The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[Table 5]

This weather reminds me I have to get some winter tires for my wife's car. Anyone know of any buy 3 get one free sales right now? Are those even worth it, or is it just some sort of marketing trick?

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Table 5

This weather reminds me I have to get some winter tires for my wife's car. Anyone know of any buy 3 get one free sales right now? Are those even worth it, or is it just some sort of marketing trick?

Definitely a marketing trick, the 4th tire is not actually free.

[worth]

I just bought some WS70's from Urban X. Having them installed on Wednesday.

[Hi-Psi]

Bob at Urban X is the man to deal with in this city. Period

[Titan]

Just as an update I bought 265/70/18 Blizzak dv-1(I think, I can check if you care) tires for my truck from Tirerack.com. $170 per tire. I had them shipped to Montana Shipping Outlet and made a last camping trip out of it and picked them up. The border cost about $40. Would highly recommend. The only pitfall is the tire pressure monitoring system that, apparently, only the dealer can reset. I did pay to have them installed in my tires and had them mounted on rims I bought as well. The rims cost $138. Mounting was free. Shipping was about $250 to Montana but I think you can get them shipped to Calgary for about $250 for just the tires. There you go.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by zamler

Definitely a marketing trick, the 4th tire is not actually free.

I'm not too sure about that...

The 4 tires I bought for the wifes van a few weeks back, now cost about 140.00 more at the same place...

Add an extra 100 to that if they weren't on sale at 25.00 off per tire...

That being said I'll keep an eye out for the next few weeks to see if the price drops or not...

[zamler]

Try this. Tell them you only want the free tire, and they can keep the other 3. See how that goes.

[Jimmy Stang]

I completed the changeover on both of my vehicles yesterday. I had been keeping an eye on the forecast, and it looks like we're in for a bit of winter this week.

Semi-related: I noticed that one of my tires has a small piece of metal stuck in it. Not quite a nail, but more like a heavy duty staple of some sort. I think that it has been there for a while, and the leak is very slow at this point. Does anyone have an experience with those puncture repair kits? Or should I take it in to be fixed? The tires are old and will likely be the last winter before replacing, and I'm not keen on visiting a tire shop anytime in the next few weeks as they'll be swamped.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Titan

The only pitfall is the tire pressure monitoring system that, apparently, only the dealer can reset.

What type of vehicle? I know on mine there was a little bit of a trick and required over inflation at first; but I can reset my TPMS on it's own.

Originally Posted by zamler

Try this. Tell them you only want the free tire, and they can keep the other 3. See how that goes.

I think you are missing the point of the question. The person really wanted to know if the "buy 3 get 1 free" really worked out to a 25% discount, or if there was some way they get around it.

[J epworth]

Okay maybe someone here can help me out, because the kaltire help line was not very helpful at all and most likely I'm going to need to go into a store to get this figured out.

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4-door Sport. the placard on the door says I should have 215/75R15. My current tires on the car say 235/75R15. Finally, when I go on sites and try to order winter tires, it says I should be ordering tires with a size 225/75R15. Now which one is correct? My placard, the current tires, or the website?

Does anyone know what the correct tires are for my car? Or am I going to have to go into a store for them to look at my car?

[DownhillGoat]

^I would go by the car sticker. You can also verify that number in the owner's manual.

Funny. Tirerack shows the 225 as well for your vehicle.

[worth]

I agree. Double check in the owners manual and and go with what that says and what the plate on the car says

You could also find a Cherokee forum and ask there as they would have experience with this problem I bet.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

I completed the changeover on both of my vehicles yesterday. I had been keeping an eye on the forecast, and it looks like we're in for a bit of winter this week.

Semi-related: I noticed that one of my tires has a small piece of metal stuck in it. Not quite a nail, but more like a heavy duty staple of some sort. I think that it has been there for a while, and the leak is very slow at this point. Does anyone have an experience with those puncture repair kits? Or should I take it in to be fixed? The tires are old and will likely be the last winter before replacing, and I'm not keen on visiting a tire shop anytime in the next few weeks as they'll be swamped.

Those repair kits work great, if you do it properly. You need a compressor, or else you need a way to get your tire to a compressor (put on your spare or throw it in the wife's car and go to the gas station).

Take the wheel off and pull out the nail. Jam the roughening tool in the hole and work it around pretty good. It may sound counter productive to do that, but remember that you need to be able to get the plug in there.
After you have that hole ready, put the plug on the inserting tool, then blob some of that rubber cement that comes with the kit on the hole and on the plug for lubrication, and then jam it in the hole and yank the tool out. Be prepared to be pretty much sitting on the wheel and holding it steady with your legs, and really leaning on the plug inserting tool to get it in nicely. And also, the tire should be flat when you're putting in the plug, which, if you worked that hole enough, it will be.
After the plug is in, use some side cutters or an exacto knife and cut off the excess plug rubber so that it's flush with the tire tread, then fill up the tire and put it back on your car and enjoy the fact that you saved $40 and who knows how much time. All it costs is a $10 kit that'll be good for at least 5 repairs, and a beer or two.

Originally Posted by J epworth kendal

Okay maybe someone here can help me out, because the kaltire help line was not very helpful at all and most likely I'm going to need to go into a store to get this figured out.

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4-door Sport. the placard on the door says I should have 215/75R15. My current tires on the car say 235/75R15. Finally, when I go on sites and try to order winter tires, it says I should be ordering tires with a size 225/75R15. Now which one is correct? My placard, the current tires, or the website?

Does anyone know what the correct tires are for my car? Or am I going to have to go into a store for them to look at my car?

To understand why this isn't a big deal, you must understand tire sizes. The 235 number is your tread width in mm. The 75 number is your sidewall height as a percentage of your tread width (stupid, I know). Then the 15 is just the rim size. So what you're asking is whether you can change from a 235 back to the original size of 225. The answer is certainly yes, assuming you're on your original rims. Rims can accomodate a pretty broad selection of tire sizes, so I wouldn't worry about them, unless they're some kind of super fancy rims that demand a tire width of 235.

The only caution I would have as far as this question goes, would be if you were going the other way. If you wanted to go with 235s instead of the original 225s, I would point out that you may not have the necessary clearance in the front wheel wells for turning and your shocks. Someone has already decided to find out whether bigger tires fit on your Jeep, and that's why you have 235s.

Sorry for the long answer, just go ahead and switch back to 225s if they're easier or cheaper, or stick with 235s if you want. Both will work, and neither have an advantage (well, one is 1 cm wider).

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by 4X4

To understand why this isn't a big deal, you must understand tire sizes. The 235 number is your tread width in mm. The 75 number is your sidewall height as a percentage of your tread width (stupid, I know). Then the 15 is just the rim size. So what you're asking is whether you can change from a 235 back to the original size of 225. The answer is certainly yes, assuming you're on your original rims. Rims can accomodate a pretty broad selection of tire sizes, so I wouldn't worry about them, unless they're some kind of super fancy rims that demand a tire width of 235.

The only caution I would have as far as this question goes, would be if you were going the other way. If you wanted to go with 235s instead of the original 225s, I would point out that you may not have the necessary clearance in the front wheel wells for turning and your shocks. Someone has already decided to find out whether bigger tires fit on your Jeep, and that's why you have 235s.

Sorry for the long answer, just go ahead and switch back to 225s if they're easier or cheaper, or stick with 235s if you want. Both will work, and neither have an advantage (well, one is 1 cm wider).

Thanks a lot, this helped a lot. I just checked the manual and it basically said don't go below 215s, but had psi specifications for both 225s and 235s, so I guess that means that it's pretty variable what you can use on the Jeep. I'm going to go with the 225s for my winters I'm thinking. Ordering them tomorrow.

[Titan]

Why is my quoting not working?

[Titan]

[QUOTE=4X4;3906861]Take the wheel off and pull out the nail. Jam the roughening tool in the hole and work it around pretty good. It may sound counter productive to do that, but remember that you need to be able to get the plug in there.
After you have that hole ready, put the plug on the inserting tool, then blob some of that rubber cement that comes with the kit on the hole and on the plug for lubrication, and then jam it in the hole and yank the tool out. Be prepared to be pretty much sitting on the wheel and holding it steady with your legs, and really leaning on the plug inserting tool to get it in nicely. And also, the tire should be flat when you're putting in the plug, which, if you worked that hole enough, it will be.
After the plug is in, use some side cutters or an exacto knife and cut off the excess plug rubber so that it's flush with the tire tread, then fill up the tire and put it back on your car and enjoy the fact that you saved $40 and who knows how much time. All it costs is a $10 kit that'll be good for at least 5 repairs, and a beer or two.
Is it wrong I got kind of turned on by that?

[Titan]

[QUOTE=ken0042;3905843]What type of vehicle? I know on mine there was a little bit of a trick and required over inflation at first; but I can reset my TPMS on it's own.
QUOTE]</p>
2010 Nissan titan. I didn't even look it up on the net. I will now. Thanks.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by 4X4

After you have that hole ready, put the plug on the inserting tool, then blob some of that rubber cement that comes with the kit on the hole and on the plug for lubrication, and then jam it in the hole and yank the tool out. Be prepared to be pretty much sitting on the wheel and holding it steady with your legs, and really leaning on the plug inserting tool to get it in nicely. And also, the tire should be flat when you're putting in the plug, which, if you worked that hole enough, it will be.

Be careful at this point, it's really easy to go all the way through as the cement makes the plug really slippery, I've lost a plug that way, as they won't pull back through.

Other than that it's easy, I've saved lots of money plugging my own tires, only had one that was unrecoverable, as the nail went in on a really steep angle.

[Sopure]

Originally Posted by worth

I just bought some WS70's from Urban X. Having them installed on Wednesday.

I have WS70's and they are the bomb. Best winter tire I've had in a long time.

[Nyah]

We were going to change our tires over from the new all seasons to the snow tires yesterday (we do it ourselves in the garage) but the locknut key has gone missing. Does anytone know if this is something we would have to take into the dealership to get figured out or is there something we can do to get them off?