When the time comes for a tire rotation, people underestimate the benefit it will have on their vehicles. During a rotation, specialists can determine a lot about your driving style and vehicle based on the ware of your tires. The ultimate goal of a tire rotation is to even tire ware. This is vital to the longevity of the tire because uneven tire ware can indicate other problems with your vehicle, including problems with the tie rods, alignment, control arm bushings, or even loose ball joints.

You can increase the longevity of your tires with simple maintenance checks.

• Maintain even tire pressure. Rear tires and front tires ware differently, so if you don't rotate them, you won't get the proper life expectancy out of the automobile or the tires (equal edge ware).
• Tire rotations give you the opportunity to check your brakes. You could potentially save yourself from brake failure or cost due to brake issues. Preventative maintenance is important because it helps you keep your brakes from warring down to the rotors.
• Tread depth should be deeper than 1\32 of an inch which, on a penny, is the distance between Lincolns head and the edge of the penny. This distance should be measured before the tire gets to the ware bar. The closer you get to the ware bar, the closer you get to hydroplaning. No tread means bad news for safe driving, especially on slick roads. When you have your tires rotated, make sure you get a chance to see the tire depth gauge that the technician is using. This will give you a chance to see where your tires should be at in regards to tread depth and where they should not.
• Having a tire pressure gauge is important. If a tire looks low, you can check the pressure to determine if you need to deflate or inflate the tire. Be careful not to overfill your tire because it can create uneven ware and increases your chance of hydroplaning in wet weather, which happens because it makes your tire firm and less likely to grip the road.

A tire rotation, as recommended by leading tire specialists, should be done between 6,000 and 8,000 miles. Some may think that paying for a tire rotation is wasteful, and somewhat tedious, but the good news is that most tire places have plans where they perform lifetime tire rotations for the entire life of the tire.