The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Oh, well that's different - are the tires already on the rims? If so just tell Kal Tire you want to take them out of storage and do the swap yourself. Or hell, you could probably get a Jiffy Lube to do it for you, takes 20 minutes. Certainly not worth waiting 3 weeks for.

I tried last season and I could barely fit the winter wheelset in my trunk to transport them to another shop, then I would have to re-transport and store my 4 summers as well!

There are things you just can't do easily unless you are a home owner and have space and tools or another vehicle/truck.

As a latte-sipper, I have become resigned to my fate and I've decided on driving as little as possible until Nov. 15! I technically don't need to drive for work or neccessities living downtown. I'm more concerned about getting my winter tires on my bicycle set up!

[Knut]

Can I simply hammer Nails into my Tires and turn them into Studded Tires?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Knut

Can I simply hammer Nails into my Tires and turn them into Studded Tires?

Yes, but they will then be runflats. In that they are flat every time you run them.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Knut

Can I simply hammer Nails into my Tires and turn them into Studded Tires?

Of course. Do that at the same time as you change the battery cables to the other terminals so your car blows heat instead of cool.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by you&me

And this is why I don't understand people's willingness to forego dedicated winters in our climate. They make a >100% difference in the safety and preservation of what is, for most people, their second largest asset and last 5, 6, 10 years, all for a completely insignificant cost when looked at on a per use basis. The risks, both financial and personal, seem so much more significant.

Well our family were poor so we just hoped for the best and ran on crappy all seasons as kids. I think my parents finally got snow tires for the first time in 1998 when I got my first pair.

One thing i don't get are people who are running all weather tires and don't switch them out. Just use your crappy factory tires in the summer and switch to your all weather ones in winter.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Well our family were poor so we just hoped for the best and ran on crappy all seasons as kids. I think my parents finally got snow tires for the first time in 1998 when I got my first pair.

One thing i don't get are people who are running all weather tires and don't switch them out. Just use your crappy factory tires in the summer and switch to your all weather ones in winter.

The most appealing part of AW tires is not needing to swap them at all. IMO they make the most sense for low mileage drivers - get them rotated with your oil change and you're good to go.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Pro-tip for those who swap tires themselves, pay close attention to the rotation arrows on the side of the tire BEFORE mounting them, unlike this dumbass over here who put two on my car before realizing that they looked a little weird

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

The most appealing part of AW tires is not needing to swap them at all. IMO they make the most sense for low mileage drivers - get them rotated with your oil change and you're good to go.

But how many years can you get out of them? 5-6? I'm sure if you swapped them you could get 10 years out of them. Especially the Nokians WRs.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Well our family were poor so we just hoped for the best and ran on crappy all seasons as kids. I think my parents finally got snow tires for the first time in 1998 when I got my first pair.

One thing i don't get are people who are running all weather tires and don't switch them out. Just use your crappy factory tires in the summer and switch to your all weather ones in winter.

I know that my family never had dedicated winter tires when I was growing up either, only because we couldn't afford them, so obviously there's an affordability factor.

That said, I feel like there are a lot of people that could afford them but think their all seasons are good enough, which is the part I don't get... If there's a far superior, proper tool for the job of keeping your second most valuable possession and its contents - your family - safe, you get it. Unless there's a genuine affordability issue, it strikes me as dumb.

Even the thing you say you don't get doesn't make sense to me... In that scenario, someone's still buying and changing a second set of tires, but if you're going to do that, why half-ass it with all weathers rather than proper winters?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by you&me

I know that my family never had dedicated winter tires when I was growing up either, only because we couldn't afford them, so obviously there's an affordability factor.

That said, I feel like there are a lot of people that could afford them but think their all seasons are good enough, which is the part I don't get... If there's a far superior, proper tool for the job of keeping your second most valuable possession and its contents - your family - safe, you get it. Unless there's a genuine affordability issue, it strikes me as dumb.

Even the thing you say you don't get doesn't make sense to me... In that scenario, someone's still buying and changing a second set of tires, but if you're going to do that, why half-ass it with all weathers rather than proper winters?

I moved to Calgary from the Okanagan after high school for university, was poor as balls for many years, but I still found room in the budget for good winter tires. It only takes one sketchy ass drive through the Rogers Pass in winter to sear in your brain how important they are

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Well our family were poor so we just hoped for the best and ran on crappy all seasons as kids. I think my parents finally got snow tires for the first time in 1998 when I got my first pair.

One thing i don't get are people who are running all weather tires and don't switch them out. Just use your crappy factory tires in the summer and switch to your all weather ones in winter.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by you&me

I know that my family never had dedicated winter tires when I was growing up either, only because we couldn't afford them, so obviously there's an affordability factor.

That said, I feel like there are a lot of people that could afford them but think their all seasons are good enough, which is the part I don't get... If there's a far superior, proper tool for the job of keeping your second most valuable possession and its contents - your family - safe, you get it. Unless there's a genuine affordability issue, it strikes me as dumb.

Even the thing you say you don't get doesn't make sense to me... In that scenario, someone's still buying and changing a second set of tires, but if you're going to do that, why half-ass it with all weathers rather than proper winters?

Because the Nokian all weathers are an amazing winter tire! I swapped them around when I had my civic every year. I sold it after 3 years with both sets but they were still in great condition after doing that.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I'm actually doing an impromptu tire test on these this week:

https://blackcircles.ca/en/tire/rove...-677-studdable

I have a rental for the week as I have some work being done on my summer car (which started on Monday, so yes, the timing of this snowfall is entirely my fault). The rental shop only had one car with winters, and they're the above cheapies. So far I've driven downtown and home twice, and they've been quite good, but I haven't had a full opportunity to try them and compare to the Blizzaks I put on my Audi last month.

If I have an hour to spare this weekend I might just mess around with both cars in a parking lot and see how it goes... if you can get serviceable winters brand new for ~$120 per corner, not doing so makes even less sense.

Even the cheap ones these days are fine - they're usually just copies of older models from Michelin/Bridgestone etc.

I had Hankook iPikes for years, they were fine except they were very loud and had almost no cornering capability. But they worked fine on snow and ice and didn't suck in rain.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Pro-tip for those who swap tires themselves, pay close attention to the rotation arrows on the side of the tire BEFORE mounting them, unlike this dumbass over here who put two on my car before realizing that they looked a little weird

Where were you last year, forgetting my wife had the fancy tires and running on autopilot. Of course, I guess I could have warned you last year and saved you this year, but here we are.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Pro-tip for those who swap tires themselves, pay close attention to the rotation arrows on the side of the tire BEFORE mounting them, unlike this dumbass over here who put two on my car before realizing that they looked a little weird

You talking about yourself?

That was me swapping out the winters in the spring... except I put all 4 on and had a look of satisfaction dissolve basically into this:

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I tried last season and I could barely fit the winter wheelset in my trunk to transport them to another shop, then I would have to re-transport and store my 4 summers as well!

There are things you just can't do easily unless you are a home owner and have space and tools or another vehicle/truck.

As a latte-sipper, I have become resigned to my fate and I've decided on driving as little as possible until Nov. 15! I technically don't need to drive for work or neccessities living downtown. I'm more concerned about getting my winter tires on my bicycle set up!

Weird to have a condo with no storage space. I had that in my 1970s 1 BR condo. Studios had it too. We also had a bike storage space on top of the individual condo storage units.

Tip for those who may have to put two tires in the trunk and two in the back seat: A $20-30 pet seat cover works great to protect the inside of the vehicle from dirt and damage.

You can also consider mobile swap options... but I guess the actual issue you have is storage.

[btimbit]

What's everyone's experience with All Weather tires? Ordered some Toyo Celsius II's from PMC yesterday for the commuter car and am curious how they stack up to dedicated winters.

Side note, but sold my last two trucks since I haven't really done any actual truck stuff in a while, one of them I put maybe 400km on all last year. I'm sure I'll miss them come the next big snowfall though

[Diemenz]

Winter>All weather>All season

An all weather tire will never compare to a winter because of the compound having to be harder to allow for good wear but running those versus an all season is a better option for an all year tire. Oddly enough my parents bought all weathers last year and because Calgary winters are mostly cold exposed pavement driving they worked out great.
If you are someone who puts on the miles on a vehicle you should get dedicated for sure.

[btimbit]

FedEx dropped them off 2 hours ago, damn PMC is fast.

They're definitely harder than a dedi winter, can tell just from handling them. Reminds me of a winter rated AT truck tire.

Probably won't bother putting them on for anothet week or two, have a service coming up so will just do it then. Plus the forecast looks cooperative for now.
Excited to give them a go

[Amethyst]

I've used both all weather and winters (on different, but similar cars). In general, I found that they were quite similar. I found the biggest difference was winters were better for starting on ice (at an intersection).