White letter in or out?

[JohnT]

Mundane question, but is it the "in thing" nowadays to have the white letter side of vehicle tires put to the inside during installation?

[revjvegas]

I think the "in thing" is having them face out.

Having them face in however is much better looking, IMO.

Of course on my truck, the tires are usually a bit muddy.
But this is what it looks like clean...

[Dobick]

my personal preferrence has always been in. Purely from a practical standpoint, if you rub a curb and scrape the white lettering, it will look like crap, where as the small scrape marks on the black are easily covered with a fresh wipe of armor all

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by Dobick

my personal preferrence has always been in. Purely from a practical standpoint, if you rub a curb and scrape the white lettering, it will look like crap, where as the small scrape marks on the black are easily covered with a fresh wipe of armor all

Good point. I thought about that earlier.

[SpeedRacerSlots]

what tires on what vehicle?
some tires white lettering simply looks like *&@#(*$.
some tires white lettering looks great.
I have always preferred mine out.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by SpeedRacerSlots

what tires on what vehicle?
some tires white lettering simply looks like *&@#(*$.
some tires white lettering looks great.
I have always preferred mine out.

Yeah, it depends on the tire and the vehicle for sure. I drive just a plain old F-150 XLT and had new tires installed today with white letter out. Nice Michelin tires. I think they look good.

[jeffkohn]

Do tires even have white lettering anymore? I don't think any of mine have in quite a while.

But it seems to me if you rotate your tires you'd end up with them both ways over time.

[StevenGWebb]

I reccommend Westley's Bleech-White to keep those letters clean white and bright.

In answering the OP, it depends on the vehicle. What ever happened to the day when white walls / white letters were an option? I miss the simpler days/

Steven

[dwilliams35]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

But it seems to me if you rotate your tires you'd end up with them both ways over time.

Wow, I've never rotated tires in a manner that required me to take them off the wheel and remount them...

[dwilliams35]

Black in: I just think it looks better, especially after you scrub a rock or something...

[miffed67]

We always have ours with the lettering installed in. I have seen them with the lettering out and it looked awful, and I've seen them look nice, too. I think it just depends on the vehicle and the style of tires. The last tires we purchased for our Suburban, we debated going with the letters out, just to do something different. I'm glad we didn't, tho....I think that look looks better on big off road style tires, personally!

[donlfaulkner]

White letters, if the tires have them, I mount in. Don't have to waste so much time and energy cleaning them. Just hose them off and they're good to go.

Or as in my case, just leave them dirty. After they reach a certain level of dirty any additional dirt just falls off.

[Toad]

I have white letters out...
But then again, they are Futura Super Sport tires on a 72 Chevy truck.
I think it depends on the tire and the car.

[Truckman]

I can't remember the last time I saw a whitewall tire......Ben

[janikphoto]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

Do tires even have white lettering anymore? I don't think any of mine have in quite a while.

But it seems to me if you rotate your tires you'd end up with them both ways over time.

Two silly statements in one post!

Yes, they still make white letter tires, but MOST car tires don't have them anymore. When I went to get new tires for my Outback (which originally had Firestones with raised white letters), there was only ONE option in the same size that had the white letters... the same factory Firestones. All the other tires were black wall on both sides. White letters are more common on truck-size tires these days and almost non-existent on passenger cars.

As far as rotating tires, you don't flip the tire itself... the outside will always remain outside, so whatever side you choose continues to stay out. Some performance tires are designed to only spin in one direction at high speeds, and those require a special plan for rotating. These tires are often marked as such and have a black arrow pointing in the intended direction they should be mounted.