Just bought a very nice set of used snow tires from a guy in wellesley (I was so happy I didn't need to use the front seat to get them home) and have an appointment to have them switched in monday morning. Any of you have tips on driving around tires w/o getting the inside of the car all dirty? I bought heavy-duty trash bags which just barely fit the 17" tires I bought...I'm thinking they won't fit the stock tires, sigh.

 

trash bags are fine - i do it all the time and they fit better than you would expect and i have 18" winter and summers. the other option is to swing by a tire place. they always have a lot of plastic bags around and depending on how nice they are, usually don't mind giving you one since they'll be tossed anyway. you can also put a few old blankets down just in case.

i'll probably make my swap this or next weekend. my brake pads finally shipped after forever and a day and are supposed to be here tomorrow so i'll find a place to swap those out after i change to winter tires. i should do the pads myself but have no mechanical bone in my body and don't want to try with something that might be important to get right like brakes.

 

I'm still holding out, too. But it has finally dipped in temps and doesn't look to be turning back. Oh well, I'm away for a conference the next few days and will swap out Friday or Saturday.

 

i really should have done it saturday since it was somewhat warm. i like to swap it when it's warm enough out to really scub them down before putting them in storage. this weekend is going to be too cold but i don't have a choice but to make the switch. the temps are way too low and i felt myself sliding around a couple turns this morning.

of course it doesn't help that it is already dark after work so i can't even do it during the week.

 

I wish I could find it . . . I know there's a pic on this site somewhere of wheels in a bathtub for cleaning before storage. I hear wives dig that ****.

 

I made the switch on Saturday...I HATE the look of my wheels & snow tires! But if I need to take my car out this winter, at least I'll be safe

 

This coming monday I'm making the switch to the tiny 16's

 

R3 before and after.

 

I switched over on last Saturday, it's that time of year we could get snow any day now up here.

 

Your focusing talents - FTL...

I'm still on nearly bald summer tires and enjoying the lack of cold weather grip I have in empty parking lots....

I'll be swapping to winter rubber hopefully by this weekend. New Dunlop M3s!

 

yeah, 12 degrees with the wind chill leaving for the gym this morning. what happened to fall?

 

I switched over last week when it was still a bit warm.

 

Yes, trash bags work, but… I had to leave a tire in the back seat for several days (in a new, jumbo Hefty bag). I have the light parchment leather. Believe it or not, somehow the rubber passed through the plastic bag onto the leather seat! I could never completely remove it, though it was very faint and hard to see.

Another tip: throw an old blanket down on the seats first.

 

Simple, take out rear seats. It's very easy to do.

 

Any reactions to the Goodyear F1 All Seasons? They seem to do very well in the rain.........This will be my first winter in the 8.........Hoping I made a good investment........Caught a good deal at the dealership

 

Eh, I think I'm going to stick with my proxie 4s and some sand bags. lol

 

Thanks...Iphone pics...usually it takes pretty good pictures. Maybe it's too dark in that garage.

 

SOMEONE SELL ME SOME WINTER TIRESSS!!! lol

 

Just love the Cape Cod environment... and your 8 of course. Dunlop M3's I presume?

 

For Delaware, A/S's in Winter should be fine. Nice grand touring ride quality. Arguably the best A/S tire in the rain as well.

 

Thx! You got it. Anytime you want to come down for a photoshoot just let me know.

 

I've been using them for over a year and they are great. You do give up some performance at the limit compared to good summer tires, but for everyday use with hard driving, they work very well. They aren't great in heavy snow but if there's only a couple of inches on the ground, you'll live if you drive carefully. I have a Jeep that I drive in really bad weather so I can't say how well or poorly they do in those conditions. They also have pretty good treadlife. The only issue I have with them is after about 20,000 miles, I got a weird bit of vibration coming through the steering wheel in the 30-40 mph range. It's not serious and doesn't affect handling but it's a minor annoyance.

 

What size are those? I'm thinking about ordering the Dunlop sp winter sports, but mine will be going on the stock rims. I'm already pushing it and I probably shouldn't wait any longer. Do winters wear really fast if you are just driving on cold pavement? This would be my first set of hardcore winter tires.

 

Says right there on the tire. 215/55/17

 

I have the Dunlop WinterSport M3 on my stock rims and will be putting them on tomorrow or Monday. I have done 2 winters on them here in RI where we have maybe 3 snow storms each winter that amount to significant accumulation. So the majority of the time I am tearing around on "just cold pavement" and they still look relatively new.

I'm not sure about the SP WinterSports, but if they're similar to the M3 they should last a long time. The harder rubber generally wears much slower than the soft summer rubber. I'm guessing I have about 18-21k on my winter set so far, so they're looking like they'll last 40k +.

There is a big difference between "Winter Sport" tires & "Snow" tires. True snow tires would wear faster on pavement, whereas the winter sport tires are designed to handle cold weather with or without snow.