I was told by one of the Town Fair Tire guys that I absolutely needed to get an alignment when switching from summer to snow/winter tires. I mean, I'm going from 225/45/18 summer tires to 225/45/18 snow tires (on stock rims), so I'm not changing anything. He fed me a bunch of BS as to why an alignment was necessary, but I couldn't care less. Whatever he said was literally, "Blah, blah, blah..." and I don't remember a darn thing.

So, was he really BS'ing me? Or am I clueless and I should get an alignment? The tires are still on order.

 

i am actually curious about this as well, as I plan to do my own swapping of rims from winter to summer, and was wondering if an alignment was necessary.

i was planning on just jacking up the car and swapping out the rims every season and leaving it at that.

 

A daily driven car should have an alignment at least yearly anyway. Since I spend a lot more money on my summer tires and try to extract a lot more performance out of them, I do my alignment in the spring.

I would only do it now if you have symptoms of an alignment problem or if you have nailed a pothole.

 

What about alignment frequency as it relates to mileage, rather than the calendar? If the car is infrequently driven? I too exchange my own tyres; I have 2 sets mounted and perform the trade in my own little garage.

 

+1

Say once every 12K miles/20k km...