I never told a customer 'no' outright, but I tried to convince most people to let us put the new tires on the rear.

There are two trains of thought concerning optimum tire traction:
1) New tires on the front because you want to be able to steer the car in an emergency. A good point, but in most cases less important than #2.
2) New tires on the rear because you don't want oversteer. This is the recommendation of EVERY tire manufacturer. Understeer is easy to correct - simply take your foot off the gas. Oversteer requires much more knowledge and experience to correct. And if you get into a severe oversteer situation in a FWD car, you're in deep trouble.

There are of course exceptions to these guidelines (like cars with different size front and rear wheels/tires), but for the most part they prove valid. Most people on the road are idiots behind the wheel and wouldn't know what to do if their tires lost traction. Putting the best tires on the rear helps keep most people from spinning out.

 

All this really doesn't answer my question about my rear tires being wider. Are you suggesting I put the wide rear tires on the front and new narrower tires on the back?

Looks a bit weird no?

 

Well regarding putting the old tires on the front, that probably won't happen for me only because I have bigger tires in the rear... I don't want to try and turn 245's up front with my manual steering, the 235's are hard enough.

Also, I haven't bought new tires yet, I have gone the used tire route. I can get a tire with 70% or more tread left, mounted and balanced for 20-30 bucks depending on the tire. I'm going to try to earn some money around the house or something to at least get 4 GOOD used tires, maybe 225/60/14 in front and 245(or255)/60/14 in the rear. It all depends on what the shops have on hand... I've also considered going to 65 in the sidewall height, the 60% sidewall on a 14" tire seems small, but maybe it's because my car is like a monster truck right now.

I may look into new tires if I can find them for a good price. I just now I need to replace the fronts because of serious dry rotting, I believe the rears are only cracked on the top of the sidewall, but not in between the treads so they should be okay for awhile. I'll give it a better inspection when It's back on all 4 wheels

 

I know it all boils down to money however you want to replace the tires before the dry rot develops between the treads! By that time they are severely dangerous.

Also I'd think its common sense that you wouldn't rotate larger rear tires to the front. Just remember that more traction in the rear is safer so if those rear tires are going don't let them go for long.

 

Well, I agree that those tires look very old to be cracking like that...I have to disagree with this whole...put the new ones on the back thing. I would rather have an old one blow out on the back than up front.

 

Blowouts aren't related to tread wear, unless the tread is so worn down that the tire shouldn't be on the car at all. What most people refer to as a 'blowout' is actually tread separation, which is what can come of old, dry rotted tires or tire defects. Tires that simply have less tread on them are not at any more risk of a blowout than a brand new tire.

 

^now I really want new tires. I don't want to have a blowout.

The past 6 months or so I've just dropped the tire pressure down a bit to reduce failure chances. I'll start lookin for some other tires...

 

I say its junk as well. I wouldn't even keep it as a spare. Are the rest of the tires the same age? If so, make sure they don't have the cracking also.

 

Thats a good plan.

 

It seems to me that especially on a front wheel drive car having better tires on the front would be more important since the front wheels do the steering, most of the braking, and are the drive wheels.