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DIY Tire Rotation Ideas
- Thread starter robchan
- Start date
E90alex
Active Member
This. And yes wheel chocks should always be used on the opposite side/corner when using floor jacks.
And if you do this you want to jack the front end of the car to swap left to right, not the rear. The rear has the parking brakes for extra safety against rolling.
And goes without saying all of this needs to be done on level and solid ground.
The theory is that people make more left or right turns wearing the wires. Car does not always go straight. Rotating after front to back to X would be better in wearing the tires out.
cmarshack
Member
Unfortunately both the 5000TL and 7000TL have the same "Maximum Spread" of 60". The Jackpoints on the Model S are about 70", which is why you need the 6000ELX.
Yep my garage is leveled
So in summary it sounds like I can do this with just 2 jacks, wheel chocks, and jack stands and never have all 4 wheels off the ground
For reference this is the pattern Tesla recommends for AWD
Starting
[Front]
1 2
3 4
[Rear]
Raise front, chock the back tires and rotate front two from side to side
2 1
3 4
Raise each side now, use jack stand and flip
3 4
2 1
Trebek1762
Let's play jeopardy
a single jack can lift the car high enough to do one side at a time. Front to back. switch sides, repeat, done.
@cmarshack do you happen to know if the 6000ELX would also work for a Model Y? I don't actually have that vehicle yet to check. Hard to find any reviews of a Model Y using it but I think I saw a version of the 6000 lifting a M3 so probably would work, right?
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
The car weighs less than 5k lbs. A single jack is NOT lifting the entire weight of the car, and it is only lifting half the weight if you do it wrong.
A collection of four 2-ton jacks from Harbor Freight can easily lift the entire car. Each jack is only lifting 1/4 of the weight of the car.
Lift either a single side or the front or back first, then the other two jacks by alternating a couple inches at a time. It's slow, but it is plausible and WAY cheaper than Quickjacks. Although I'd want a set of those too.
Look at the "project farm" Youtube for testing of floor jacks, this is NOT an endorsement of exceeding the ratings, but you have plenty of safety factor available.
A collection of four 2-ton jacks from Harbor Freight can easily lift the entire car. Each jack is only lifting 1/4 of the weight of the car.
Lift either a single side or the front or back first, then the other two jacks by alternating a couple inches at a time. It's slow, but it is plausible and WAY cheaper than Quickjacks. Although I'd want a set of those too.
Look at the "project farm" Youtube for testing of floor jacks, this is NOT an endorsement of exceeding the ratings, but you have plenty of safety factor available.
islandbayy
Active Member
unless I'm missing something, I use two jacks, each brand new cost me $25 each a couple years ago. Impact wrench I already had, but not necessary, a lug wrench is about $10, or use a regular 1/2" ratchet, about $25, impact socket set from Harbor Freight $20, Torque Wrench from Harbor Freight $15. I've done every combination of rotations using this. rotating my tires takes about 6 minutes not including putting the tools away.
Realistically can be done for $50+$25+20+15= $110 and thtas if you don't already have a ratchet. Could likely be done cheaper still. Dont need jack pads unless you get some nuts huge jack.
Realistically can be done for $50+$25+20+15= $110 and thtas if you don't already have a ratchet. Could likely be done cheaper still. Dont need jack pads unless you get some nuts huge jack.
redmunds
Member
Where did this info come from?
The Tesla Owner's Manual for North America recommends rotating tires every 6250 miles for 2020 Model S. Interesting that the recommendation was 6000 miles when I bought my MSLR+ in Sept. of 2020, so not sure what caused them to change it.
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
Interesting that they suggest rotation at all, considering that staggered setups seem to be stock in many configurations and CANNOT be rotated front to back.... And if the tires are directional (likely) then they cannot be rotated side to side either.
Couple that with the atrocious alignment camber that chews up the inside shoulders.... And you'd be lucky to get more than 20k even if you were dismounting them to move them side to side.
The only solution to NOT buying $1500 of tires every year is changing the rims and suspension to support a "square" and straight alignment so you can do a normal rotation routine.
redmunds
Member
The Owner's Manual link I posted was for 2012-2020 Models, which do not come stock with staggered wheels.
And where to put jack stands anyway, if your jack pucks are taking up the whole recommended jack point?
Two options, you can jack from the front lift point high enough to get a jack stand under the rear of the car. That gives you one jack. The other is a type of jack stand that is used directly on the jack point and the jack is placed under the stand and used to jack up the car. Then the legs of the jack stand are attached to the top and the car let down onto the stand. They are a little pricey.
cmarshack
Member
The minimum spread on the ELX is 53", so as long as the jack points on the Model Y are not closer together than 53" it should work fine for both.
chobra
Member
+1 vote for quickjack, but it's not cost effective for me personally
Personally I use two rennstands + two traditional jack stands + two jack pucks
Rrennstand back R > traditional jack stand front R + jack puck > rennstand back L > traditional jack stand front L + jack puck
That's how I lifted the whole car to remove four wheels
shop.teslarati.com
You see how the front R has no jack stand while back R is lifted with rennstand, you can slide in the traditional jack stand front R + jack puck
Personally I use two rennstands + two traditional jack stands + two jack pucks
Rrennstand back R > traditional jack stand front R + jack puck > rennstand back L > traditional jack stand front L + jack puck
That's how I lifted the whole car to remove four wheels
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You see how the front R has no jack stand while back R is lifted with rennstand, you can slide in the traditional jack stand front R + jack puck
Last edited:
Just an update. I purchased 2 low profile floor jacks from local harbor freight. $120 each and then 2 esco flat top jack stands off amazon.
I did the method described earlier where half the car is lifted at once and do the X pattern. I jacked the front of the car using both floor jacks and swapped the tires. Then was going to flip the front and rear of one side.
It turned out my floor jack did not have enough height to lift the car high enough so that I could slide in the esco jack stand underneath the puck. So I called an audible and what I ended up doing is just put the second floor jack in there as a redundancy in case anything were to happen. So 2 floor jacks on one side of the car.
This was my first time rotating the tires and I felt very comfortable with the 2 floor jacks in place (and wheel chocks). The car was not very high off the ground, just needed the tires to be off the floor and of course never ever any body parts underneath.
I ended up returning the jack stands to amazon. The cost of the tools was significantly less than quick jack and RennStand so im happy with it. I may consider a combo of the Rennstand and floor jack in the future if there was ever a good sale on RennStand
I did the method described earlier where half the car is lifted at once and do the X pattern. I jacked the front of the car using both floor jacks and swapped the tires. Then was going to flip the front and rear of one side.
It turned out my floor jack did not have enough height to lift the car high enough so that I could slide in the esco jack stand underneath the puck. So I called an audible and what I ended up doing is just put the second floor jack in there as a redundancy in case anything were to happen. So 2 floor jacks on one side of the car.
This was my first time rotating the tires and I felt very comfortable with the 2 floor jacks in place (and wheel chocks). The car was not very high off the ground, just needed the tires to be off the floor and of course never ever any body parts underneath.
I ended up returning the jack stands to amazon. The cost of the tools was significantly less than quick jack and RennStand so im happy with it. I may consider a combo of the Rennstand and floor jack in the future if there was ever a good sale on RennStand
For tire rotations I feel completely fine lifting the car with two low profile jacks (front and rear). If I were going to get under the car I would need jack stands, but I don't see any scenario where I'm getting under this car. Doing oil changes under my ICE car is a different matter. So since I assume I'm using two jacks at a time I didn't need a larger and more expensive jack. Two 1.5 ton low profile jacks are not only a little less money, but much easier to handle. A 3 ton low profile jack is a big and large jack.
