Tire Direction Help!

[TRC101]

Guys / Gals,

I'm in a dillemma. I put a seperate set of snow tires / rims on my 09 Highlander last fall. Stupid me forgot to label the tires when I took them off, so I have no clue which ones were on which side, front and rear. The Toyo Open Country's also do not lable the tread direction. The tires only had about 5,000 miles on them when I took them. What do I do? Should I just chance it and put them on and hope all works out? Any way to tell the tread direction by looking at the tire wear?

Thanks,
Tim

EDIT - I just remembered that Firestone did this, not me!

[PhotonDreams]

Wow! That's a great question because it makes me think how would I figure it out if I'd made that mistake. All I can think of is, and perhaps only a real tire expert would know, perhaps there is some very slight wear pattern on tires with even such low milage. I've always been told that radial tire cords take a "set" position inside the tire as they are first run, and therefore should not be run in the opposite direction for the rest of the life of the tire. I don't know if such advice is true or not having never faced the problem. Looking forward to what wisdom the "Highlander Hive Mind" is going to come up with on this one!

[TRC101]

Thanks - FYI, I just called Firestone and the woman said "it shouldn't matter what tires goes where". I think it's a bunch of BS. I'm so annoyed they didn't label the tires when they took them off.

EDIT - I just found this language from Toyo's website: "Symmetric, Non-Directional Tread Design
Enables cross rotation to reduce irregular wear." Does this mean it doens't matter where it goes? http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/open-country-ht

[Dman1]

Originally Posted by TRC101

Thanks - FYI, I just called Firestone and the woman said "it shouldn't matter what tires goes where". I think it's a bunch of BS. I'm so annoyed they didn't label the tires when they took them off.

EDIT - I just found this language from Toyo's website: "Symmetric, Non-Directional Tread Design
Enables cross rotation to reduce irregular wear." Does this mean it doens't matter where it goes? http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/open-country-ht

That sounds right. If your tires were meant to be on a specific side of your car, it would be labeled Right or Left. This is the case for Toyo as well, as the winter tires on my Wife's Corolla are Toyos and they are labeled LEFT and RIGHT.

[jeffs3820]

The standard Toyo A20s, Versado CUV, and Open Country H/T tires and not directional and can be placed on either side of the car. The newer Versado CUVs have a tread design where the tire has a specified inside and outside but again, they can go on either side of the car.

[bobert1634]

Tire rotation direction is old school now days. That was only an issue before the radial tire. With the old bias ply tire it made a difference, but no more.