Winter Tyres Or Wheels & Tyres ????

[Anthony566]

So my question is ....

Do I really need winter wheels ?? or should I just buy a set of winter tyres and swap the tyres over each year ?

Feedback is appreciated.

 

[desertstorm]

What size are your standard wheels?.
If you have larger wheels such as 19's then decent winter tyres can be expensive.
You can get good winter tyres in a 17 inch size for around £75 each.

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/nokian/wr-d4/225-50-r17-98h-353979

Some cheap alloys

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/alloy-wheels/anzio/vision-935/7.5x17-et46-5x112-70.1-134195

Or some OE 17's which is what I use
These wheels on Ebay already have 2 good Michelin Alpin winter tyres on.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A4-A...K2,+B8&hash=item43e4a2c865:g:STcAAOSwpDdVWvZI

If you have somewhere to put the wheels then it won't be so much of an issue. You could just try some of the all season tyres, some of the new tyres are very good all year round such as the Nokian weatherproof or Michelin cross climate.

 

[Djwoody]

So my question is ....

Do I really need winter wheels ?? or should I just buy a set of winter tyres and swap the tyres over each year ?

Feedback is appreciated.

Hi Anthony.
I have just fitted my standard 18" s-line wheels back to the car with 245/40/18 Nokian winter tyres (great reviews).
My 19" rotors with Goodyear Eagle F1s have been safely put away until next summer.

I do this each winter as it keeps my 19"s in tip-top condition, away from salt and crap from the roads. Also, like 'desertstorm' said, big tyres can be quite expensive.
Going down the 17" or 18" route is better.

Let us know how you get on.

Chris

 

[45bvtc]

Wheels and tyres and sell 'em on when you've done with 'em as a winter tyre set - it's always worked well for me

 

[rum4mo]

Wheels and tyres and sell 'em on when you've done with 'em as a winter tyre set - it's always worked well for me

I wish that I knew how to make that work, though as I keep my cars for 8>12 years, there is not much of a market for the wheels after that time, changed previous car B5 Passat 4Motion to A4 wheels in summer, its original alloys after 13 years were nasty, sold them as part of the car sale, same person picked up wife's 9N Polo winter steels with Alpins yesterday for a song!

Tip for anyone "going down the winter tyre route" these tyres are best used up within 4>5 years, after that they get a bit hard so lose some of their cold weather benefits. I suppose the same thing goes for summer tyres after that time.

 

[45bvtc]

Kept a Lotus Elan Sprint for 37-years and a Lotus Elan Plus 2S 130/5 for 20-years, rum4mo, and I'm still selling stuff from 'em today - like an original workshop manual last night, even.

As for wheels I've currently an RS (4-years now), a TT (4-years now), and an A2 (1-year) and each have both summer and winter wheel/tyre sets and all will be saleable when the time comes; buy genuine wheels and good quality tyres and I've found there's always a ready market and for me it's always been a cost/safety effective process.

 

[rum4mo]

I suppose it depends on where you live and how much effort you are willing to put into selling them, I've always bought premium tyres and VAG alloys, though in the case of wife's previous car, I bought in steel wheels with tyres fitted as that car was essentially a household "tool". I find that there are "winter tyre users" and "winter tyre haters" - the majority of winter tyre users know the limitations (life wise) of winter tyres and buy new only. These Michelin Alpins that I sold on had been used for 5 winters and 30K miles - they still had 6.5mm tread on them - that tread depth after 30K miles surprised me as I had been expecting them to last only roughly 20K miles before they were down to their minimum (winter tyre) tread depth, so essentially I did get the life I budgeted for out of them and any cash I got from the sale covered the cost of the steel wheels, VAG alloy wheels if bought almost new would not get much back after 12 years as the demand for them will have dropped as well as their condition.

Unfortunately I have never got round to painting my garage floor or making up "dollies" for the wheel sets, I do seem to have quite a few trolley jacks (steel) - a couple of pairs plus an odd one, but I also have a set f four Jackpoint Jakstands - these are very handy !