I think it's still a bit early, but how soon are people going to start putting their summer wheels/tires on?
Mine never came off But seriously, when the temps are regularly above 45-50 you are usually good to go.
Sometime before the 14th. I usually wait until the days are 50+ consistently and the nights don't freeze. Freezing cycles will shorten the life of the tires.
Lows above freezing are usually what I look for. Looking at the average lows for this time of year and we're pretty much there, but reality isn't always on the average. I think most people going to DCTC will put them on before that. Hopefully it stays warm!
Almost did it this past weekend but saw that the first part of this week looked pretty darn cold yet. I did get them out of the attic though. Planning to swap this coming weekend. April 11 will be my one-year anniversary with a Subaru!
I plan to make the switch this coming weekend. Replacing the winter Nitto SN2 with the Nitto NT555 so I can start testing these new Swift Type R springs on the track. Will also be switching over to e85, replacing the factory intake w/my backyard special high velocity stacked charged intake system, bed my new summer pads, install crushed BOV, get a retune and a nice 3 coat hand wax job lol.
I am going to hopefully plasti-dip my summer wheels this weekend, and then maybe even have them on by Monday? If not, the next weekend for sure. My "winter" wheels are my all-seasons though, so if temps drop or rise a lot, I don't really mind.
An annual debate... Good thinking. I never really put much thought into how the freezing temps would affect the life of summer tread. I treat the spring the same as I do the fall - Put the winters on earlier in the fall, take the winters off later in the spring. One drive on the summer tires on a bit of snow was all it took to convince me never to do that again - might as well drive with no hands. Besides, most snow tires can handle some warm spring temps well without wearing out quickly, I just don't rip mad corners when the tires are warm and it's warm outside - sometimes hard to resist when spring is FINALLY in the air, you can crack a window, and hear that rumble. However, if it shoots to 80 degrees and the 10day forecast looks promising you can bet I'll be switching them right away... That being said with the current forecast I'll probably switch them out next week/end. Looking forward to it!
SkeetsWisconsin is right. There is nothing less useful than summer tires in snow. Drove thru snow with them twice and twice I put my BMW (this is years ago) in the ditch. Have any of you tried Continental Extreme Contact DWS in the winter? It's what I use for daily driving and they've been amazing in the snow/ice/rain. Sidewalls are pretty soft and they don't have the dry performance of most summer tires, but they're great when it's 80 degrees at home and you're going to the mountains where it's 15 degrees and snowing.
I am guessing sometime this weekend. I am on-call from Wednesday to Wednesday... so I am going to need "at home" car project to keep me from going crazy.
I had a set of Extreme Contact DWS on my last Saabaru, and they were my summer tire, winter tire, track tire, autox tire, even a rallyx tire once! The super soft sidewalls used to drive me NUTS, but I suppose all things considered, they were a pretty good all around tire. Plus I learned how to drive fast on a crappy tire, which made stepping into real tires a bit easier!
Miracle of miracles I received a ship notice for my new tires! Supposed to arrive on Friday. Tire/wheel swap time this weekend
Sounds like this weekend is the one! As long as I don't see it going cold in the long term forecast, I think I'll do the same. If anything I'll do my wife's first (all seasons in the summer).
Did mine Easter Sunday. And of course, it didn't go as smoothly as it should've... One had a nail I had to pull and patch, and I found that the boot had popped off the outer CV joint on my passenger front axle flinging grease all over the place
The winters I got from my car's previous owner are probably on their last season, so I'm just going to leave them on until Rallyx in Hastings on the 13th. Then head home to Rochester and switch them out for the all-season Uniroyal TigerPaws ( ) that Rochester Ford had put on right before I bought the car last July...
Haha, I wouldn't ever use them on the track (unless it was in a downpour or snow). I have RS-3s for the track.
Suppose to snow and rain this weekend up here and it freezes every night. Guessing it'll be mid to late April before I do any swapping.
I have to wait for my new tire to show up so I can get it shaved down and mounted. By the time all of that happens, the lows should be well over freezing on a consistent basis.
Still too cold for me. There is ice on the road every morning when I am headed to work (4am) and I have found that 245 summers on frozen roads are 100000x more dangerous that winters on a warm road. Besides at this point, your winter tires will handle the warm way better than summers handling the cold. Russ
Accuweather last week showed today to be 53 degrees as well. This is that special time of year in Minnesota where you can pretty much just expect to be surprised every day. For instance, this morning when I got up to head in to jury duty, Accuweather said it was going to get up to 32 degrees. By the time I got to the courthouse, it said today's high would be 43. And then it barely got to 40 all day. They are predicting 61 degrees for Saturday with rain right now. My guess is, that on Friday, Saturday's forecast with be completely different. And any forecast for next week is far from reliable.
AccuWeather will show a high of 35 while it is 39 degrees outside. If I want an accurate forecast, I just go outside, lick my finger, and hold it up in the air.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I've seen some dicey situations when its cold on "sticky" summer tires.
Well... my basement flooded leaving me in a bad mood tonight. So I decided to do something car related to lighten my spirits. Summer tires went on and the snowboard rack came off. Drove a short lap on HWY 36 and torqued the wheels a few times. It is nice to have my handling back. I forgot how much my 9.5" wheels pull me around on the road depressions. It is a change going from 6.5" x 16" winters to 9.5" x 18" rims... but it did put a smile on the face.
NWS is predicting snow accumulation tomorrow up here, and snow and freezing rain for the next few days. I won't even be switching to all-seasons yet. Summers? HA
Not nearly as much as you'd think. I drove a set of snows (Winterforces, 195/65/15) year round once, accumulating around 15k miles including in the dead of summer and they didn't come apart or show any serious signs of wear. I wouldn't even sweat leaving them on at 50 degrees if you're just driving on the highway/regular surface streets. Autocrossing would be a different story, but regular driving won't matter for a short period.
I still remember the first time I handed you a torque wrench, you looked at me like WTF am I suppose to do with this thing. LOL And now you're a PRO! And they say you can't teach a man how to fish.
I'm switching over tomorrow and if I need switch back it will only take me 20 mins per car so I'm not sweating nothing.
Meh, yes and no. My girlfriend drove a set of Winterforces year round once, and they were ruined, by August. Granted, that was a Kia, but it's had zero tire-eating issues otherwise. The far extreme in the other direction. My Blizzak Revo1s I believe just finished their 6th Season. Still a lot of tread life. At this rate, I expect to get at least 2 more years out of them. But, I have a set of all-season (BFG Traction T/As) that I use for the intermediate months. 2 Years ago I switched to those for the trip to 100 Acre Wood in February, and never switched back. So. As I say twice every year when this topic is discussed. It matters not what you are running for winter tires, but for SUMMER tires. If your options are RE01Rs and WS70s.....I wouldn't even be considering it now. But since I've got Revo1s, Traction T/As, AND Kumho Ecsta ASTs to choose from, the Blizzaks will be going into hiding very soon.
From your facial expression I would've never known. But it wasn't until that day that you learned the true value of what a Torque really meant lol
I loved our Revo1s. Had 3 seasons, with an ice race in there as well, and Steph ran them on her RS for two seasons as well. They still looked new when we sold the wheels and tires off last year. I would buy them again in a heartbeat
My wife (poor college days) drove her Camry with I-pikes for 3 winters 2 summers with no issues. Still tread on them when we gave the car to my sister.
I've run Winterforce's year round on my Honda before I got my WRX, and they still looked good as new after a few years. I put my summer wheels on today. Hopefully we don't get another cold spell...
