You are correct. They are asymmetric but they ARE NOT directional.

 

According to a friend that works and was involved in the design and marketing of the tire it can be ran in either direction.

 

Being able to run in either direction, just means that they are not directional.

Because the are asymmetrical, there is still an inside and outside that are distinctly different. I have not looked that closely at MT/R Kevlars, but asymmetric tires usually have an inside shoulder that is more squared off than the outside.

Just bite the bullet and run them with the white out. When they get scuffed up on the rocks, just another battle scar.

 

No matter how they are mounted, they will roll in either direction. That is whether outside to outside or outside to inside. I'm pretty sure it will have no bearing on the wear of the tire except if the outside is better on the front while turning because of the longer lug. Someone at Goodyear should have the answer.

 

I dont understand why people care about white lettering in vs out. I dont care as long as the tire performs well in rocks and mud and the MTR does that. White lettering out is not dorky.

 

if the tire is asymetrical, yes can be run in either direction, but this changes up the patern or rotation on the jeep, u still have to mount with the outside out and inside in

years ago on trucks and jeeps, white lettering would distinguish a 4x4 or a 4x2.
people who had 4x4 truck would put white letters out, people who had 4x2 would put black letters out.. also on some older model trucks and show cars, white lettering was the cool thing to have




these are two different things, asymmetrical is completely different from directional, its one or the other

typically its on the outside, the larger squared lugs

Asymmetric tires have been designed to optimize the opposing requirements of dry grip and water dispersal. Along with that Asymmetrical tires were designed to improve handling and reduce noise.The tires can rotate in either direction with the correct side facing out. Care must be taken in order to install these tires since if installed with wrong side facing out, the tire will not perform its intended function.

Asymmetrical tires are designed with vehicle performance in mind and are commonly found on sports cars. Asymmetrical tires have large blocks of tread on the outside to increase cornering stability and narrower blocks of tread along the inside of the tire to aid winter or wet weather driving.

An asymmetrical tread for a tire has a midcircumferential plane and an inner side and an outer side when mounted on a vehicle wheel. The longitudinally extending ribs in a central segment have substantially equal surface contact areas and their contact surface ratios sequentially decrease when taken from the outer side to the inner side of the tread. Two lateral ribs have equal surface contact areas with the first lateral rib at the innermost lateral segment having a contact surface ratio less than the second lateral rib at the outermost later segment of the tread. The tread rubber volume is equal on the two sides of the midcircumferential plane of the tread. The improvements in performance compared to other asymmetrical tire treads is realized in maintaining good straight ahead driving features for the tread of this invention. Improvements in tire performance for vehicle turn maneuvers and for unsymmetrical vehicle wheel camber are realized. In particular, improved tread wear, snow traction, tire noise, lateral traction and overall vehicle handling has been achieved.

 

It is completely different, but they (these tires imparticular) are asymmetric AND non-directional. So they can be/are both. I'm sure we are saying the same thing, just clarifying.

 

I think I understand most of what captjay said. I can understand a larger lug on the outside for cornering. After that, however, I don't see where it makes any difference if a tire mounted outside in on the front right is remounted outside out and moved to the front left, it's rotating the same direction, (just on the oposite side) what difference does it make to the tire?

 

yes we are saying same thing i think just different verbage, u have several types of tires: symmetrical, directional, asymmetrical, and even unidirectional which i believ is actually a directional
ok forget the spin direction of the tire, thats not important
ok some clarification here, im talking about mounting a tire on rim, and as long as the tires are mounted the same on all rims, then your roatation of tires on the jeep will not matter as far as the spin direction is concerned.

basically, if the tires is suppose to be white letters out, from manufacturer, then u have to suck it up and mount it wth white letters out

 

Ok, here's the scoop from a nice sounding girl from Good Year. She had no idea why the outside had to be outside. I asked to speak to an engineer and they do not have engineers to talk to consumers. I persisted and she talked to her manager. After awhile, she came back with " The outer larger lugs are on the outside to handle mud and rocks and the inner smaller lugs are for stability on the road." No mention of cornering on the front. So, from that, if you are going to run in mud or rocks, do it with the outside of the tire and run on the road with the inside........ I just had to say that!

I spoke with 4wheel Parts customer service and after confirming the MTRs had an outside and inside, agreed to reemburse me for having the tires broken down, remounted and rebalanced. They too, were unaware of this requirement.

I eventually learn, but sometimes slower.