Winter Tires and Rims - Let's Talk Straight

[FINate]

I've always relied on a mechanic to put on new tires, rotate existing tires, balance tires etc. so I'm wondering if I should stick with that approach and buy some new winter tires and have them put them on OR purchase a used set of winter tires on rims and do my own swap each season? I feel like paying for the swap twice a year could be an unnecessary expense if I were to learn a couple skills. The issues I forsee (I'm sure there are some I'm missing) are related to putting a used tire on your car - I've read some places that can be problematic), knowing when to rotate tires, and understanding if they need to be balanced.

You are making this process more complicated than it needs to be.

Pick a new winter tire & wheel package on Tire Rack.com.
These are brand new, come already mounted/balanced, and are shipped to your door for free.
It looks like this will cost you as little as $278 for the entire package.

https://www.tirerack.com/snow/WinterTireCompare.jsp?minLoad=S&sortSize=15&snowSortCode=20229&autoYear=2011&autoMake=Hyundai&autoModel=Elantra+Touring&autoModClar=GLS&winterType=A&startIndex=0&performance=W&search=true

You can easily swap out your own wheels/tires in 15-20 minutes.
If needed, go to Harbor Freight to pick up the necessary tools (floor jack, jack stands).

Thanks for this tip! Better prices than what I've found at local tire shops, and less hassle.

[jeninco]

I wanted to respond to @onemorebike and the rest of this thread, but I wanted to actually do it first.

My 16-year old and I just swapped the wheels on my (smallish) A3 in under an hour, including a little time for me to fart around. He's had practice, but I made sure to do about half the work. (And I haven't done this entire job before.) That hour also included me getting the wheels out of the crawl space and putting the removed ones back into the crawl space, so about a half hour of time spent actually changing them.

Tires are rotated from front to back, on the same side, so be sure to label them when you remove the wheels. You may also want a breaker bar (I weigh 130 lbs, the socket wrench that comes with the car is under one foot long, and the lug nuts are supposed to be set for 120 foot-pounds, plus they might get a little rusty over a season, so you do the math) and you'll want a torque wrench so you can set the nuts correctly when the wheels go on. 

It's also nice to do it the first time with someone who's done the job before, so they can show you stuff like how to kick the wheel loose after you've unscrewed and removed the nuts.

Edited to add: then I did the VW Eurovan on my own in just about an hour, plus a little time to find a white crayon (so I could write on the tires where the wheels came from -- the owner's manual shows the tire rotation pattern, but you need to know what position they were in last). Note to the wise: make sure the front wheels are straight before you start!  Also, read the owner's manual -- it'll walk you through the process, including details such as what tightness to torque the lug nuts to.

[nickinak]

As others have said, Tirerack.com is a great company to get the wheel and tire sets from. But if used in an option for you, consider checking wrecking yards in the area. Some of them have the ability to search outside the immediate area for parts.    Due to weather conditions, more wrecks that total out vehicles occur in winter.  So they may have a good set of winter tires on wheels for you car.  Maybe someones loss is your gain. 

[onemorebike]

Thanks for all the great input, folks. I almost went with tirerack.com when someone who crashed their car and had a pair of brand new winter tires sitting on new rims with those air pressure sensors came up for half of what they would have cost me on tirerack.com! Total score. Thanks everyone for the input, I'll try to check back in after I swap out the tires but my guess is that will be easy peasy!

[ToTheMoon]

I wanted to respond to @onemorebike and the rest of this thread, but I wanted to actually do it first.

My 16-year old and I just swapped the wheels on my (smallish) A3 in under an hour, including a little time for me to fart around. He's had practice, but I made sure to do about half the work. (And I haven't done this entire job before.) That hour also included me getting the wheels out of the crawl space and putting the removed ones back into the crawl space, so about a half hour of time spent actually changing them.

Tires are rotated from front to back, on the same side, so be sure to label them when you remove the wheels. You may also want a breaker bar (I weigh 130 lbs, the socket wrench that comes with the car is under one foot long, and the lug nuts are supposed to be set for 120 foot-pounds, plus they might get a little rusty over a season, so you do the math) and you'll want a torque wrench so you can set the nuts correctly when the wheels go on. 

It's also nice to do it the first time with someone who's done the job before, so they can show you stuff like how to kick the wheel loose after you've unscrewed and removed the nuts.

Edited to add: then I did the VW Eurovan on my own in just about an hour, plus a little time to find a white crayon (so I could write on the tires where the wheels came from -- the owner's manual shows the tire rotation pattern, but you need to know what position they were in last). Note to the wise: make sure the front wheels are straight before you start!  Also, read the owner's manual -- it'll walk you through the process, including details such as what tightness to torque the lug nuts to.

This is awesome @jeninco - I love to see people actually try instead of just deciding that it is too hard. With the internet and YouTube, there is almost nothing out there that you cannot find a video of tips/tricks to help you along.

My DH is a mechanic by trade, so I rarely ever have to do any of the vehicle maintenance/tire swapping since pairing up with him twenty years ago, but boy was I ever thankful for my Dad when I found myself out of cell service, with a dead flat tire during winter in the Rockies, along with a toddler and four-year old in the car with me - Dad insisted that all his girls were going to know how to change tires, put on chains and check fluids etc before we were ever allowed to drive his vehicles. Once I remembered that I knew how to do this, I had us switched out and back on the road in no time. Thanks Dad.

[nereo]

My DH is a mechanic by trade, so I rarely ever have to do any of the vehicle maintenance/tire swapping since pairing up with him twenty years ago, but boy was I ever thankful for my Dad when I found myself out of cell service, with a dead flat tire during winter in the Rockies, along with a toddler and four-year old in the car with me - Dad insisted that all his girls were going to know how to change tires, put on chains and check fluids etc before we were ever allowed to drive his vehicles. Once I remembered that I knew how to do this, I had us switched out and back on the road in no time. Thanks Dad.

When I was a teenager I blew a tire coming too close to the curb and had to call my older brother to come help me change it.  He was so annoyed at being disturbed that he made me change and rotate all four tires "just so I'd know how to do it".  I was pissed at him at the time but it certainly cemented in me how easy it is to change a tire.

[jeninco]

<snip>
This is awesome @jeninco - I love to see people actually try instead of just deciding that it is too hard. With the internet and YouTube, there is almost nothing out there that you cannot find a video of tips/tricks to help you along.

My DH is a mechanic by trade, so I rarely ever have to do any of the vehicle maintenance/tire swapping since pairing up with him twenty years ago, but boy was I ever thankful for my Dad when I found myself out of cell service, with a dead flat tire during winter in the Rockies, along with a toddler and four-year old in the car with me - Dad insisted that all his girls were going to know how to change tires, put on chains and check fluids etc before we were ever allowed to drive his vehicles. Once I remembered that I knew how to do this, I had us switched out and back on the road in no time. Thanks Dad.

Maybe not the best place to stick this reminder, but DH had a health scare this fall, so we're making a deliberate attempt to either swap all chores or at least fully document everything that is typically done by either one of us. This means that by mid-Nov or so, we should have a full list of every online account, with login and password and payment dates, full lists of menus with references to recipes, and have either traded or jointly completed all (fall) seasonal chores that are typically done by only one of us, as well as whatever else comes up.

[ToTheMoon]

Maybe not the best place to stick this reminder, but DH had a health scare this fall, so we're making a deliberate attempt to either swap all chores or at least fully document everything that is typically done by either one of us. This means that by mid-Nov or so, we should have a full list of every online account, with login and password and payment dates, full lists of menus with references to recipes, and have either traded or jointly completed all (fall) seasonal chores that are typically done by only one of us, as well as whatever else comes up.

I totally understand - I had a health scare about three years back and we did not get quite that detailed, but my DH had to learn a lot of what I usually was responsible for, and quick. We also started using Dashlane to store all of our passwords and important stuff. I love that it has the Emergency Contact feature too - my DH is not much of a computer guy, so if I were to suddenly depart this earth, my sister can also initiate the process for access to my passwords to help him sort things out.

Hope you and your DH are doing well now.

[jeninco]

Maybe not the best place to stick this reminder, but DH had a health scare this fall, so we're making a deliberate attempt to either swap all chores or at least fully document everything that is typically done by either one of us. This means that by mid-Nov or so, we should have a full list of every online account, with login and password and payment dates, full lists of menus with references to recipes, and have either traded or jointly completed all (fall) seasonal chores that are typically done by only one of us, as well as whatever else comes up.

I totally understand - I had a health scare about three years back and we did not get quite that detailed, but my DH had to learn a lot of what I usually was responsible for, and quick. We also started using Dashlane to store all of our passwords and important stuff. I love that it has the Emergency Contact feature too - my DH is not much of a computer guy, so if I were to suddenly depart this earth, my sister can also initiate the process for access to my passwords to help him sort things out.

Hope you and your DH are doing well now.

Thanks! It looks promising, we'll know more next week.

And, yeah, I'm the partner who would not do well with the whole online password thing while I'm maximally stressed out, which is why I've asked for a paper copy (which will live in a locked cabinet.)

Hope your stuff is going OK, too. Getting old is not for the faint of heart!