flatback90 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 am buying a pair of tyres for me disco do i put the new ones on the front and the very good other two on the back or the other way round? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgnas Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 The company fitting may insist they go ont the back as the guidelines say it is safer. The reasoning being that most cars are front wheel drive. Fitting new tyres to the front and (worst case) on the limit ones on the back gives you a vehicle that can oversteer as opposed to the natural understeer of the front wheel drive vehicle. This makes the vehicle handling not predictable and thus less safe than having the partworn on the front. Many years ago I crashed and wrote off a vehicle, one of the contributing factors was massive oversteer (from low tread rear tyres) when I backed of the throttle. The front dug in and the back slid and overtook the front. The other contributing factors were it was wet, leaves on the road, and I was going WAY too fast. That said, if the tyres were less than half worn I'd still stick the new ones on the front I'm fairly certain that if you have a 4wd and only one set of snow chains you are supposed to fit them to the rear, presumably for the same reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 You can always swap them over when you get home....... The tyre place I use insist on putting new ones on the back, but they soon get changed!! My thought is that there is more likely to be weight transferred to the front when braking and turning, so I'd rather have the good grip there. At the end of the day, as soon as you drive out of the fitting centre, they are used tyres, so as long as the other pair are good, put them on wherever you like. That said, I always try to keep each axle with matching tyres/tread depths, so putting one new one on the front and one on the rear is a no-no in my view... HTH Adrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Many years ago I crashed and wrote off a vehicle, one of the contributing factors was massive oversteer (from low tread rear tyres) when I backed of the throttle. The front dug in and the back slid and overtook the front. The other contributing factors were it was wet, leaves on the road, and I was going WAY too fast. So the actual reason was..... As you said for part time 4x4's its new on the rear and rears to the front but a full time 4x4 drives and streers and brakes all through the front axle. which to me would suggest the best tyre's on the front as there the only thing between you and the road . I've got some DVD's with some Cooper advertising stuff which has a feature on how you should rotate your tyres but I lent it to a local garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatback90 Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 thanks lads that just confirms what i was gonna do which was put em on the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgnas Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 So the actual reason was..... I always went that fast, but the wheels were only changed a week or two before. I made sure the police turned up (the cars blocking the road....honest) so if necessary they could back me up on road conditions. I had "nearly" rescued it all but the nearside front clipped the high curb, mullered the suspension/steering and sent me spinning the other way round. After that I was only a passenger until the car stopped. If I had spun off in the original direction it was a 40ft drop to the cemetery grounds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 The company fitting may insist they go ont the back as the guidelines say it is safer.The reasoning being that most cars are front wheel drive. Fitting new tyres to the front and (worst case) on the limit ones on the back gives you a vehicle that can oversteer as opposed to the natural understeer of the front wheel drive vehicle. This makes the vehicle handling not predictable and thus less safe than having the partworn on the front. Many years ago I crashed and wrote off a vehicle, one of the contributing factors was massive oversteer (from low tread rear tyres) when I backed of the throttle. The front dug in and the back slid and overtook the front. The other contributing factors were it was wet, leaves on the road, and I was going WAY too fast. That said, if the tyres were less than half worn I'd still stick the new ones on the front I'm fairly certain that if you have a 4wd and only one set of snow chains you are supposed to fit them to the rear, presumably for the same reasons. This always makes me laugh. Industry/Government. Oversteer bad, dangerous, unpredictable. Understeer good, safe, predictable. Truth is - Understeer you slide off into the bushes. Oversteer you counter steer and just keep driving on! I know which I prefer! If excesive speed and oversteer is unpredictable how come Rallying and Drifting is consistantly acheivable!!! If you learn to drive rear wheel drive cars it's not a problem. Everyone has been bulls*$t*ed into thinking that frontwheel drive is safer when in fact it is just cheaper to manufacture! Marc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robhybrid Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I tend to leave the rear tyres on the rear and change 2 sets of front to 1 set of rear roughly. I think it works out cheaper than swaping wheels around and having to buy tyres in sets of 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 You can always swap them over when you get home.......The tyre place I use insist on putting new ones on the back, but they soon get changed!! My thought is that there is more likely to be weight transferred to the front when braking and turning, so I'd rather have the good grip there. At the end of the day, as soon as you drive out of the fitting centre, they are used tyres, so as long as the other pair are good, put them on wherever you like. That said, I always try to keep each axle with matching tyres/tread depths, so putting one new one on the front and one on the rear is a no-no in my view... HTH Adrian Hate to say this but the tyre place was right. I had a full day driver training course before Christmas - aimed at safe driving practices etc. The moto with new tyres is "Best on the Back". Regardless of driven wheels, front, rear or 4x4, best on the back. I found this completely counter intuitive and questioned the trainer on it and the reasoning is that in the event of an "issue" be it blow out or loss of control for some other reason it is the rear tyres that will keep you on the road. I still don't really understand it, but my new tyres now go on the back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 So....... What happens when you need all 4 changing.......??? Should the tyre fitter refuse to do it as (if the points above are correct) the car will become less predictable and more 'unsafe'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Hate to say this but the tyre place was right. I had a full day driver training course before Christmas - aimed at safe driving practices etc.The moto with new tyres is "Best on the Back". Regardless of driven wheels, front, rear or 4x4, best on the back. I found this completely counter intuitive and questioned the trainer on it and the reasoning is that in the event of an "issue" be it blow out or loss of control for some other reason it is the rear tyres that will keep you on the road. I still don't really understand it, but my new tyres now go on the back! Now I'm even more confused as I ws taught that a blow out on the rear was uncomfortable but marginaly controllable but a blow out on the front was going to cause a major accident as the steeringwheel would be pulled straight to one of the full lock possitions? Marc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangeyRover Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I spun dads disco on a roundabout when i borrowed it. A quick check showed badly worn tyres at rear. Only thing damaged was my ego, luckily. fit them to the back http://www.etyres.co.uk/flashmovies/new-ty...rear-etyres.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 On my front wheel drive car I tend to get through two sets of front tyres for every set of four tyres. The new ones always go on the front. I work on the basis that I can work with over steer, if it happens, but the car naturally understeers anyway so new front tyres would sorta nutralise it a bit. Never lost control of a car at any legal speed anyway so I'm sticking to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Now I'm even more confused as I ws taught that a blow out on the rear was uncomfortable but marginaly controllable but a blow out on the front was going to cause a major accident as the steeringwheel would be pulled straight to one of the full lock possitions?Marc. Modern steering geometry makes front blow outs very managable. Rear ones are like sudden onset, and continuous, over steer when you least expect it so much more difficult to control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatback90 Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 'kin ell now i'm confused!! thanks for the replys gonna put the new on the front and see what happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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