Do I Have To Buy New Wheels With My Snow Tires
It is beginning to get to that time of year once again where thoughts turn to the coming winter months, and you know what that means…snow, and lots of it if you live up north! Perhaps this year you have made the decision to purchase a set of snow tires for your car. No doubt, if you drive on a lot of snow and ice covered roads it is an excellent choice. It also brings up the question of whether or not you need to purchase a set of rims as well?
There is quite a bit of false or down right misleading information about whether dismounting and remounting tires on the same rims will ruin the rim, or that you can’t use winter tires on alloy wheels, and a host of other scenarios. Of course, you can mount a set of winter tires on any rims you like, but it may not be the best move you could make.
Reasons For Getting New Wheels
1. There are several reasons you might want to consider getting a separate set of rims for your new snow tires. The first reason ispurely financial. You will save yourself some good money each year by simply swapping the tires out. It takes only minutes to change out the set and be on your way.
Compare that to having to take each tire off the rim and re-mount the new tire back on. Even better is the fact that if you have a hydraulic car jack you may do the swap yourself and the cost will be nothing. I’ve done this for years and been finished up and on the road in less than 30 minutes.
2. Another reason is that there will be much less wear and tear on the tire itself. What I mean by that is changing out your tires adds stress to the tire beads. Over the course of a few years it can create problems such as internal tire failure.
3. Finally, winter weather is tough on expensive chrome or alloy wheels. The salt and other chemicals used to keep the snow off the streets can quickly and easily ruin a set of wheels. The salts eat into the finish and trash them out in no time. The best bet here is to get a cheap set of steel wheels to mount the snow tires on unless you enjoy cleaning your wheels on a continuous basis during the winter months.
Finding a set of steel wheels is as easy as going online to one of the online tire stores and finding the size that fits your tires. They are not that expensive and can really save your regular rims from being ruined. If at all possible, this will be the best route to take when you find yourself preparing for the coming winter.