Reported November 2008

Why Place New Tires on Rear Wheels?: When people want to replace two out of the four tires on their vehicles, they often don’t know where the tires should be placed. Testing has shown that with very few exceptions, the new tires should be placed on the rear wheels. This protects drivers from a dangerous condition called oversteer.

What is Oversteer?: When the rear wheels of a vehicle lose their traction and slide to the outside of a turn, they slip out of their track behind the front wheel. Oversteer occurs prior to many rollovers and single vehicle loss-of-control accidents. It can cause the driver to lose control and the vehicle to spin out. It usually happens while traveling around a corner and is an important issue for race car drivers.

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Michael S. Wogalter, PhD
Director
Cognitive Ergonomics Laboratory
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7650
(919) 515-1726
Wogalter@NCSU.edu

Lois Smith
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org
lois@hfes.org