a tyre question

I have another question! First up a little background on where I come from.

I've had front wheel drive cars - front wheels get HAMMERED because they drive, steer and brake. ie. all the work and the rears just hold up the back end of the car! so rotations are important (IMO). I like to buy sets of 4 wheels. I always rotated front to back - no swapping sides.

I've also had rear wheel drive cars - rears get more hammering because of drive and heavy right foot.... :angel: so I rotate front to rear - no swapping sides. sets of 4 wheels again.

BUT on a Defender - they have constant 4wd! So wont the tyres wear more evenly anyway????? So rendering the rotations somewhat useless??? Or is my logic flawed?

If you do lots of kays on bitumen I cant really help you ;)
If you do lts of kays on fast dirt and secondary roads.
Short wheel base like discos will wear rears stupid quick
Proper wheel base like 130s will wear rears just quickly
The "wear" is a function of rear axle instability (right footed disease)
as well as stone throw from front tyres to rear tyres (my theory as to why short wheels base has this effect more than long wheel base - also why mud flaps at rear of fronts and front of rears help so much.

Soooooo to answer your question - if you drive bitumen I have no idea
if you drive dirt your rears will wear faster than fronts

S

Debruiser,

Unless your centre diff is locked your driveshafts and subsequently wheels are not turning anywhere near the same speed.

Can't remember the ratios, but open road travelling the front/ rear power split is something like 20/80 and it changes under braking, cornering etc. Cornering a Puma a bit fast on a wet road the TC has a lot of fun trying to compensate!

Hence roverrescue's experience on dirt road is close to that of a rear wheel drive...

Cheers,

Lou

Loubrey

The disco/defender split is not torque bias of coupling bias..

When running in normal conditions its basically 50/50 in a straight line.

Cheers Tombie,

I'm no mechanical technician and that info was passed onto me over the years (incorrectly it would seem).

Honest questions then:

I appreciate there is no "intelligent" power allocation...

Would the centre diff maintain a near 50/50 split under normal driving conditions (unlocked and free)?
Would the weight shift (and subsequent wind resistance) not favor the rear axle to have the lions share of the power?

Thanks,

Lou

Perhaps Lou,
But as the centre differential is essentially an open spider gear diff, as the load increases on the rear output, power is distributed to where load is least thus tending towards equalisation. I guess there is no real way of finding out however!

S

I never rotate side to side, Agree 100% with Tombie. Have seen it happen when people do that with bulges, seperations etc. Have never rotated tyres on the Defender! They seem to wear quite evenly,Unless there is an encounter with a rock or stump! :o Defender does maybe 40% bitumen rest gravel and bush work. Spare goes on when tyres replaced with 3 new and a new goes on as spare, Tombie appears to have no scottish blood in his veins! :D. Have not had the Disco long enough to see what happens with it.

Cheers Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by schuy1

I never rotate side to side, Agree 100% with Tombie. Have seen it happen when people do that with bulges, seperations etc. Have never rotated tyres on the Defender! They seem to wear quite evenly,Unless there is an encounter with a rock or stump! :o Defender does maybe 40% bitumen rest gravel and bush work. Spare goes on when tyres replaced with 3 new and a new goes on as spare, Tombie appears to have no scottish blood in his veins! :D. Have not had the Disco long enough to see what happens with it.

Cheers Scott

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Thanks Scott

I'm Scottish / Irish descent. :D

Cheers
Mike