when do you put your winter tires on?

[wallymn]

Getting to that time of year again.. Either this weekend or next I will put on the winter tires.. (temps consistently below 45 starting this weekend).

When do you put yours on? and what is your latitude?

I am 45 degrees N.. winter tires will be on either 11/14 or 11/21......

 

[musher51]

I'm at the same latitude and just put 'em on this past weekend...and I probably put them on too soon, given the unusually mild autumn we're having. I hate it when my snow tires are subjected to warm temps (you can almost feel 'em wear out), but it's getting increasingly tough to decide when to switch, and I sure don't want to wake up to a couple of inches of snow with the summer tires on. Good luck, Wally.

 

[dg_moore]

I'm in MD but drive north from time to time. I'll put mine on probably the first week in December. Historically most of our snow occurs in Jan/Feb, but last winter's February snowmageddon was presaged by a pretty hefty snowfall in late December.

Having sunk about $1100 into a set of rims and snow tires, with my luck the total snowfall this winter will amount to 1.5". But there's always next year...

 

[wallymn]

I'm at the same latitude and just put 'em on this past weekend...and I probably put them on too soon, given the unusually mild autumn we're having. I hate it when my snow tires are subjected to warm temps (you can almost feel 'em wear out), but it's getting increasingly tough to decide when to switch, and I sure don't want to wake up to a couple of inches of snow with the summer tires on. Good luck, Wally.

that is the rub... and what I try to avoid... temps over 45 really wear the tires fast......

hard rooting for cold weather but once the winter tires are on , that is what I do....

 

[Vlad92]

Had the dealer put them on last Friday (during the 15,000 mile service). Today I bought four 70 pound bags of sand and put those in the boot... so I guess I'm ready. Too bad we had a near record high of 72 here in Omaha today! Oh well.. the snow will come soon enough!

 

[scottdk]

Yesterday, on another car of mine I just had Firestone Winterforce tires put on for $370 for the set. They rank on tirerack at an 8.2 out of ten. Of course I get these tires installed, and now it's been 67 degrees and sunny the last two days Looking forward to testing my 1st set of winter tires out on some fun snow days and tossing the car around on the lake that I live next to once it's frozen over.

 

[wallymn]

Yesterday, on another car of mine I just had Firestone Winterforce tires put on for $370 for the set. They rank on tirerack at an 8.2 out of ten. Of course I get these tires installed, and now it's been 67 degrees and sunny the last two days Looking forward to testing my 1st set of winter tires out on some fun snow days and tossing the car around on the lake that I live next to once it's frozen over.

cold weather is coming today or tomorrow... Lived in Mn 15 years.. never once thought it was a good idea to drive on a lake,......... I see people do it all the time... and I know the ice gets about 2 feet thick,, but I can't do it.

 

[Rockynight]

Getting a set of the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S put on today.

I tried getting the Continental DWS but the fronts are on back order indefinitely.

 

[Rey]

I'm a geezer who grew up in Minn. We raced on lake ice. In the 50s only sissies and farmers had snow tires, and then only on the rears. Studded tires came and went after they figured out that the studded tires ruined road surfaces. Snow tires had big lugs, were noisy and handled poorly.

Today is much different. I live in Oregon where the only adverse condition on valley floors is ice about once a year. We have no plow service, so those few days it snows it is really hard to navigate without winter tires. We can get by with winter tires on just one of our cars. We do make long winter trips over mountain passes and through blizzard country, and mount winter tires when we these trips.

I have found winter tires to wear surprisingly well in temps over 45 degrees, where most of our winter travel occurs. The Michelins I have will probably last 20K+ miles at least.

Modern winter tires handle quite well compared to what I knew in the 70s. In fact, a friend of mine is a race instructor at Brainerd and demos using his car on which he mounts Dunlop winter Sportmax tires year around. Tire dealers will tell you that you need to mount winter tires on all four wheels and they must be the same brand, etc. I think they say this to sell tires and because of misconceived liability hysteria.

 

[STREETS]

Burlington, VT on Lake Champlain- when ice is snow free & nice and smooth- drive out on it- get up to about 50 hit the breaks and skid and spin for about 2 miles!

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