Tire Rotation Strategy?

I just had my 26th birthday Veeky Forums

My parents are buying me some new tires for the shitbox.

So here's the deal. I had no idea what "Tire Rotation" meant until I was 24, and therefore, the combination between my Grandma driving style and my car being FWD, I still have 2 tires in good condition because I let them ride on the back wheels for years.

I'm getting some economy Cooper all-seasons.

Should I:

A: Go to junkyard, get 4 steel rims, clean them up and install new tires on said rims? I have a local tire shop that's been serving my company for years and years. I can then save the old 4 for next summer and drive those till they're really done for.

B: Go to junkyard, get only 2 steel rims and just save the two good tires, returning them to the rear where they do almost nothing, and wait until they go before putting on the other two new ones?

I am either keeping two or four of the old ones. I would prefer to keep all of them, because they all still have decent tread. What would you do, friends?

>get all 4 new tires put on
>ask to keep the 2 good tires

Why are you fucking around with the idea of extra wheels?

One extra wheel can be nice to have if you'd like to keep a full size spare around. Or, if they all match, for when you bend one some day.

Extra rims are unnecessary. Put the brand new tires on the rims with the old pair that's the most fucked. Move the old but still good wheels to the back. Save the other 2 new tires for when the rears wear out.

get michelins faggot.

>Put the brand new tires on the rims with the old pair that's the most fucked.
The car will drive the best with 4 matching tires, keeping the other two good ones for spares makes much more sense.

This is where I can't decide what to do. On the one hand, yes, 4 matching tires will offer peak grip (and look the best let's face it), but continuing to ride the two old ones will make the most sense economically.

This is why I'm thinking I might as well just get 4 rims. These new tires can be my winter tires, and I can put the old ones back on next summer when it all thaws out, thus prolonging the life of the new set indefinitely.

Storage is not an issue, I have a massive crawl space in my house. Cleaning up the steel rims is no problem either, I have everything to remove rust and paint them properly. Anything that would indicate a bad rim other than what I can see with my eyes? I love the junkyard so I'll spend all day finding nice specimens. Maybe take them to the tire shop for inspection before spending time cleaning them up?

No thanks, the Coopers are just fine.

Jack up the front end of your car, start it, and let it idle in as high a gear as you can get it. Check to see if the wheels are visibly wobbling at all. You're looking to see f they're bent. Then do the same with the rear although you'll have to give them a hearty spin by hand (or have somebody else do that while you watch).

Ideally you will see zero wobble. If you see much of any, it's bent and you might want to ditch it unless you really just want a set of wobbly winters and nicer summers or whatever.

Otherwise you'd have to go to a tire shop or really any shop and ask to get the wheels balanced. They'll know from the machine if the wheels are wonky.

I appreciate the response.

Is this a normal practice, or do most people just dispose of older tires? I obviously have my spare in the trunk, but I hate those things with my heart. Would much rather have a real backup available at the house.

I'm also the kind of person that likes to squeeze every last cent of value out of something. Like the last scoop from a jar of mayonnaise.

pic unrelated

For car people? Sure. They'll hang on to all kinds of stuff. I got rid of two old bent wheels + tires when I moved because I wanted to downsize. I've got some kid's four rims sitting about 10' away from me in my living room; I'mma take them down next week along wtih a new tire sitting outside my back door and ask the shop to take the three old rim+tires on the car, the new tire, and the four new rims, and ask them to pick the four best rims and put the tires on those and ditch any rims that are badly bent.

Then I'll finally have a set of snows and a set of all-seasons, and that way I'll leave one of the snows in the trunk so that if I'm on a long trip or it's the middle of the night or whatever, I can pop that on and be done with it. Twice, I've been very happy to be carrying a full-size spare. Once I was very unhappy because all I had was the donut, another 350 miles to go, and it was a holiday so all the shops were closed. Finally found one run run by a foreigner, and thank goodness he happened to have a used tire in my size. Would have had to call in sick the next day otherwise.