Are hand tools really necessary when changing tires?

[beeeerock]

What am I missing here? "This side always to outside" would have meaning only to the guy who mounts the tires on the wheels. After they are mounted, any rotation pattern at all would still leave the same side to outside (except for steel wheels in the hands of idiots of my generation who thought "reverse rims" was a cool idea).

You're absolutely right, but don't forget that in the snow belt, many people swap tires on and off of rims seasonally rather than purchase a second set of rims for winter tires. Still it's the tire guy who has to be concerned about it, but it will be an annual concern for the life of the tires.

 

[wycolo]

'Outside' tires - These wheels you can 'swap/rotate' using any pattern you choose. Same as with old fashioned 'any side' tires.

'Arrow' tires - These wheels must remain on same side of car.

Legitimate tire shops refuse to remount 'Outsides' to the Inside on your rims.

So there you are - these are your choices (apparently).
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[AWDtsla]

Do you really have to use hand tools rather than pneumatic tools when you change tires?

I live in a city without a nearby Service Center. I have the staggered wheel setup and wanted to swap tires side to side to prolong tread life being I can't switch front to back. I had a broken valve stem several months ago, and Tesla had me go into Discount Tire for the repair. The Tesla rep told me to be sure to ask for hand tools only and to have the lug nuts tightened to 129 Lb/Ft. I now have 6k miles on my car and wanted to go back for the balance, and side to side swap and didn't want to seem like an anal retentive jerk unless it really needed to be done that way.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

They probably mean don't use an impact wrench with a torque stick to torque them down. As is actually true on _any_ car. Final torque should be done by hand.

 

[jerry33]

'Arrow' tires - These wheels must remain on same side of car.

There are two different kinds of arrow so this may not always be true.

Legitimate tire shops refuse to remount 'Outsides' to the Inside on your rims.

There are some situations where you mount the outside to the inside. As long as you do all four, no harm will come, although normally the ouside is mounted to the outside.

 

[tga]

There are two different kinds of arrow so this may not always be true.

If by "arrow type", wycolo means "rotational direction arrow" than, yes, those have to stay on the same side (unless the tires are dismounted, flipped, and remounted).

What is the second kind of arrow you mean?

There are some situations where you mount the outside to the inside. As long as you do all four, no harm will come, although normally the ouside is mounted to the outside.

What do you have in mind? I can't think of any case where it would be good to mount an inside/outside tire the wrong way. The extreme example is the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup/Cup 2:

Mounted the right way (in this picture, the right side is the outside), the tire acts like a rain tire under light cornering (the whole patch is in contact with the road, including the tread) and more like a slick under hard cornering (where the outer edge with minimal tread gives you maximum rubber-to-pavement contact).

Mount these backwards, and you'll lose a bunch of dry cornering grip.