Dear James,
Thank you for this opportunity to be of assistance.
When dealing with medium truck tires:
Uni-directional tread designs are used primarily to maximize irregular wear resistance when the tires are at their maximum, or close to maximum, tread depths.
Although there may be some very slight differences in wet pavement traction, the only noticeable drawback to running one tire in the indicated direction of rotation, and the other tire in the opposite direction, is that when a uni-directional tire is run "backwards" early in its life it will be more susceptible to the development of irregular wear patterns.
Once the tires reach a remaining tread depth of 13/32nds or less, in order to simplify steer tire rotation, it is acceptable to run the tires in the opposite direction from that indicated on the sidewall, (however it is recommended that both tires run the same direction.) This is because the tire is less susceptible to irregular wear as it wears to shallower tread depths.
Please keep in mind that this applies only to medium truck tires.
Passenger and high performance light truck tires often have far more aggressive uni-directional tread designs than do medium truck tires, and thus running in a mixed or opposite direction of rotation may result in very discernible traction and/or handling issues as well.
Best regards, Tire Doctor
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