Tire Rotations in Omaha: 4 Ways It Helps Your Car
If you’re a driver in Omaha, NE, you know tire service is essential. Jobs like wheel balancing and wheel alignment can go a long way toward ensuring even tread wear and keeping your car in overall good shape. But it’s all too easy to forget about another crucial tire maintenance task — that is, tire rotation.
Of course, there would be no reason for drivers to visit an Omaha tire shop for tire rotation if it didn’t help them out in some way. In this article, you’ll learn about tire rotation and the benefits it can provide for your vehicle.
What Is Tire Rotation?
It’s easy to assume that your car’s tires will wear evenly on their own, but that isn’t really the case. Instead, tires in some positions work harder than others — for example, tires on the rear axle of a vehicle with rear-wheel drive deal with greater amounts of friction and torque than those on the front axle.
Tire rotation service (that is, regularly changing the position of each tire on your vehicle) is a simple, effective way to avoid this issue. Generally speaking, Omaha drivers should rotate their tires every 5,000 miles or so. As such, handling this task whenever you get an oil change is wise.
How Tire Rotation Helps Your Vehicle
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of tire rotation, you might not know why this job is worth the trouble. Taking care of tire rotation on a regular basis will provide benefits such as:
1. Increased Tire Life span
When you rotate your tires, wear will be spread evenly across the four wheels on your vehicle. That means that you’ll get a longer life span from each of your tires. (To get your new tires off to a good start, you absolutely need to rotate them by the 5,000-mile mark — fresh tire treads are more prone to uneven wear than more worn-out treads.)
2. Uniform Tread Wear
Since regular tire rotation will ensure that your tread wear is as close to uniform as possible, you’ll enjoy consistent handling and traction across all of your wheels as a result of this service. That, in turn, will give you better cornering, braking, and safety on the road.
3. Reduced Risk of Blowouts
The more worn your tires get, the more likely complete tire failure becomes. If you routinely rotate your tires, your blowout risk will be relatively low, as this tire service allows tires to wear at a safe rate. On the other hand, avoiding tire rotation could easily contribute to a blowout.
4. Better Gas Mileage
Another consequence of uneven tire wear is engine strain and increased drag. Since tire rotation can prevent these issues, you’ll get improved fuel economy when you take care of this service.
Know These Tire Rotation Patterns
Tire rotation might sound like a straightforward maintenance task and in some ways, it is. But this job isn’t quite as simple as removing your wheels and moving them to another spot. Instead, the people handling this work must follow a specific tire rotation pattern.
Several predetermined patterns for tire rotation exist, and the one you’ll use will depend on your car’s drivetrain, among other factors. Three of the most popular tire rotation patterns include:
Forward Cross
This pattern involves moving a vehicle’s front tires to the corresponding spots on its rear axle. Meanwhile, the rear tires move forward and diagonally. Typically, the forward cross pattern is used on cars with front-wheel drive.
Rearward Cross
As you might expect based on its name, the rearward cross pattern is essentially a reversed version of the forward cross pattern. While following this pattern, your front tires are moved diagonally and backward while your rear tires are moved to their matching spots on the front axle. Whether your car is rear-wheel, front-wheel, or all-wheel drive, it can use the rearward cross pattern.
X-Pattern
The x-pattern focuses on moving every tire on your vehicle diagonally (i.e., switching both axles and sides). Like the forward cross pattern, this pattern is meant for cars with front-wheel drive.
Get Tire Rotation at the Best Omaha Tire Shop
Even if you’re overdue for a relatively basic tire service like tire rotation, you shouldn’t cut corners when looking for a shop to handle it. Top-notch Omaha auto shops provide reasonable rates, online tire discounts and service offers to help you save even more, and quote request forms to let you know how much you’ll pay for the work in advance. On the other hand, less-reputable businesses won’t provide these money-saving opportunities — and might even knowingly overcharge you for their services.
Along with keeping an eye out for shops that help you save on tire rotation and other maintenance and repair jobs, you should prioritize shops that offer:
- Qualified mechanics
- A broad selection of auto services
- Multiple locations in the region
- A strong local reputation
Fortunately, you can get all these advantages and more at one Omaha-area tire shop — T.O. Haas Tire & Auto. Our team of ASE-certified mechanics knows how to handle tire rotation and any other service your vehicle might need. If you’re ready to take your tire maintenance routine to the next level, schedule an appointment right away!