Tire rotation and flipping

[Labsy]

Hi!

This is always going on debate, with pros and cons, so it's time to pop it up again.
I have non-directional symmetric tires Cooper Discoverer AT3 Sport2, for which Cooper suggests this tire rotation scheme for all 5 tires:

So, I was doing this every 5000-6000km for last 25-30k and all was fine. Never needed to rebalance, no shaking, perfect.
...except inner side of all tires begun to wear more, say 0,5 to 1mm more worn inside than out, all 5 tires.

So I decided to flip tires over on all 5 rims and to maintain their position to begin equalizing tread wear.
But right after flipping, first highway ride I felt slight steering wheel shaking. Not like it. For the following few days I drove some 500kms across curvy roads a bit more aggressive, thinking, they maybe need to sit properly and they might align themselfs out. But after 1 week same story, slight shaking over 80 km/h.

So after a week I went to different tire shop to check ballance and shockingly - all tires, including spare, were waaaay out of balance. No wonder they shake, I thought.
Drove home some 40kms of highway and all seems fine.

BUT next day, same highway...shaking steering wheel again!
Next day, nothing...smooth as butter???
WTF???

I am lost.
Did I mock it up by flipping them over?
Should I flip them back?

 

[tweak'e]

the alignment is probably a tad out hence the wear.
i think flipping would make it worse.
typically we just just rotate front to back. once the rears wear down a bit, put them on the front.

 

[johnl56]

I had my tires balanced and rotated and wheel alignment. Crap, road noise worse.

 

[markterarua]

Why would you flip them. Most tyres have one way rotation.

 

[Labsy]

Obviously flipping tires was a bad decision. Balanced them twice after flip, rotated them on wheels, but still slight shaking is present. Will not do it again and I do not recommend.
Instead, only rotating them as shown on opening post is so far the best practice. As long as they are unidirectional and do not have inner/outer side or rotation marked on tire.

 

[joe2006]

Obviously flipping tires was a bad decision. Balanced them twice after flip, rotated them on wheels, but still slight shaking is present. Will not do it again and I do not recommend.
Instead, only rotating them as shown on opening post is so far the best practice. As long as they are unidirectional and do not have inner/outer side or rotation marked on tire.

When I had all terrain Mickey Thompson's, I flipped those and had no issues.

 

[Labsy]

When I had all terrain Mickey Thompson's, I flipped those and had no issues.

Nice to hear!
Today I drove on heavy rain and those flipped-overs behave just excellent, despite of random very light shaking. So I decided to keep them as is for a while and see, if they will surrender to new placement.

BTW...how were MT's on wet or snow, if you had opportunity to drive on it?
I have Cooper Discoverer's AT3 S2 and they are the best on dry, wet and snowy roads of all A/T's I've been driven so far. But they are not for harsh terrain and mud.

 

[joe2006]

Nice to hear!
Today I drove on heavy rain and those flipped-overs behave just excellent, despite of random very light shaking. So I decided to keep them as is for a while and see, if they will surrender to new placement.

BTW...how were MT's on wet or snow, if you had opportunity to drive on it?
I have Cooper Discoverer's AT3 S2 and they are the best on dry, wet and snowy roads of all A/T's I've been driven so far. But they are not for harsh terrain and mud.

I can't recall whether I used them in snow and if I had, I really couldn't say because I rarely drive in snow. I didn't have any complaints concerning wet weather driving and although they had a relatively hard life, I had expected them to last longer. They were replaced with BFG KO2's which I preferred as they lasted a lot longer.

 

[felix26591]

This is the way I rotate my tyres, never had any problems. Tyres have to be changed every 5-6 years anyway so why not take advantage of the 5th wheel and full rim. If you flip the tyres on the rim you do need to get them balanced, but the rotation pattern itself should not give you problems.

Flipping the tyres does not affect or equalize tyre wear, if you have inconsistent tyre wear (inner, mid or outer) you might have another problem that you need checked out like alignment issues.

BR,

Felix