The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

How do you tell if tires have the tire sensors? My wife got a new to her car over the summer that came with winters. They are mounted on factory rims, not steelies so I can't look inside without taking the tires off the rims. Since they are factory rims I don't know if they have sensors or not. If they were steel rims I would just assume they don't.

Sounds like you need a tire sensor sensor.

[Wormius]

How valuable are tire sensors to have? Aside from getting a flat, which is obvious, I haven’t found my tires to lose much, if any, air during the season. I am running the regular 17” tires on an old Rav4.

Is this some kind of hyper-performance thing or where can they adjust their own pressure or is it in the realm of “the more you know” kind of thing?

[bossy22]

Going to get some Nokian Hakka's on the camper van. Does anyone have a favorite kal tire here in Calgary or are they all the same?

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by bossy22

Going to get some Nokian Hakka's on the camper van. Does anyone have a favorite kal tire here in Calgary or are they all the same?

I’ve used a few. Deerfoot meadows has been my consistent favourite, and the one on Macleod by chinook has been my least favorite

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

I’ve used a few. Deerfoot meadows has been my consistent favourite, and the one on Macleod by chinook has been my least favorite

I knew someone that used the Macleod location, and one of the wheels came off.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

I’ve used a few. Deerfoot meadows has been my consistent favourite, and the one on Macleod by chinook has been my least favorite

Hah! I used this one a couple times a long time ago. They were the shop who told me my car was ready for pickup. When I got there, I saw it in the parking lot where I'd left it. I checked it out, and they hadn't swapped the tires yet. I went in and told them I was here for a pickup. They handed my keys back and gave me a work order to pay. I told them that they hadn't changed the tires. They didn't believe me, but after they checked, it turned out that they hadn't.

Got a free 'rush' swap from them for that.

Just used one this month, over on 32 Ave NE for my wife's new tires. Quick, professional, talked to her instead of me, had her done in under 2 hours. A pleasure to work with.

[BlindMilwaukee]

I've had no issues dealing with the Edmonton Trail Kal Tire.

[chummer]

Another shout out to Bob from Urban X.

Was looking for a winter tire set for my Crosstrek, found Subaru compatible wheels and a nice set of Blizzaks with a $140 rebate. Awesome guy to deal with.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by bossy22

Going to get some Nokian Hakka's on the camper van. Does anyone have a favorite kal tire here in Calgary or are they all the same?

42nd Ave location is right by my work. They've always been very helpful and have fixed a couple flats for free for me.

Sent from my IN2025 using Tapatalk

[lazypucker]

I have always been a Costco tire shop guy as I originally bought my winters with them, but booking for appointment this fall has been a nightmare!

I am just wondering what outside shops like a Kal Tire will charge to swap my 8 tires / 4 rims combo.

If the price is comparable, I may consider ditching Costco next year.

[photon]

The places I was looking at last year were $30 each.. Costco used to be $15 but then they upped it to $25 so suddenly it wasn't worth the hassle. That and they screwed up my car which is staggered and put the wider rims on the front and then told me to not come back because they're not supposed to book staggered cars.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by photon

The places I was looking at last year were $30 each.. Costco used to be $15 but then they upped it to $25 so suddenly it wasn't worth the hassle. That and they screwed up my car which is staggered and put the wider rims on the front and then told me to not come back because they're not supposed to book staggered cars.

Even though it's terrible they did that, posting pics of the wides on front would have added to your post spectacularly.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I knew someone that used the Macleod location, and one of the wheels came off.

Maybe we know the same guy. My friend went to that location a few years ago and had his tire almost come off on Deerfoot. Took months for them to even acknowledge it could possibly be their fault and offered him a free tire swap eventually.

[Lubicon]

Swapped my wife's tires this weekend and have a question. I keep them on rims year round, this is the first season I have hung them on pegs on the wall rather than stacked on their sides on the floor. Typically they have held their pressure fairly well over the season, I have to add maybe 2-3 psi to a tire or two. Yesterday I had two tires that had lost about 1/3 of their pressure over the summer. Is that unusual when hanging on the wall vs stacked on the floor?

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Swapped my wife's tires this weekend and have a question. I keep them on rims year round, this is the first season I have hung them on pegs on the wall rather than stacked on their sides on the floor. Typically they have held their pressure fairly well over the season, I have to add maybe 2-3 psi to a tire or two. Yesterday I had two tires that had lost about 1/3 of their pressure over the summer. Is that unusual when hanging on the wall vs stacked on the floor?

I don't know if my experience with a bike is relevant but when I've hung my bike during the off-season, I've lost all the air pressure in the tires as opposed to losing very little when I have the bike standing on the ground.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Wormius

How valuable are tire sensors to have? Aside from getting a flat, which is obvious, I haven’t found my tires to lose much, if any, air during the season. I am running the regular 17” tires on an old Rav4.

Is this some kind of hyper-performance thing or where can they adjust their own pressure or is it in the realm of “the more you know” kind of thing?

It's helpful to let you know so that you can check out the pressure and proactively do stuff to prevent premature tire damage etc. It's not really easy to just eyeball it, so you'd have to check frequently. No one has time for that, especially if it's cold.

I also check it occasionally so that the tire pressure is relatively balanced on all 4 tires instead of certain tires being higher and lower by up to 3-4 psi.

I agree 90%+ of the time, it's just a nice to know. But occasionally when your tire sensors scream low due to the wild fluctuations of our temperatures, I can immediately top up the pressure and improve my traction by ensuring that the tire isn't below recommended pressures during the frigid cold periods.

[bossy22]

Is anybody running studded tires? If so, do you like them? I'm thinking about them for our camper van. We are going to use it as home base at the ski hill, which will be every weekend because my son ski races. I'm going to get the Nokian Hakka's, but am wondering if I should just get the studded.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by bossy22

Is anybody running studded tires? If so, do you like them? I'm thinking about them for our camper van. We are going to use it as home base at the ski hill, which will be every weekend because my son ski races. I'm going to get the Nokian Hakka's, but am wondering if I should just get the studded.

They're better on pure ice but slightly worse on snow and pavement. Enough to notice a difference? Probably not. But studless tires are so good these days I don't see the need and personally haven't bothered with studs in a long time

[Johnny Makarov]

Just came home on Shag going south and passed like 20 cars going up the hill....

Coming up Shag north I didn't see a single car because some stupid truck and mini van spun out at the top and it's bumper to bumper from Nose Hill park to the Children's Hospital.

Now i have to go back that way to pick up my kids from piano...

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Swapped my wife's tires this weekend and have a question. I keep them on rims year round, this is the first season I have hung them on pegs on the wall rather than stacked on their sides on the floor. Typically they have held their pressure fairly well over the season, I have to add maybe 2-3 psi to a tire or two. Yesterday I had two tires that had lost about 1/3 of their pressure over the summer. Is that unusual when hanging on the wall vs stacked on the floor?

Have you done a quick clean of the inner rim and check for a crack?