I was doing that look at the wagon before a long trip inspection and I noticed that our front tires are nearing the thread wear indicators. Conversely the back tires have 1/4 of a inch at least. We are driving about 2000miles pulling a Uhaul trailer.

Should I rotate the better tires to the front or leave them in the back?

I was doing that look at the wagon before a long trip inspection and I noticed that our front tires are nearing the thread wear indicators. Conversely the back tires have 1/4 of a inch at least. We are driving about 2000miles pulling a Uhaul trailer.

Should I rotate the better tires to the front or leave them in the back?

I like to be able to steer my "E" :cool:

Buy 4 new tires!

Fred

Should I rotate the better tires to the front or leave them in the back?

Fronts do all the work 99% of the time.

Buy 4 new tires!

Fred

Have to agree with Fred on this one. Given that you are towing a trailer, I would feel safer with 4 new tires for traction and safety.

It's never safe to have two good tires and two near bald tires. I would buy four new tires. If you rotate more often the tires will wear at an even rate. The 10,000 mile rotation Honda recomends is too long.

Rotate em' !

2000 miles is a long trip. If it was a 50 mile trip in town, that wouldn't worry me, but I agree with the other posters. You're going to need your vehicle in good shape and that includes the tires. Towing puts additional stress on the tires while accelerating and especially braking. I wouldn't push my luck with something like this.

With front wheel drive vehicles your always supposed to have the best tires on the rear, to keep the backend from losing road grip into a turn on slick roads, when the fronts are still grabbing, putting the vehicle into a spin. But pulling a trailer may change that dynamic. If it was me? I'd get new tires all-round for safety.

i would put the better tires in front, as they have to do most of the work.
the rears just have to hold the rear end of the vehicle up, and the tongue of the trailer, in this case.
another consideration is the weather, slick tires provide more dry traction, treaded tires provide more wet traction.
do you prefer understeer or oversteer? most vehicles come from the factory w/ lots of understeer. somebody told them understeer is "safer".
in any event, you should definitely consider new tires all around fairly soon after the trip.

A similar question is often posed in the instance of where to install the space-saver spare.

If you install in the rear, thinking, 'the rears do less work' - then you're more exposed to dangerous oversteer. Whereas if you install it on the front, the failure mode is going to be a more controllable understeer.

In this case, if there is decent tongue weight on the rear... You don't want to hear it, but I'd replace the rears. Move them to the front, if you like.

I never skimp on tires. Your setup will likely have a high probability of doing what you ask of them. But it's the unexpected situations for which one does not plan that your life may be saved. I just prefer to stack the deck in my favor in case I'm dealt that hand.

FX