat the Tire Rack prices.
The links just rehash the same thing. And concede the same thing "After all, in a front wheel drive vehicle the front tires are responsible for steering, transmitting acceleration, and most of the braking forces."
It's a case of tire manufacturers promoting their own vested interest, picking out a scenario and emphasizing it over all the other scenarios in order to sell more tires. How so? Because the average person knows the front controls the steering and braking and wants the newer tires on the front. When told at the counter the new tires will be installed on the rear they are likely to go ahead and replace all four tires.
No it's not "a case of tire manufacturers promoting their own vested interests." It's a case of basic physics and car safety. Since you continually underestimate the importance of rear-wheel traction in braking, let me try -- almost certainly in vain - to put it in perspective for you.
Your average car already has some 65% of its weight over the front wheels. How much more weight do you think gets shifted to the front wheels when you step on the brake, particularly in a panic situation? When you're shifting the vast majority of the weight of the car onto the front wheels in hard braking, you're increasing the traction the front wheels have (and they already have the majority of it) and decreasing the traction available to the back wheels. In that scenario, it's that much more important for the rear wheels to have as much traction available to them as possible to avoid snap oversteer. Because once that happens, 95% of the time you're just a passenger along for the ride for whatever happens next. At least if the front wheels start breaking traction, you can detect it early enough to start correcting.
Meeting ideals might be overly costly compared to benefit. Nice if you can match perfectly the brand, style, etc. of the new tires to the old, but not worth it if it costs and extra $100 a pair to do so, instead of a more economical tire. But is it important for them to be the same size if they are on the opposite sides from each other (e.g., both front). Front tires to back tires can tolerate a lot of variance, but opposite tires should match exactly, even in inflation.
It is always recommended to put new tires on the rear, which goes against intuition. But do it anyway and don't argue.
The quoted price for your tires should include balance, new stems, and most shops are equipped to do alignment. If you had front-end work a year ago, assume your alignment is still pretty close. But your tires will still be cupped, from before the front-end work. Have somebody show you how to test your tires, by feel, for "cupping", and you can judge for yourself if you need alignment or not in the future.
Don't let them sell you any kind of insurance or extended warranty, that's a cash flush right into their pockets. They will charge you a disposal fee for throwing away your old tires, you can avoid this by carrying your old tires home, but you'll then have to legally dispose of them yourself. If you want to throw them in a dumpster, that's your business.
The cheapest tires you can buy are perfectly safe in everyday prudent driving conditions. If you need to push your car to a higher limit, you might have to pay for that limit -- it's your budget, and your driving style, and you're not obliged to keep up with the Joneses..
But how often do you drive in a heavy rain versus how often do you steer and brake? I'd rather have the new tires on the end that matters most 95% of the time.
That's the debate I'm going through now. My front tires need to be replaced on my FWD Hyundai Tucson. thing is, we get <9" annual rain fall here. I need a pair of tires, the rear tires have plenty of tread left.
But after reading this thread, I'm thinking about moving the rear tires to the front and putting the new tires in the rear.
I have uneven wear because at 42k miles, I have not rotated tires.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blazerj
Go to Tire Rack and read the reviews for your car. After you select a tire, look at the all-in cost of installing both tires (they give you this for local shops). Then call the local shop and ask for prices and if they can beat the Tire Rack prices.
That's what I did when I replaced the rear tires on my Corvette but I looked them up on Discount Tire Direct and called the local Discount Tire about them. They came within $5 of each tire so I wasn't going to haggle over $10 and try to beat the guy to death over $10.
In that scenario, it's that much more important for the rear wheels to have as much traction available to them as possible to avoid snap oversteer. Because once that happens, 95% of the time you're just a passenger along for the ride for whatever happens next. At least if the front wheels start breaking traction, you can detect it early enough to start correcting.
In that scenario, if your front wheels break traction, you are also along for the ride as you slam into the stopped tractor trailer in front of you.
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