Typical tire wear on 5th gen

I’ve rotated my tires pretty regularly. But I’m noticing one pair of my KO2s wearing a bit faster.

Typically speaking, does the front wear faster on these than the rear?
I’ve never had a rear drive vehicle before, so not sure how much of a difference that makes in wearing the rears.

I have a Warn winch bumper and 10k winch mounted in front if that matters. Maybe 100lbs permanent weight in the back.

 

Your rears should be wearing faster due to the friction of propelling your vehicle forward with the drive wheels. I measured my tread depth recently (like, last Friday or Saturday) and they all measured within 0.1". 36,000 miles on a 5 tire rotate. I guess that means the tires have 30,000 on them. If your fronts are wearing noticeably faster, something ain't right.

 

My experience is that the front wear faster than the rear (regardless of whether they are responsible for acceleration as in a FWD car) because they are tasked with all of the steering and most of the braking. Driving styles differ so an aggressive driver who spins his or her rear wheels a lot will of course cause more wear to the rear tires in a RWD vehicle.

 

Weird. I think the total opposite. Fronts turn, all sorts of different directions, also, can be cambered, or toed to all get out....... Rears. Just chill.



The fronts WILL wear faster. Period. Also, the Ko2's are sticky. (which is a good thing) Sticky, means soft. If you want a 10000000k mile tire, run some metal tires or something. I got around 70k out of my old set of ko2's. Sold them, and there was more than that dude interested.

 

You are correct. And doing burn outs,.... or hammering the rear, isnt wear. That, is more of abuse. If you feel me.

 

The T4R can do burnouts?

 

What type of rotation pattern are you using?

I would expect the fronts to wear faster, in general.

 

Sure! All you need is the traction control turned off, and some snow or ice.

 

I just rotated my KO2’s and the rears are wearing faster then the fronts.

 

If your fronts are wearing faster, could be uneven wear have you checked your steering components like tie rods. Or lca's

 

My rear treads have held up better than the front after almost two years. Not a lot of burning out going on except a little in rain n snow.

 

Interesting comparisons on the subject.

https://autoily.com/which-tires-wear-faster/

 

I’ve noticed my rears wear faster too. Seems counterintuitive.

 

Thanks for this -- I'll pay more attention to wear patterns in the future (or as we say now, "going forward").

 

So, are you guys measuring tread depth at every rotation? I'm really curious, because if you're noticing a significant amount of wear in either set in 5,000 miles, that seems excessive to me.

 

i'm not a physicist but my head science is telling me the variable force applied to the drive wheels is always on going between acceleration, engine braking, and even cruising. that force relies solely on the coefficient of friction the tires makes to change the velocity of the truck. head science further tells me that the reliance of the front tires coefficient of friction is relied upon when braking and steering but those actions aren't constant unlike drive wheels. CORRECTION - i know steering is constant. head science still tells me it doesn't require as much friction as the drive wheels.

i know head science... but that's how i understand it.

 

That's a big no from me, dawg. Unless you're losing traction by accelerating like an idiot, your fronts wear faster. Never heard of rears wearing faster, at least. I guess I could be wrong in some way.

 

In the snow you can, even a little drifting. lol

All my old rear wheel drive cars would wear out the rears first. But that was before traction control and in an area with lots of snow, some also had posi rear ends. With all my new cars the front wear more than the rears no matter the drive system.

 

I think I missed head science in school, I took earth science 11 and called it a day lol

 

Trac off + VSC off + a snowy parking lot = fun.

 

@Thatbassguy hold down that traction control off button I hear eh? Didn't try that yet during snow donuts!

 

I guess my tire rotation pattern is different, I rotate each back to the opposite front and fronts come straight back. I couldn't tell you what wears fast, front or rear.

 

Yes! you have to be completely stopped, and hold it down for about 5 seconds. Trac off will light up right away, a few seconds later VSC off will light up, and then you can have as much fun as you like!

I rotate in a Z pattern. It might sound silly, but at some point I was convinced that changing the direction of rotation was one of the most important things. So, this way each tire is rotating the opposite direction at every rotation. Whether or not it makes any sense, my last few sets of tires have worn excellent. So, I'm going to just keep doing it that way.

 

Rearward cross for RWD I hear. Non directional tires

 

I stand corrected. On all of my rear wheel drive cars, the rear tires always wore out first. The rears on my Silverado wore out first, too. But that was doing truck stuff. That's been my experience. Apparently the 4R (or a 4x4 in general) is a different animal.


Quote from the linked article above.

 

Interesting. I figured there might be some variation.

Curious as to your weight and setup, and tire size.

 

Or a lot! Even in 4wd! All day long

 

I definitely dont measure every time lol. I just started noticing by eye that after 40k miles, one set of tires was working a bit harder than the other. Since I rotate fairly regularly, it suggests one end of the 4runner is wearing them down faster.

 

Maybe you should switch to the Z pattern.

 

As far as front VS rear wearing faster; it seems like it could come down to driving style, and how much weight you're hauling around.

One article I clicked on said that the drive wheels will usually wear faster. But, that RWD vehicles would generally be pretty even, as the front wheels do the steering and most of the braking.

Also, if you have significantly more weight on one axle, that can affect it as well. So, if you tow a lot, or keep a lot of weight in back, the rears might wear faster. Or, if you don't, but have a front bumper and winch, the fronts might wear faster.

I probably wouldn't worry too much, unless the tires are wearing unevenly, ie middle tread vs edge tread, inside vs outside, cupping, feathering, etc.