Ok, first of all, I did a search and didn't see anything that would answer my question.

So, I was thinking today, what would happen if you put directional tires on backwards? I'm not thinking of doing this, or trying to find a cheap way to rotate tires (I don't rotate at all!), I was just curious. Would there be an adverse effect on performance? Would the tires fall apart? Would it not be very noticable, except maybe at high speeds? If you have any answers, I'd love to hear. Thanks guys.

 

Road noise and lack of water evacuation.

 

This would clearly mean the end of the world as we know it.

 

Hahaha!

 

Ny Brother-in-Law put his 22s on backwards when he got them and went on a roadtrip.
nothing bad happened in over 200 miles, but he had NO idea that the little arrow meant you should have the tires pointed in a set direction..

Since he was out of town, he had to go to a walmart to fix them.. they guessed he had about 200lbs of torque on each lugnut too, almost threading them..

They laughed so hard at him (wana be thug with 22s on a beat up explorer) that the didnt even charge him to fix it if he promised not to mess with them again!

 

depends on what tire. If they were like the toyo T1-s/r or eagle F1 you would chew threw them faster than Anna Nicole Smith through a snicker bar

 

What leads you to say that USN?

 

i would think that for your daily driving and on your average sports tire the main thing about a backward placed unidirectional tire would be inadequate water drainage/evacuation as the earlier post stated. so if driven in the rain better chance at hydroplaning.