The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[stazzy33]

Originally Posted by fleuryisgod

Urban X tires to change your tires over. I started a thread a little while ago about this and these guys were recommended . Now that I've been there I will go no where else. Cost me $80 to take off my summer tires and instal the new tires I bought onto my winter rims. This was $20 cheaper then anyone else I could find and they actually let you make appointments, I had one for 11am and I got there a couple minutes early and left at 11:30.

I will second any post about UrbanX, these guys run one of the best businesses on earth period. I have never had better customer service anywhere in my life.

Case in point, I accidentally double booked myself a couple weeks ago (had a lunch meeting and had an appointment to get my winters put on) so I called Bob at UrbanX north and explained the situation, and he was completely understanding (this was the day of at about 11am). He told me that unfortunately he wouldn't be able to rebook me for another two weeks (understandable because they are so busy) which was disappointing. He then took a quick look at his schedule for me and noticed he had an appointment at 4pm booked for an hour that he thought would only take half an hour and told me to show up at 430. I showed up at 430 and they were ready for me, took them 20 minutes to get my winters bolted on and off I went.

I don't know of any place that wouldn't be annoyed that you had cancelled within an hour of your appointment, and try to figure out a way to get you in the same day.

I will never go anywhere else for tires!

TL;DR - UrbanX is amazing, don't go anywhere else for your tire needs.

[pylon]

Seriously guys, get one of these (on sale for $90):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...l#.UnFZW1OQN5Y

And the cheapest one of these you can find ((this one is 30 bucks):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ce...l#.UnFZ1VOQN5Y

You will be able to to bolt your winters on and off for the next decade, without having to make an appointment. It takes me about 30 minutes to do mine. Less time than driving to a tire shop and back. I went with a corded electric impact gun I bought at crappy tire 15 years ago for 30 bucks on boxing day, and at least with corded, you don't have to worry about the battery wearing out on something you will use twice a year.

Any moron can do a wheel swap in under an hour if you have the right gear.

edit: Never tighten them with the gun, I use a torque wrench, but usually 'snug' is adequate if you don't want to buy a $150 wrench.

[DoubleK]

I was tipped off on Urban X on another forum and was blown away at the customer service.

Price was spot on too. Very competitive with tirerack.

[fleuryisgod]

Originally Posted by pylon

Seriously guys, get one of these (on sale for $90):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...l#.UnFZW1OQN5Y

And the cheapest one of these you can find ((this one is 30 bucks):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ce...l#.UnFZ1VOQN5Y

You will be able to to bolt your winters on and off for the next decade, without having to make an appointment. It takes me about 30 minutes to do mine. Less time than driving to a tire shop and back. I went with a corded electric impact gun I bought at crappy tire 15 years ago for 30 bucks on boxing day, and at least with corded, you don't have to worry about the battery wearing out on something you will use twice a year.

Any moron can do a wheel swap in under an hour if you have the right gear.

I do agree with this. Very easy to to swap from summer to winter tires if you have two sets of rims...which you should cause it'll save money in the long run. I happened to need a new set of tires mounted this year which is beyond my talent/tool/effort level so I went to Urban X. If you're simply swapping you will spend less time doing it yourself then driving anywhere and waiting the 30min (at least) it will take them.

[GoinAllTheWay]

This year I bought some winter rims for my winter tires as I suspected ripping both sets of tires off the same rims each season is pretty hard on them. I also chucked my summer tires this year as they are badly in need of replacement. Normally with the winter tires they'd be off rims when I stored them and I just stacked them on top of each other laying on their sidewalls. Do you do the same when they are on rims and inflated or do they need to be stored sitting on the treads?

And any special way to store spare rims? Stack them on each other or is that a no no?

[pylon]

Originally Posted by fleuryisgod

I do agree with this. Very easy to to swap from summer to winter tires if you have two sets of rims...which you should cause it'll save money in the long run. I happened to need a new set of tires mounted this year which is beyond my talent/tool/effort level so I went to Urban X. If your simply swapping you will spend less time doing it yourself then driving anywhere and waiting the 30min (at least) it will take them.

For winter rims, Kijiji is amazing. I picked up factory alloy take offs for both my BMW and Tiguan for under $300 bucks a set. The wear and tear it saves you on the rims alone is worth it.

[Wormius]

Curious - what kind of wear and tear would you expect to see on your rims from just changing tires over twice a year? Can it screw up the balancing over a long term or just an aesthetics concern?

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Curious - what kind of wear and tear would you expect to see on your rims from just changing tires over twice a year? Can it screw up the balancing over a long term or just an aesthetics concern?

Mounting tires is both hard on the rims as well as the tires themselves as they get kinda "stretched" on to the rim. It can wear down the rims a bit which over time can affect how well they seal.

Nothing to do with aesthetics.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by pylon

And the cheapest one of these you can find ((this one is 30 bucks):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ce...l#.UnFZ1VOQN5Y

You will be able to to bolt your winters on and off for the next decade,

If you are going to change your wheels for a decade, don't buy el cheapo jack. I finally retired that exact one (but in classic red) this year and the day couldn't have come sooner.

Instead get someting like this and you will love yourself for it, and save time:

(this is the current one on sale, I have the 3.5 ton, besides being crazy heavy, it's awesome) http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/F...Jack/8003252.p

[Deegee]

I use to run winters and swap back to all seasons when my commute was 35 minutes. Now that it is 2 minutes, I don't bother. :|

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by pylon

Seriously guys, get one of these (on sale for $90):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...l#.UnFZW1OQN5Y

And the cheapest one of these you can find ((this one is 30 bucks):

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ce...l#.UnFZ1VOQN5Y

You will be able to to bolt your winters on and off for the next decade, without having to make an appointment. It takes me about 30 minutes to do mine. Less time than driving to a tire shop and back. I went with a corded electric impact gun I bought at crappy tire 15 years ago for 30 bucks on boxing day, and at least with corded, you don't have to worry about the battery wearing out on something you will use twice a year.

Any moron can do a wheel swap in under an hour if you have the right gear.

edit: Never tighten them with the gun, I use a torque wrench, but usually 'snug' is adequate if you don't want to buy a $150 wrench.

You can even skip the impact wrench and just go with the torque wrench. It really doesn't require more than a one-handed pull to loosen or tighten fully, and once slightly loose, you can take the socket off and hand-loosen or tighten to speed things up. The impact wrench will do it slightly quicker (and you get to feel like a pit crew - ta-ta-ta-ta-vrooooooo), but since you should manually tighten with a torque wrench anyway, the impact wrench is an extra bonus. My impact wrench is also an el cheapo air version, and my compressor isn't overly large, so that could explain why I don't bother with the impact wrench.

They've got sales on torque wrenches all of the time, like this bad boy: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...-0588562p.html

Very similar to what I have. $65 on sale from $144. I'm sure that there are cheaper out there and would do the job as well. Then buy a cheap deep socket set, and you're ready to roll.

Pylon is right - it is the way to go. My father-in-law is even a mechanic, and I can pull up to his garage any time and have them swapped. But loading them into the car, driving over there during business hours, driving back, loading the other ones out, etc. is takes much longer than just doing them myself. Just put the hockey game on the radio and you'll be done in no time.

[darklord700]

Anybody has the General Tire Altimax Arctic installed? Seems like there's a 25% off plus $35 rebate for 4 promotion going on right now?

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/canad...tires-1399965/

I ordered a set of X Ice 3 from Costco but haven't had them installed yet. I'll save about $190 if I go with the General Tire Altimax Arctic. Not sure if it is worth the difference.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Anybody has the General Tire Altimax Arctic installed? Seems like there's a 25% off plus $35 rebate for 4 promotion going on right now?

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/canad...tires-1399965/

I ordered a set of X Ice 3 from Costco but haven't had them installed yet. I'll save about $190 if I go with the General Tire Altimax Arctic. Not sure if it is worth the difference.

I put those Generals on my wife's car, and they are fantastic. The only negative would be dry performance, but they are one of the best tires in deep snow I've ever used, and good on ice.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Here's what I use - If you have an Impact Driver (ie from a battery operated DeWalt or Ryobi set of power tools) just buy one of these:



and a deep walled socket


I use the factory tire iron to "break" the nuts, jack it up and then use the above to quickly gun them off / on. Then I use a torque wrench to tighten. Presto. Done in 45 min (though it takes another 45 to setup, inflate, check tires and mark them for rotation)

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

You can even skip the impact wrench and just go with the torque wrench. It really doesn't require more than a one-handed pull to loosen or tighten fully, and once slightly loose, you can take the socket off and hand-loosen or tighten to speed things up. The impact wrench will do it slightly quicker (and you get to feel like a pit crew - ta-ta-ta-ta-vrooooooo), but since you should manually tighten with a torque wrench anyway, the impact wrench is an extra bonus. My impact wrench is also an el cheapo air version, and my compressor isn't overly large, so that could explain why I don't bother with the impact wrench.

They've got sales on torque wrenches all of the time, like this bad boy: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...-0588562p.html

Very similar to what I have. $65 on sale from $144. I'm sure that there are cheaper out there and would do the job as well. Then buy a cheap deep socket set, and you're ready to roll.

Pylon is right - it is the way to go. My father-in-law is even a mechanic, and I can pull up to his garage any time and have them swapped. But loading them into the car, driving over there during business hours, driving back, loading the other ones out, etc. is takes much longer than just doing them myself. Just put the hockey game on the radio and you'll be done in no time.

Yup, I would also recommend skipping the hassle of an impact wrench and just getting a breaker bar. I think a torque wrench is essential though, as I used to German torque it before getting one, and it was a pain to get the tires off after because I way over torqued it. They are both on sale at Can Tire all the time. Don't ever buy it at full price, as they're a rip off full price. Breaker bars usually go for 10 bucks, and a good torque wrench for 50 to 60 dollars when on sale.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

A cheaper alternative to a breaker bar is a length of pipe slipped over the tire iron to simply lengthen it.

[Bill Bumface]

On other tip, if you have a good jack, just jack it to the moon one one of the factor jack points so the whole side of the car is up. You only have to jack twice this way.

With air tools and this method I've got it down to under 30min a change with everything included but shuffling the cars around in the garage.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

How come you changed to straight winters from the Nokian WRs?

I have Nokian WR's on my SUV and I loved 'em, but I'm struggling with the internal debate of just getting them again or going full winters and then cheap all seasons.

Because my friend sold his TSX and i got the Nokian winters and rims off him super cheap. I have a standard so i didn't even use winter tires last year, but since i have to drive my daughter to school this year i better switch.

[Burninator]

Any reason not to use the jack that comes with the vehicle besides it being slow?

Also mechanics gloves are totally worth the $15 dollars.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

On other tip, if you have a good jack, just jack it to the moon one one of the factor jack points so the whole side of the car is up. You only have to jack twice this way.

With air tools and this method I've got it down to under 30min a change with everything included but shuffling the cars around in the garage.

I always like to clean the hubs, take a wire brush to any studs that have any build up, etc when I do my Fall/Spring swaps but yeah it's a pretty mundane job overall but it sure is nice to have a quality, low profile jack. I also mark the tires so the next time I install them they are properly rotated and not mixed up. That's something to keep in mind especially if you have an AWD car.