Let me preface this by saying that my stock 2016 F350 DRW Lariat 6.7l is my first - and only - DRW truck. I've owned trucks before, but they've all been SRWs. In the past I've always rotated my tires every 10,000 miles. I've asked around and I get mixed answers to the question of whether or not I can/should rotate the tires on my DRW. I currently have Continental TerrainContact H/T tires on it, and they have about 30,000 miles on them. Tread wear looks very good, even, no cupping.

If I were to rotate them, would it be just left->right or do they need to be taken off the rims and all rotated? I don't have the equipment to do that, so I would have to take it to a tire shop to have it done. Should I do it? Is it worth it? If so, how often should I do it?

 

If they are wearing good, swap the steer tires side to side and don’t worry about the rears. I had right at 60,000 on the original tires on my ‘16 dually 350 doing this. Did the same with my Kenworth’s and would get in excess of 100,000 miles on the steer tires and around 200,000 to 250,000 on the drives. Good luck.

EDIT: PS, and another thing I do is when I replace tires, I find an all-season for the front that is as close to an actual rib design as possible rather than all-terrain since I am primarily a pavement pounder and use the all terrains on the rear. I have an off road vehicle for the fun stuff!

 

If you have aluminum rims, about all you can do is swap side to side without equipment. FYI, tire shops HATE doing rotations on duallys, because every tire has to be broken down for a 'proper' rotation.

If you have steel rims, they SHOULD all be the same and you can use the old 'inside to outside, outside to front, front to inside' rotation.

 

I'm in the minority here for sure but I don't rotate my tires anymore. When they wear out I just replace them. To me the time and expense is not worth the perceived benefit.

 

It really depends on the vehicle and how you drive. I've had vehicles I never had to rotate the tires on and they all wore great. I've had others that if I didn't rotate the tires every 5-6k they'd be so cupped they'd never round back out, even though the alignment was 'in spec' and the vehicle didn't pull and tracked straight.

It's still a good idea to do it, as it can give you information about whether something is starting to fail in your vehicle. If you do it yourself, it's also a good time to inspect your brakes/bearings/steering linkage, and make sure everything is good there. But if everything looks good you can usually put it off if needed.

 

My runs are polished on both sides so I can rotate either front to back or cross

i bring in the spare to rotate the rear inners out.

 

Well, I guess that since I'm at 30k miles on them I'll go ahead and have them all done.

 

Since the answers were all over the spectrum I am glad we could help! LOL

 

LOL That's the problem that I ran into when researching it. I'm sure doing the full six-tire rotation won't hurt anything - except maybe my wallet.

 

With all my duallies, I could basically lay a straight edge across the rears at 40-50,000 miles without rotating tires, so not worth the effort.
Fronts yes, swap side to side before a wear pattern starts. Once a pattern starts it is likely there for the rest of the life of the tire, regarless of what one does.

 

If you have nice wheels they'll basically get sandblasted while on the rear outers, and will look like crap if rotated to the fronts.
typical rotation pattern is front to inners and outers to front.
As long as your steers are even and each pair (or side) is even and equal tread depth all is good.
When you have to replace a tire, buy at least a pair and replace the steers, then move whatever is better to the inners. Never do a single replacement or it'll jack up your rotation. Most people don't know that if a pair of rears aren't the same height, they'll tear each other up.
Also Ford duallys are bad about feathering the steers if you haul a lot. If you never haul, look into lowering the psi in the rears. Consult a load/inflation chart.

 

As an addendum to my comments about not rotating the rears; one is way better off maintaining even tire pressure in the duals rather than rotating. Way less labor and cost involved, and the benefits are about the same.

 

I rotate the fronts side to side every oil change, so about 5k, I probably do the rears a couple times over their life, side to side and X2 on checking the psi on the rears and keeping them the same. Had one inner that went almost flat in the 5k interval, glad I checked, had a nail in it. And yes, a good time to check brake life and general inspection.

 

That depends on what you define as a "full six tire rotation."

You received some good advice in this thread, particularly from Desert Don.

To validate the advice Don provided, here is Ford's position on rotating dual rear wheel tires, as printed on page 284 of the 2016 Super Duty Owner Manual, and as still recommended today in the 2023 Super Duty Owner's Manual:

If your vehicle is equipped with dual rear wheels it is recommended that the front and rear tires (in pairs) be rotated only side to side. We do not recommend splitting up the dual rear wheels. Rotate them side to side as a set. After tire rotation, inflation pressures must be adjusted for the tires' new positions in accordance with vehicle requirements.


If you only swap the rear dual pairs as a set, side to side, keeping them as pairs, and keeping them on the rear axle, then there is no potential for harm.

On the other hand, if you do the type of six tire rotation that involves splitting the dual pairs, swapping the inside dual with a steer tire on both sides, whether in a double triangle formation or some other scheme, then there is a potential to do harm, to any extent that the wear on the steer tire is greater than the wear on the outer dual tire that it is newly paired with post rotation.

If you wait too late before your initial mixed axle six tire rotation, then the potential for mismatched tire height in the reconstituted dually pairs is higher, resulting in more potential for hurt, as the taller tire in a mismatched pair can potentially become overloaded.

And then once you start a regimen of mixed axle six tire rotation, you have to maintain it regularly.

If you take it a step further, and have a tire shop break down the tires from the wheels due to only having four aluminum wheels, with designated polished sides, and two steel wheels in the mix, then the potential for hurt is magnified by the tire shop having the opportunity to scuff and damage the wheels every time they dismount and remount a tire on the rims. The tires also have to endure the tooling torture at the bead seat during each breakdown and remount session.

Given this potential for damage at the hands of any fresh faced tire jockey out of high school, on their first week on the job, who you have neither the opportunity to select or control, and given Ford's recommendation to not mix steer axle tires with drive axle tires, the jury is still out on whether you will hurt anything with your course of action.

It may be too late for you to reconsider Don's advice, but it isn't too late for future readers, hence this post.