Can radials be switched to the other side of the vehicle?

I have searched for the answer to this one, but came up with nothing. One tire shop I spoke with said it is possible, just that the tires must face the other side (ie white letters out when moved to the other side will become white letters in so that the tire continues its life on the same plane and axis - this is my goal, white letters in). Another tire shop said its a disaster waiting to happen, but could not explain why. Another shop said they don't know what the results would be, only that their policies prohibit it. Anyone have any solid knowledge as to why this would not work? My sidewalls have worn out pretty well on the curb (passenger) side of the vehicle and to get rid of the unsightliness, I want to move the tires to the opposite side of the vehicle to put the letters on the insides of the tires. This set has about 25% wear, so I don't want to replace them just yet. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Thanks,
B.

rotate them any way you like.

Unless it is a specifically a directional tire, todays radials don't care what direction they turn.

When radials were first introduced they would take a "rotational set". Swapping the tires from one side to the other makes the tire rotate in a different direction and could cause problems with the tires. Today's radials have much better construction and this is no longer a problem. http://www.csaa.com/global/articledetail/0,1398,1004010306%7C2063,00.html
The only exception is directional tires.
That being said, are you sure you want to trust tires with "worn out side walls". Especially if you swap them around on the rim so the bad side is out of site? IMHO it would not be worth the remount and balance expence to get a few more miles out of tires that may or may not have sidewall issues.

What Highhilleer said.

My brother used to work for Firestone back in the 70s, and Firestone supplied our car club's autocross team with tires. At that time, Michelins could be rotated in a standard pattern but if you did that with any of the American-made radials it almost always resulted in a belt separation. The owners manual for my 1988 XJ calls for always keeping the tires rotating in the same direction, which resulted in a rather strange rotation pattern -- one side was a 3-tire rotation involving the spare, while the other side was just a back-to-front exchange.

The owners manual for the 2000 XJ is back to a standard rotation. On the 2000 I do a 5-tire rotation and haven't seen any problems in 25,000 miles. On the '88, I've been running a mismatched spare so I leave that as a spare and run a 4-tire, criss-cross rotation. I've put hundreds of thousands of miles on following that practice and haven't had a problem. Apparently, the American tire companies have finally figured out how to build a tire. The problem was never "radials" -- Michelin proved that. The problem was always lack of quality control.

Thanks for the information guys, that's great stuff. I have only been "rotating" them by exchanging tires front to back, but I guess since they are a modern tire, I am unlikely to have adverse effects by doing a 5 tire rotation? I also realize that I don't think I fully explained what I want to do. I want to take the tires off the rims and remount them with the other side facing outward, so what was once letters on the outside of the rim, will become letters on the inside of the rim. I thought that to counteract any possible problems with rotational set, it would then be best to take the tires that were on the passenger side and mount them on the driver's side and vice versa. I don't believe the tires are directional, they are 31" uniroyal all terrains, but I just did not want to take any chances. Any thoughts on how remounting the tires the other way on the rims may adversely affect performance or safety?
Thanks again,
B.

Any thoughts on how remounting the tires the other way on the rims may adversely affect performance or safety?

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IDM
it don't matter

Thanks digger.
B.

Beejily,
have you been rotating that nice fresh spare into the mix? Seems like last time i saw it, it still had little nipples all over it. its gonna be funny one day when you use it and its a 31, while the rest of your tires are worn down to 30's. you sure you don't want my old AT's? I'll give em to you for 25 apiece and I'll even get Deryk to mount them for you. they are 40% worn, but at least theyre 32s. bye the way, nice Max quote there... "thoughts, comments, suggestions", i'm gonna tell him you are dissing him to the internet...

Island XJ said:

you sure you don't want my old AT's? I'll give em to you for 25 apiece and I'll even get Deryk to mount them for you. they are 40% worn, but at least theyre 32s.

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Hmmm. Brent, I would be skeptical of Brett's "generous offer" in this case. I notice he cleverly failed to mention that each one of those tires would look like swiss cheese if you took all the plugs out from the dozens of repairs each has had. Oh wait, maybe he means 25 cents apiece....
And as to the other part of the offer, I wouldn't let Deryk mount plastic wheels onto my barbecue let alone my Jeep! You should see what he did with the weights on my last set! More lead on those rims than a diving belt...
Uncle Buck :canada:

Your best bet is to mount them as you first said , drivers side to passenger and put your raised letters inside then new style or old you have the same rotation , and KEEP a GOOD EYE for any excessive wear your main Saftey issue is NOT seeing Excessive wear , but use your head and it should be allright


-------King Of Cheap ----