So this winter never seems to end. It switched to my summer tires in early March, but put my winter tires back on for all the April snow. When are people switching to their summers? Anyone have a good rule of thumb when to switch each season?
This! Highs of 50 degrees don’t justify removing the winters. Most summer specific tires don’t like temps under 50 degrees. So usually when the lows are 40-50 degrees CONSISTENTLY, then i swap them out.
I usually used to switch to winters around November 15th and back to summers around April 15th. It's an estimate and probably in line with the - temps above 40 for lows rule, but that's obviously going to have to be delayed this year.
As I've said before, it depends on what I'm switching to I've got decent all-seasons for the Outback (actually brand-new General RT43s this year), so I switch pretty early (3 weeks ago, this year). My summer car doesn't leave the driveway until we've had a good rain to get rid of the salt/sand on the road, and I don't bother taking the snows off my winter beater, so those will keep getting driven-on for quite some time.
My wife only ever ran winters and it worked out great for her car. After 3 years they still looked like new on her SG Forester. Don't worry about running your winter tires for a few days when its warm. I drove my to LA and back in March for around ~5000 miles with no precipitation throughout and you could not tell any difference from when I left.
It will affect braking and cornering performance not so much wear. Unless you are doing burn outs and track days.
I'm really happy my winters are still on. Thought about swappng a couple weeks ago, then i remembered spring in Minnesota, and just chilled out instead.
