Put them in a shed or pay the garage for storage.
Favourite tyre brand?
- Thread starter miktec
- Start date
PaulMB
pfm Member
Maybe they have their winter tyres permanently fitted on smaller rims? (Assuming they fit around the brakes, etc.)
hifilover1979
Bigger than you...
Mine go in our Keter plastic shed that's at the bottom of our garden; I got that to store all the gardening equipment so it wasn't taking up room in the garage and there's plenty of room in it for my spare set of wheels...
Get them off the car, washed, dried and then packed into their storage bags and then get put away
Appreciate not everyone has the luxury of storage; but there are plenty of companies around that specialise in storage and you can rent by the inch in some places!
James
Lord of the Erg\o/s
Their overall rolling diameter will be the same, so take up almost the same space.
I suppose they could go into the garden shed.
hifilover1979
Bigger than you...
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PaulMB
pfm Member
Yes, I had misunderstood your post and thought you meant that winter tyres would be "fatter" than summer ones and "foul" the wheel well. I didn't read properly.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
We had winter tyres on their own alloys for about ten years. When stored, they just sat in the garage, one on top of the other, kept off the floor with a couple of strips of wood. No issues at all. Sold to a mate earlier this year with the advice that if we have a harsher winter than the last two or three, the tyres will need to be replaced.
tones
Tones deaf
We do the latter. When we had the old Astra (14"), I stored them in our garage and changed them myself. When we acquired the V40 (17"), there was no room for them, so the local Volvo dealership stores them for me, and lets me know when they should be changed.
The rule of thumb here for winter tyres is O bis O (October to Easter). Unlike some parts of Germany, winter tyres are not obligatory in Switzerland, but if you have an accident in winter on summer tyres, expect the local constabulary and your insurance company to be somewhat less than understanding.
sean99
pfm Member
I had Michelin Cross Climate 2s fitted last year and I've been very happy with them - but I drive like a grandma so maybe not the best judge. They're extremely quiet, though, and snow handling seems very good.
hifilover1979
Bigger than you...
Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen3s here on my 'winter alloys' - couldn't get the others in the sizes I needed (the Vredestein ones I could but Goodyears were only a few £quid more)!
Hardly used them as haven't been anywhere; but they'll get a good road trip and scrubbing in down to Anglesey on Thursday and looking forward to using them over the colder months
Hardly used them as haven't been anywhere; but they'll get a good road trip and scrubbing in down to Anglesey on Thursday and looking forward to using them over the colder months
All of this deliberation about favourite tyre brand and all season vs winter vs anything else neglects the elephant in the room, which is tyre profile choice. There is this assumption that wider = better , which it may be under dry conditions, but it certainly isn't in wet or snowy conditions. I remember learning to drive in the days when we used to get proper winters and those well known performance cars the Fiesta 1000 and Mini 850 were fitted with 145 or 135 section tyres, and they performed very well in snow. A good thing too, we used to get it regularly.
Fast forward to the 90s and I bought a Cavalier, 195 or 205 section tyres, great in the dry and damp, awful in snow because they failed to cut through to the tarmac and instead floated on the surface. The same applies today, and the sections are even bigger. Compare and contrast things like Land Rovers that are actually used off road and the design is that narrow tyres are fitted so that they cut through soft snow or mud and find their way to more solid material below. The 200+ mm plus tyres fitted to some off road vehicles are better suited to pub car parks.
As ever, it's all a compromise. But if I wanted winter tyres I'd fit them much narrower and sacrifice the limits of adhesion in the dry to get better performance in the slush.
Fast forward to the 90s and I bought a Cavalier, 195 or 205 section tyres, great in the dry and damp, awful in snow because they failed to cut through to the tarmac and instead floated on the surface. The same applies today, and the sections are even bigger. Compare and contrast things like Land Rovers that are actually used off road and the design is that narrow tyres are fitted so that they cut through soft snow or mud and find their way to more solid material below. The 200+ mm plus tyres fitted to some off road vehicles are better suited to pub car parks.
As ever, it's all a compromise. But if I wanted winter tyres I'd fit them much narrower and sacrifice the limits of adhesion in the dry to get better performance in the slush.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
And the old VW Beetle.
JensenHealey
pfm Member
Yup
sean99
pfm Member
If you get all season tires your size is determined by the rim. Getting a second set of rims was made vastly more expensive in the US by the mandating of TPMS sensors in 2007 (all because some Ford explorers driving on under-inflated tires couldn't stay wheel side down).
I'd gladly have a second set of wheels for winter, but the second set of sensors adds another $250 to the equation.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
Newer cars have a different method of indicating a flat and no longer require an actual sensor on the valve stem.
SteveG
pfm Member
I did consider getting a 2nd set of wheels and putting narrower/taller profile winter tyres. As well as the cost and storage issues though it's also likely to be the case that here in the UK (where we don't get all that much snow, even where my Cairngorms place is i.e. the highest village in the Highlands) then even over the winter having all-season tyres fitted is a better (and therefore likely safer) compromise.
In the last 12 months I drove my car for short distances in the snow twice, and on those days then when in the snow then full-on winter tyres would likely have performed a bit better than my Cross-Climates (although they worked well - much better than summer tyres would have). Even on those specific journeys the bulk of the journey (between Tomintoul & Edinburgh) wasn't on snow (and much of it wouldn't have even been sub-zero temperatures), so even on those days the all-seasons were likely a better choice.
I'm probably cursing myself to a winter of lots of snow now though (in which case I'll probably panic buy a Landrover Defender)!
In the last 12 months I drove my car for short distances in the snow twice, and on those days then when in the snow then full-on winter tyres would likely have performed a bit better than my Cross-Climates (although they worked well - much better than summer tyres would have). Even on those specific journeys the bulk of the journey (between Tomintoul & Edinburgh) wasn't on snow (and much of it wouldn't have even been sub-zero temperatures), so even on those days the all-seasons were likely a better choice.
I'm probably cursing myself to a winter of lots of snow now though (in which case I'll probably panic buy a Landrover Defender)!
hifilover1979
Bigger than you...
Winters aren't like they used to be; so unless you're in The Highlands and live there, as an example; then really, winters/all seasons are bought/fitted to cars to be better in the regular colder and wetter conditions and will out perform any premium summer tyre on any motor in those conditions...
We're up to The Highlands every Dec and Feb and the winters I've used have never failed me; they've always been 17s or 18s and the OEM tyre size as per the BMW car I was driving.
The 235/45/17 Avon WV7 winters I had a few years back got me up and around the Cairngorm car parks very readily with zero issues; thick with snow and plenty of other cars & 4x4s just abandoned with them being on standard summer tyres...
For the every day road going car that isn't driving in heavy snow every day; standard OEM sizes will do perfectly well