Ive run certain mud tires backwards but I don't think it would work very well on a street tire. Most likely the tire would chunk apart and basically destroy itself. I'm probably wrong but either way their directional for a reason

 

It depends on what a "short time" is. My engine builder accidently switched my fronts and I drove that way for a about 50 miles with no problems (in the dry).

What in the dickens are you "checking out"?

 

You said dickens...

 

Yea, new word in my vocab ha!

 

Driving it a short period on dry pavement shouldn't adversely affect the tire itself, but to do so long term (such as a couple weeks or longer) could result in the tire coming apart.

 

well im investigating a problem with my car pulling left, and i was reading that some tires the rubber isnt exactly ballanced and can cause a car to pull to one side. This was taken from another forum.

The other type is due to small differences in the tire rolling circumference. This variation can be thought of as small differences in the number of times the tires rolls (under load) per mile driven. You can't measure this with a tape measure, it's that subtle. A small difference in this rolling circumference (or revolutions per mile) is not enough to work the differential and allow different tire rolling velocities, so the front end acts like a solid axle.

This is like putting a smaller wheel on one side of an wagon axle - then trying to make that axle roll straight (it's going to want to roll in circles, right?). If you put driving torque on it, the largerwheel gets the majority of the torque. This acts through the suspension and steering geometry to cause a torque steer toward the smaller tire

Have the dealer swap the tires left-to-right, and see if the torque steer changes. If it does, then it's the second type of torque steer - the only way to fix it is through tire replacement. If not, it's likely to be related to something in the engine mounts

So i just wanted to try this to rule out my tires in my torque steer problem.

 

So i just wanted to try this to rule out my tires in my torque steer problem.

Worth a try but I`d put money on it not being the problem..

 

I had a friend who put a directional tire on in the wrong direction. The tire warped and twisted up like a pretzel.

 

you can run tham backwards for as long as you like ... there will be no detrimental effect on the tires .... the directional tread design primary function is to evacuate water so, it will not be fun in the rain but, in the dry there will be zero difference

 

So the claim about causing tread separation from running them backwards I've heard so many times is not true?

 

correct ... that claim is not true ... in the early days of radial tires belt issue had been known to occur when a tire was run in the reverse diection than it's original orientation but, those days are long gone

 

Does it hurt your tires when you back up? Didn't think so. Don't hit the highway or do any hard cornering, but you'll be fine running them backwards for a bit.

 

My dad had to do this with his Yokohama's quite a bit. If I remember correctly they would wear weird and cause a lot of noise. Whatever the reason he did run them backwards for awhile. Like Luke said, I was always under the impression that directionals were to only better channel the water.

 

If I remember correctly they would wear weird and cause a lot of noise.

es100?

typical yokohama. you can run them forward, backwards, or sideways and still get the same irregular wear and noise.

 

yeah I accidentally had mine on backwards for about a year until the alignment shop noticed. I didnt notice much diffrence and had no problems