Directional Tires

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Setec Astronomy

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How do you guys feel about directional tires? Other than winter tires, I've only had one set, and that was a long, long time ago.

I've never liked directionals because you can't rotate them in an X-pattern, which I like to do to even out wear. With winter tires, it's just the way it is and they generally aren't on the car that long.

That being said, my now defunct high-end tire shop, refused to rotate in an X-pattern, but I think that was driven more by a desire for no comebacks due to possible vibration from spinning the tires in the opposite direction (he also insisted on doing a balance, for at least the fronts, during a rotation, I'm presuming for the same no-comeback reasoning--it was a small shop and comebacks likely disrupted his tight scheduling, I could only get him to fix a flat right away if I brought it to him off the car).

So what's your view on directional tires? (and I guess on rotation, since that's my reason for not liking them)

EDIT: Thinking about this after I posted, the reason I have always done X-pattern rotation is that is the manufacturer recommendation for every car I've ever had, and it makes sense to me why they recommend that.
 
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Directional for winter car tires only. I do the criss cross or fronts straight back and rear cross to front.
 
I like directional tires, winter and high end summer. I just rotate front to back. Over the years I've always have even, nice wear on tires.
 
Every vehicle I have owned for the last 15 plus years has had a second set of studded winter tires and wheels and yeah, the winter tires are always directional. With the exception of one set of Pirellis (I think) on my TT, I don't remember any summer tires being directional. Up here a tire rotation happens twice a year when the winter and summer sets get swapped out and I do my own and I obviously stick to a front back swap on the winter tires but I also do the same for the summer sets. I don't put that many miles on a vehicle and that mileage is cut in half, roughly, by the twice a year swap, so I don't ever recall having a wear issue due to not performing an X or rear to front cross rotation

On a side note, I am hoping the winter set from the 4Runner will fit the Tacoma. The wheels and tires are exactly the same size, they are standard 6 bolt, so the offset will be the deciding factor I guess
 
I don't have any cars right now that I have winters for, our winters are shorter than Chilly's but as he says, on the car that I had the winter tires for they got rotated every season (don't have that car anymore).

I'm thinking about new tires for my AWD car, which is the one I like to drive in the winter for obvious reasons, and some of the highly-rated all-season tires, like the Michelin Crossclimate2 and Goodyear Assurance Weatherready 2 are directional. I don't particularly like the look of those tires, the tread pattern just looks cheesy to me, I think that's because there was some cheap tire years ago that looked like them.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I don't have any cars right now that I have winters for, our winters are shorter than Chilly's but as he says, on the car that I had the winter tires for they got rotated every season (don't have that car anymore).

I'm thinking about new tires for my AWD car, which is the one I like to drive in the winter for obvious reasons, and some of the highly-rated all-season tires, like the Michelin Crossclimate2 and Goodyear Assurance Weatherready 2 are directional. I don't particularly like the look of those tires, the tread pattern just looks cheesy to me, I think that's because there was some cheap tire years ago that looked like them.
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A lot of people up here, especially people in the military who aren't planning on being here long term, buy and try "all-season" tires, and generally with very poor results. Having said that I point out that in general, our winters are longer and more brutal, and deep snow and ICE are always a possibility. You don't need studs for deep snow but ice is an entirely different matter. Bridgestone Blizzaks are about the only non-studded tire that performs ok on ice, not great, but ok; however, their super soft compound means they don't last long in summer heat and it can get hot in the interior (90's) during the summer. I know people like them in places where studs are illegal, and I even had them on my TT for a while when they were the only winter tire I could get one year when the tire shop refused to re-mount my old studded tires back in the days when I couldn't afford dedicated sets. I guess my point is that a non-studded tire that has any chance of coping with ice has to be siped like crazy and should be made of a soft compound, which makes any all-season tire a compromise. It has been almost 60 years since I lived in Setec's neck of the woods so I have no idea just what he needs in the way of tires

Rant off
 
Not to belabor the whole winter tire business, but here in NJ back in the RWD days, everyone put snow tires on in the winter. With the advent of all-season tires in the early 80's, and the onset of FWD (and later lots of AWD, traction control, etc.), most people get by ok with all-season tires here.

For a while my wife had a job where she had to go to work no matter what and she hates to drive in the snow so I got her a set of Hakka's (RSi's, if anyone is keeping score) for her FWD. I remember one time in a bad storm I asked her how the ride was to work, and she told me there was one hill with several SUV's stuck trying to get up. So I said "you were able to get up the hill?" And she said "yeah, I just drove around them".

So I understand there is no substitute for real winter tires, and in a perfect world where I had a giant garage with lots of storage space and a lift and money, I'd have winter tires and wheels for all the cars I drive in the winter. But there's tradeoff's with that, too, sometimes you have an early storm and you put them on and then it doesn't snow for 2 months, and you have to live with the noise, mushy handling, high treadwear, etc. So I live with the tradeoffs of all-season tires, at least right now.
 
I've run non-winter directionals before. I don't have an issue with them but I haven't really noticed any uneven wear that would have been mitigated by switching sides. you can get severe snow-rated all seasons. i'd avoid Vredestein tho.
 
Only had directions on one car - 2010 Lexus ISc. All four were different - all directional & the front and back were different sizes.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Not to belabor the whole winter tire business, but here in NJ back in the RWD days, everyone put snow tires on in the winter. With the advent of all-season tires in the early 80's, and the onset of FWD (and later lots of AWD, traction control, etc.), most people get by ok with all-season tires here.

For a while my wife had a job where she had to go to work no matter what and she hates to drive in the snow so I got her a set of Hakka's (RSi's, if anyone is keeping score) for her FWD. I remember one time in a bad storm I asked her how the ride was to work, and she told me there was one hill with several SUV's stuck trying to get up. So I said "you were able to get up the hill?" And she said "yeah, I just drove around them".

So I understand there is no substitute for real winter tires, and in a perfect world where I had a giant garage with lots of storage space and a lift and money, I'd have winter tires and wheels for all the cars I drive in the winter. But there's tradeoff's with that, too, sometimes you have an early storm and you put them on and then it doesn't snow for 2 months, and you have to live with the noise, mushy handling, high treadwear, etc. So I live with the tradeoffs of all-season tires, at least right now.
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That's been our last two winters, put them on in Early November and then listen to them on the dry roads for most of the winter

But

Thankful for them the few times it got REALLY icy

Legally we can put them on September 15th but that is pretty crazy

Supposed to have them off May 1st but 3 of the last 5 winters there were emergency orders allowing them to stay on until May 15th due to major storms in late April

😬
 
I've got little experience with them. I ran a set on my car back in the early 2000's and I've got two sets now.

One set is my autocross tires for the BRZ (which is RWD), but they don't really count for the purpose of this discussion since they are run on the car about once a month, are barely street legal, and have almost no tread. I swap them between front/back between every event and they seem to be wearing really evenly.

The second set are a Pirelli all weather (not all season, there is a difference) tire I just had mounted to the wife's SUV (which is AWD) about a month ago. I had been pondering a set of the Michelin Cross Climate's for a while, but had held off due to some things I saw in reviews I didn't like. The Pirelli's don't seem to suffer the same issues. After driving them about 900 miles this weekend, I've come to really like them. They are really quiet and the dry handling is quite good. I'm really looking forward to trying them out in bad weather, either rain or snow.

The first set of directionals I had were some summer tires also on a RWD car. They had a tread pattern not too different than what you see as the "severe wet" tires in some race series like F1, WEC, IMSA, and they were spectacular in the rain at all speeds and really good in the dry as well.

You can still rotate directional tires; you just swap them front/rear on the same side of the vehicle vs the cross/front to back pattern you see on many cars. The set I ran long ago had no wear issues doing this in daily street use. The new set so far is too new to tell, but I don't foresee any problems.

One thing I found is directional tires seem to have much better water evacuation than most traditional tires I've driven, probably for the same reasons that design works well in slush on snow tires. The downside is if the tire isn't designed properly they can be noisier than more traditional tread patterns.
 
Desertnate said:
The second set are a Pirelli all weather (not all season, there is a difference) tire I just had mounted to the wife's SUV (which is AWD) about a month ago. I had been pondering a set of the Michelin Cross Climate's for a while, but had held off due to some things I saw in reviews I didn't like. The Pirelli's don't seem to suffer the same issues. After driving them about 900 miles this weekend, I've come to really like them. They are really quiet and the dry handling is quite good. I'm really looking forward to trying them out in bad weather, either rain or snow.
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My SUV has Pirelli Scorpion MS tires that are not even sold in the US and if I have a tire issue, I will need to buy at least a pair of something else so reading and watching reviews. I do not need an all weather tire but they do not appear cost that much more these days. My first choice is Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 so far (noise, ride are important for me).

The reviews of the new Cross Climate 3 are coming out.
 
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We're running the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive.

In our area we get very little snow and the temperatures in the winter can range from the teens to the 60's with long stretches of dry weather and occasional rain. We don't have a need for dedicated snows but the all weather's seem to hit the sweet spot for our needs and geography. Many years ago when we had much harsher winters I ran dedicated snows on my car, but we don't get nearly as much snow as we used to and it's much warmer now in the winter, so they aren't needed and not well suited for the conditions.
 
Around here the greatest danger is not slick roads but the other drivers on the slick roads. I just do not go out. Ice is usually a greater risk around here.
 
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