You can swap sides only if you have the factory setup. If you put rear tires and wheels all the way around you're good to do the normal four tire rotation.

 

can u put rear tires on the front? then do normal rotation front to back etc.? also, waht do you mean swap sides if factory set up. won't that have the tires running backwards and won't that affect the tread (i.e. directional manufacturing) ??

 

Yes, you can put rear wheels/tires on the front or buy larger wheels/tires all the way around. There are many of us that have been running the same size larger wheels/tires front and rear. I have over 45,000 miles on such a setup with no problems. I rotate mine front to rear about every 7,500 miles. See this thread for more info: http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/forums/f64/you-member-i-can-rotate-my-tires-club-25415/

Regarding swapping sides on the front with stock tires, I think the idea is to dismount the tires from the rims and then remount it so that the outside of the tire is now the inside on the opposite side. That way tire wear will be distributed more evenly. Even if directional tires weren't an issue, it really wouldn't do any good to just pull off the rim/tire and move it to the other side - the outside would still be on the outside and receiving the same kind of wear.

 

Depends on the tire of the OEM setup. Are yours directional? If so, you can't do side swaps.

What he means is get a set of OEM rims and tires and sensors with the same size as the back and that will allow you to rotate your tires front to back. If they are not directional, you will be able to rotate your tires from any corner to any corner or whatever combination you want to do. Some have had issues with removing the stagger of the tires, but some found that over-inflating and under-inflating tires removes the computer issue.

Hope that helped!

 

I got about 35,000 miles on the factory Conti tires, still had tread but they started to get a vibration and the traction on wet and light snow roads got terrible. I changed to Kuhmos this spring (after the snow tires) and spo far, they have been fine. Still running the factory setup (smaller tires on front)

 

I swap mine out left to right( factory set up ) I have 36.000+ on them and they are still going strong with even tread. I rotate every 5000 mile.

So, I would say rotating right to left and left to right works for me.

 

ok so i think ima buy two new rims for the back and two regular tires both for the rotation sake AND the slightly better ride i read about. thanks to all for the help. really appreciate it cuz i really like the idea of rotating tires

 

BTW so others know, my personal experience with tires (I drive over 50K a year for 30 years) is that tires stuck in a position tend to wear in a road roar which balancing in itself will not fix and need to be in a different turning or traction position to wear out properly and get the most "quietness" out of them, let alone the best wear out performance. And . . because of the NO SPARE condition, I didn't DON'T want to wear these tires out, favoring the idea of changing them out when 10K is still left on them because I don't want a flat to learn its time for a change.

 

im inclined to agree with "rfernatt" on the wear pattern. if you look at the smartie from the rear you can actually see that the tire is not square with the road but favoring the inside tread for more contact which would naturally wear the inside of the tread more readily . . and on my 20k mile tires, one can actually see that clearly occurring. moreover, personal knowledge base use over the last 40 years has shown me that the front tires wear just as "rfernatt" has said, the outside edges wear thinner due to cornering regardless whether it is casual slow turning or higher speed "hurry" style turning and/or pulling in and out of parking spots.

thus this methodolgy of front to back and back to front each remaining on same sides is an excellent analogy and consistent with all manufacturer's recommendations. therefore, i will certainly do the same and go looking for new rims and new regular tires for the front while my rears have about 20k on them, and when the rears are ready for replacement in 10k or so, i'll take the fronts, move them to the rear with about 10k on them, and put new tires on the rear rims that will now move to the front and then leave it that way for about 5k and start a regular habit of rotating at oil changes like normal. plus i'll have a spare now and sell off a front rim.

anyone know if the front rim and tire can be put on the back as a spare to go say 50, 100 or so miles?

 

anyone know if the front rim and tire can be put on the back as a spare to go say 50, 100 or so miles?

That's a big YES! They fit fine that way. As a bonus (depending on your height) the front wheel and tire will fit behind the drivers seat, if not, use behind the passenger seat. smart madness sells a jack and wrench kit that will fit in the tailgate compartment.

 

I rotate side to side every 3000 miles. every other rotation I have the tires fliped on the wheels (outside edge becomes inside edge)...

Got 44K on the first set. I changed only because , I do not like flats (the tread depth was getting shallow). In theroy I think I could have gotten anothe 5-6k out of them....

 

I rotate side to side every 3000 miles. every other rotation I have the tires fliped on the wheels (outside edge becomes inside edge)...

understand this and it as my thought too, however, i used to work in a tire shop and i know the stress on a tire breaking the bead and the affect it can have doing it a lot long term with regard to side wall blow outs in stress (large pot holes, slamming on brakes, hard avoidance turns, etc.) and thus when i thought of that method to do the job, it prompted me to place the call to the dealership who in turn gave me the response i mentioned already which was not really turning me on . . run em till they are finished. just didn't seem justifiable to me.

ima still gonna go with the re-outfit the front with rear size rims and tires. thanks to all for this wonderful input. now all i gotta do is find out how much that gas turbo mod is and how much a GOOD dual exhaust mod is that comes out below the rear cowling and not through it (not gonna cut on my smarie, his feelings would be hurt)

 

Okay, so I have the same size tire all the way around (rims, too), and put in barney's wheel shims, so that the 2 degree tilt is gone - it sits like a regular car now, and I can rotate the tires in a more traditional way (once I get rid of the uni-directionals, that is). Not sure where that leaves me in this conversation, other than prepared to deal with normal tire wear...(Not knocking anyone else, mind you, just expressing my opinion and setup)