tyre wear rate???

can anyone tell me wether the rear or front tyres generally wear faster on a TD5, i have not had to fit a new set of tyres yet, the rears are more worn than the fronts but dont know wether this is down to rear wearing faster as i didnt pay much attention to the wear levels when i bought the car, just a quick look to check they were all legal.Just wondering wether to rotate the tyres or just replace rears??

the fronts will always wear faster, i have a set of avon rangemasters on the back of the 110 that have done nearly 70K and still have well over 6mm of tread left

Yup same as Sean the tyres on my 200tdi disco wear faster on the front.

thanks guys, thats solved the dilemna, new tyres for the rear then replace fronts later, no point swapping over front to rear.

Yep. I rotate my tyres front to back a couple of times a year to prevent this - also allows me to inspect the brakes & underside as well as topping-up any waxoyl. I also found the front's rubbed the edges a bit, and the rears wear evenly... By rotating the tyres you ultimately get more life out of the set (but then it cost me £400 to replace them all with BFG AT's at the same time)...

Actually ... in a vehicles like a Landy up to and includingb Disco / Defender td5 models which all have REAL AXLES front and rear, you may get better over-all tyre life by NOT carrying out the standard tyre-swapping routines.

The rear tyres on all cars/trucks fitted with big axles always run DEAD IN LINE, whereas in all other cars with "independent suspension" and even front wheel drivers with beam axles at trhe back, the rear wheels are always slightly toed IN to reduce rear end oversteer, which they think makes it handle safer when the car is being driven by a normal incompetent driver. LandRover with axles aren't supposed to be able to go fast enough for this to matter! So, the back tyres always stay pointing dead ahead, AND always vertical to the road surface even when the body rolls above the axle. Thus, there is almost no scrubbing effect on the tread, and the back tyres will last 100k miles easily in many cases.

The front tyres on Landies with real front axles also do not change their geometry much in driving, and assuming your tracking is set correctly, and you don't scrub the tyres by cornering like an idiot especially at LOW speeds like in car parks, then the front tyres get an easy life too. They do NOT get pushed outwards and scrubbed.

You may like to know that Disco 3 has a front tyre problem as they muffed the suspension geometry badly. At 12,000 miles expect to have to buy two new front tyres. If it's a new buy car, claim under warranty - there IS a problem, and they know it.

I have found that the best plan for me and my Disco 2 td5 is to leave the back tyres exactly where they started off. They will probably do over 100k miles and still have plenty tread! The front tyres I do change, BUT not just "side for side".

I mark the outside walls of the tyres RIGHT OUTER and LEFT OUTER, and then I take the tyres off the wheels, and refit them THE OTHER WAY ROUND.

The right outer side of the tyre goes to the left side of the car and fits with the right outer writing on the INSIDE, and the left outer side of the left tyre goes to the right side of the car with the writing on the INSIDE.

This means that the two front tyres are still ROTATING THE SAME WAY THEY WERE , but on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR, insides now outsides. If you don't get it, forget it right now. If you do get it, keep a close look-out on your tyres as the years go by because I have seen steel cords fail from metal fatigue (really ! ! ) with heaps of tread still on the tyres! It makes a BIG MESS of a tyre when the tread belt breaks up, and you don't want to be doing 70 on the motorway when it happens.

Last month I was really lucky to find and be sold a tyre changing machine. The guy practically gave it to me.

I like changing my own tyres, but getting Landy tyres off the bead can be a problem and is always hard work especially for a pensioner like me.

CharlesY