Tire Rotation

[Orlando Terrazas]

I went to the tire shop to have the tires rotated on my Ford F-150 (yeah I know it’s an ICE vehicle but is only used for loads my Prius or eBike can’t handle. It sits in my driveway most of the time). Anyways while waiting for the technician to start I told him I was purchasing the Aptera and explained it is a new 3 wheel solar electric car that is going into production in December 2021. So I asked him. How do you rotate tires on a 3 wheel vehicle? He was stumped. He even asked his co-worker how to rotate a 3 wheel vehicle. He responded with a puzzled look on his face…

That being said, does anyone know how to rotate tires on a 3 wheel vehicle???

[Len Nowak]

Although this is not a validated reply I did have this conversation with an Aptera member who said….

Front wheels could be rotated but not the back necessarily.

We will hear when they get to that type of detail sharing

We do have Polaris Slingshot owners in the forum? Or you can speak directly to three wheel vehicle dealers of Polaris and Vanderhall, etc…

[kerbe2705]

The rear tire (driving wheel) of a Slingshot is significantly wider than the front tires and the front rims are 18″ while the rear is 20″.

[Richard Marks]

Do you know if front and rear wheels are the same? Are they the same in 2 wheel drive and 3 wheel drive versions?

[kerbe2705]

We were told, during a webinar, that all three tires would be the same. Later, one of the engineers suggested that the rear tire might be wider than the front tires.

[STEVEN LOPER]

Seems to me that the question and answer session stated that all three wheels would be the same size for ease of operation for now.

[kerbe2705]

From “Car and Driver”: “Rotating your tires evens out the wear and makes them last longer. Proper rotation not only helps even out wear and extend the life of your tires, it provides the perfect opportunity to make certain all four wheels are in good working order.”

If all three tires on an Aptera are the same size then the answer would be “Clockwise or counter-clockwise.” If the rear tire is a different size then the front tires would just trade places with each other.

[Philip Raymond]

Just a hunch for me, is only the front tires get rotated. As for the tire size, I recall hearing Nathan Armstrong saying all 3 are the same size.

[Peter Jorgensen]

If they are all the same, there are only two possible combinations:

Clockwise and counterclockwise.

If just the front, you just swap the two. If they are directional, you’d need them demounted and turned around then remounted. Like a Dodge Viper where they are directional and the rears are bigger.

[Orlando Terrazas]

Thanks for all the replies folks! Very educational and informative. In the end shouldn’t Aptera provide this info in the owner’s manual?

[Bob Kirchner]

The way I would do it would be to switch the right front tire with the rear, leaving the left front in place. On the next rotation I would switch the left front with the rear, leaving the right front in place. At this point the former right front tire will be on the left front, but will have had a low stress period rolling in the rear position to reduce the stresses on the plies normally associated with switching a radial ply tire from one side to another (although I sense that this is less of a big deal now than we were taught when radial ply tires were new).

[John Trotter]

I have not rotated tires from left to right in years, having been told tire rotation should not be reversed. On my cars with “staggered” (unequal) front and back, there’s no way to rotate at all. Be careful with inflation, watch for signs of alignment-caused wear, and that’s good enough. For a BEV, tire load on the Aptera isn’t too bad, so wear should be reasonable.