My Ford Dealer Advised Me Not to Rotate the Tires Of My Bronco Sport Badlands the Way Shown In the Manual, So I Asked Falken Tire Experts What They Suggested, and They Provided Me With a Firm Answer

Tires make up the single largest maintenance and repair expense for most vehicle owners. Rotations, balancing, mounting, alignments, and new tires will cost a vehicle owner as much as $10,000 over a vehicle’s 20-year lifespan. So, smart owners rotate their tires regularly according to the owner’s manual. In the tire section of the owner’s manual for my 2023 Ford Bronco Sport Badlands, it says, “Rotating your tires at the recommended interval will help your tires wear more evenly, providing better tire performance and longer tire life. Sometimes irregular tire wear can be corrected by rotating the tires.” It also has the diagram shown in our top pf page image. You can clearly see that the rear tires are crossed to the opposite sides and moved to the front. However, my dealer only wanted to move the tires from front to back, keeping them all on the original side.

The service advisor told me that they were concerned that some belts inside the tire may be damaged or pose problems if the tires are reversed in such a way that their direction of travel changes. Thus, my manual and my dealer are telling me to rotate the tires in different ways.

My tires are optional Falken Wildpeak A/T3W all-terrain tires. These special tires were an option on my Badlands trim, and an upgrade from the all-season touring tires (made by Pirelli) that the particular trim comes with as standard equipment. The optional Falkens feature an all-terrain design that earns the three-peak mountain snowflake symbol, denoting that they are approved for severe snow duty and are also a bit wider than the Pirellis. I’m a tire nut, and I paid extra to have these tires, so I want to rotate them properly so that they will last as long as possible and provide the best performance during their lifetime. 

In addition to testing vehicles, EVs in particular, and EV chargers, I also test tires. In some cases, my tire tests can last many years. I strictly adhere to the owner’s manual’s recommendation whenever possible. Since the Falken Wildpeak tires do not have a “directional” tread, there is no reason I could understand that would preclude them from being rotated in an X-pattern. 

Luckily, I know some folks at Falken. No manufacturer of tires offers testers better support than does Falken. So I reached out to my contact and asked what they thought of the dealer’s warning not to rotate in such a way that the tires would end up rolling in the opposite fashion after rotation. 

My trusted contact at Falken checked with the QC team at the company, and they offered this input on the subject:

“In the early 70’s, there was some talk that radials tires could not be crossed. All current radial tire constructions allow cross rotation, providing it is not a directional tread design. There are no issues with rotating the WPAT3W’s in an X pattern, and it would be recommended to do so to mitigate irregular wear. Stick with the X.”

My Ford dealer is also great, and after I explained what I wanted, they agreed to rotate the tires in the way I requested (which is what the manual recommends). I still had Ford Pass points left from the purchase of my Bronco Sport Badlands, and “The Works” service, including tire rotation, oil change service, battery check, and a long list of standard service checks, cost me nothing. My dealer even offers rides back and forth or to pick up and deliver the vehicle. All went well with this service, just as it did when I had the first service performed. My Ford dealer even set the pressure to exactly 33 psi at all four corners. 

I’ve now put a few hundred miles on the Bronco Sport since the rotation. I could barely sense the change, and no problems with the tires have arisen. They go happily round and round, there is no vibration, and there is no added noise. Hopefully, this will continue. 

The upshot of this story is that there will be times when well-intentioned parties will offer differing advice related to vehicle care. If you have tires without directional tread, my first-hand experience is that an X-rotation allows the tires to wear evenly without any problems. Now that Falken has offered up a definitive opinion on that subject, I feel confident recommending this to my fellow Bronco Sport owners and anyone who wants the best tire life possible. 

If you have experience with rotating tires, what is your advice? X-pattern or front to rear, leaving the tires on the original side for their full lifespan?

Have you ever had an experience when the dealer offers advice contrary to what is found in you owner's manual?

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools. 

Image shows how to rotate the tires on a Ford Bronco Sport Badlands. Graphic courtesy of Ford's Bronco Sport manual. Photo insert by John Goreham.