Winter tyre questions

[Bellcrew]

Winter tyre novice here with stupid questions.

I assume the normal thing to do is own 2 set of tyres (winter and summer) and one set of wheels and have the tyres swapped over at a garage? Or...

Do people have two sets of wheels (and tyres) which means it's much easier to swap them over oneself as you can just jack up one's vehicles and get busy with a socket set?

Lastly, if you have winter tyres on the vehicles but keep the regular spare slung under the vehicles, is that an issue in the even to of actually needing to use the spare... or is having three out of four snow tyres when limping to the garage to get to flat snow tyre fixed not really an issue?

Told you they were stupid questions!

thanks!

Still a lot better than a skinny tyre or the sealant alternatives, the operative term is limping to the garage, under 50 should be fine.

 

[TripleBee]

Best thing is to have 2 complete sets (rims and tyres), as there is always a chance of damaging the tyres or rims.
I use my original steel 16" rims for the winter modus, and I bought some Colmar 16" alloys for the normal tyres.
This way it's a lot easier to swap the wheels yourself. Only thing you need (apart from a decent jack and wrench for 19mm bolts) is a torque wrench up to 180Nm (it will probably go up to 200).
And for the spare, I use a used normal tyre (+/- 3 mm thread left).
If it would be needed in snowy conditions, I'd swap (if needed) a back winter wheel to the front, to have full snow traction up front, and take the normal tyre at the back. That way you still have the traction needed up front, and the back will follow. Then just beware for sliding because of a different, bad tyre for the snowy weather.
If you really want to be safe, you could buy a single steel spare rim and an extra winter tyre (might be used and from a different brand, but then just for emergency use only). Then you don't need to limp to the garage, but go full speed (within the limits) to where you were heading, and see when you can get the winter tyre repaired.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Paul Grice]

Best thing is to have 2 complete sets (rims and tyres), as there is always a chance of damaging the tyres or rims.
I use my original steel 16" rims for the winter modus, and I bought some Colmar 16" alloys for the normal tyres.
This way it's a lot easier to swap the wheels yourself. Only thing you need (apart from a decent jack and wrench for 19mm bolts) is a torque wrench up to 180Nm (it will probably go up to 200).
And for the spare, I use a used normal tyre (+/- 3 mm thread left).
If it would be needed in snowy conditions, I'd swap (if needed) a back winter wheel to the front, to have full snow traction up front, and take the normal tyre at the back. That way you still have the traction needed up front, and the back will follow. Then just beware for sliding because of a different, bad tyre for the snowy weather.
If you really want to be safe, you could buy a single steel spare rim and an extra winter tyre (might be used and from a different brand, but then just for emergency use only). Then you don't need to limp to the garage, but go full speed (within the limits) to where you were heading, and see when you can get the winter tyre repaired.

Just my thoughts.

Hi, thanks for sharing...and really helpful. I had not even thought about damage to rims and the tips on type of wrench useful. Many thanks!

 

[TripleBee]

You are welcome.
Thing is, if you just buy winter tyres, and let them be changed on the wheels 2x per year, every year, you will have to pay about 1,5 - 2 hours of labour (apart from eventual damage). If you buy a complete set, you pay this one time, but are able to do it yourself, or in worst case, the dealer will do this, but it takes less than 1 hour. So in the end it will be cheaper, and more comfortable for you.
Your shiny alloys will stay salt free. Just let the steel rims rust away under the plastic hubs, like I do.

 

[Paul Grice]

You are welcome.
Thing is, if you just buy winter tyres, and let them be changed on the wheels 2x per year, every year, you will have to pay about 1,5 - 2 hours of labour (apart from eventual damage). If you buy a complete set, you pay this one time, but are able to do it yourself, or in worst case, the dealer will do this, but it takes less than 1 hour. So in the end it will be cheaper, and more comfortable for you.
Your shiny alloys will stay salt free. Just let the steel rims rust away under the plastic hubs, like I do.

All makes sense.... many thanks for the tips ... it's a new set of wheels for me then... and time to face up to the learning how to find jacking points and change a wheel.. how hard can it be! Never quite got over being in a friends car when we were teenagers and seeing a wheel go past us only to discover it was his back nearside wheel.... We had stopped several times before then to try and understand the banging noise that seemed to stop when he sped up.... the nuts had all come off and were inside the hub cap, centrifugal force was holding it to the out side of the hub cap when we sped up so the banging stopped.

I guess that's why one needs a torque wrench on the correct setting!

P

 

[Ksar-el-kebir]

Hi - apologies if the answer to this is already out there - i have searched!

What winter tyres are people using? Im having trouble finding much choice. Currently I'm running 215/60 r17s that have a load rating of 103. I read of lots of people using tyres that don't fit the reccomended details for speed or load for my tyre size. Is this because everyones using different rims or are people ignoring the load rating etc. If so doesn't this invalidate your insurance if you had an accident?

I’ve got all weather tyres and fine link snow chains if needed.