If you live in an area where winter snowfall is commonplace, do yourself (and everyone else on the roads) a favor. Don’t try to save money by suffering through winter driving on all-weather tires. Winter tires ensure you have better control of your vehicle, are far less likely to get stuck and can stop and start with ease. In short, winter tires make driving more enjoyable and safer. They reduce the odds you’ll get into a weather-related accident.
Do I Need to Replace My Wheels in the Winter?
The answer to this question is a resounding, “yes!” There are different ways to change out your tires for the season. The first option is to buy a dedicated set ofsteel rims for snow tires and have the snow tires mounted onto them. Before winter and after winter each year, you’ll need to swap out your rim-tire assembly. The second option is to buy a set of winter tires and pay a repair shop to mount them to your existing steel rims before winter. When winter is over, you take your car back to the repair shop and have the winter tires removed and summer tires mounted.
If you want to save money without compromising on safety, go with a twice-annual steel wheel changeover rather than a full tire changeover. If you change your tires seasonally, you can expect to pay more than $100 per year to have your tires mounted, balanced and installed. If you change out only your steel rimsseasonally, expect to pay less than $50 at the repair shop (or $0 if you opt to do it yourself). Of course, you will incur the one-time upfront cost for buying four new steel wheels, but over time, savings will add up.
Regardless of whether you opt to buy an extra set of winter tires or to have your tires remounted on steel wheels each year, the important thing is you are winterizing your tires. You are installing winter tires and that is by far the biggest safety consideration. Is one method safer than another? That is a subject that’s up for debate.
One way to ensure your winter tires have been installed properly is to trust the job to a repair shop. A full tire change out and a steel-wheel change out offer equally safe winter driving experiences, assuming installation was performed properly. Considering both options offer equal safety benefits, the decision to buy an extra set of snow tires or remount steel wheels annually boils down to convenience versus cost.
