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What is the best (correct) way to store tires between seasons. Stacked horizontal ok? Do I need something under them if stored on a concrete floor? Dealer has them now and will be changing to snows next week.
Some of you guys have the most amazing garages. That floor is clearly not straight concrete, it has some sort of coating that makes it moderately reflective. I have no idea how you manage to keep them so clean - my very proletarian garage gets stuff tracked in like leaves, and some water seepage from the pathway between house and garage where the garage is downhill from the path. Which I'd fret about if it were going into the house rather than the garage.
As for tire storage, I wanted to get one of those purpose-built tire racks, but I have limited wall space in the garage. It's all covered with pegboard holding up tools, bicycles, and the like. What I ended up doing was storing them on the bottom shelf of some steel shelving, vertical orientation.
For a while they were on the top shelf. That was unwise - getting them on and off the shelf was an ordeal, particularly once I shifted from storing tires to storing wheel + tire sets.
My dealer has a program where they swap out the tires and store them for me, does your dealer have this option? They actually do my cay, my wife's S5, and my son's S3. Tires are stored in a heated warehouse.
Eric
Dealer will do this but is 2 hours away (110) miles. They get busy and it is difficult to arrange the transport. I would like more control of the change over. However, now that I see pictures of how large they are off the car, I don't think that I can transport them myself to the local tire guy for the switch. My long term tire service center used to store the tires for all my cars, but they closed up shop and the new guys won't store tires.
My experience with a cabriolet is that I can fit 3 tires in the car - one rear in the passenger seat, and 2 fronts in the rear. Getting a tire into the rear area is tougher with a coupe, but I suspect you can get one back there without too much difficulty. This means 2 trips, regardless.
My local tire shop is 1/2 mile away, so making 2 trips is no big deal. One time I did 3, because I absent-mindedly forgot to put the rear tire in the passenger seat, and only put 1 in the rear. Whether you can put up with this depends on the distance to your local tire shop.
Some guys insist on changing their wheels themselves. I haven't taken it up because I estimate I need about $400 of tools I don't have, I'm lazy, and my local tire shop only charges me $20 to change four wheels. I thought about it anyway just because I like tools.
I thought about letting the dealer do it but I wanted to give them a thorough clean when I took them off - which I did - and they are like brand new again. Not sure how that would work with the dealer.
I also Rejex'd the winters before they went on and the summers will get the same treatment before they go back on - every inch including inside the rims and the lip on the back. Again, if someone else is doing the changeover you lose that opportunity.
I have them stacked in the basement with some packaging in-between just to avoid any scratching.
The extra benefit of doing my own change this year (and did the same on my wifes X5) was that my 16 year old did pretty much the entire job and now understands how to jack a car, what a wheel stud pin is, what a torque wrench is and how to use it etc.. That's priceless!
If the tires can be stored in a heated garage, wrapped in plastic or cloth, that is best. Don't subject them to temperature extremes when the rubber can crack. If a heated basement is available, the tires can be brought inside.
I am having my summer tires tires stored at the dealer for 250 bucks a year including both summer and winter tires.
Thanks for all the ideas. I may bring them home and lug them down into the basement. I have a garage to basement stairway. Hard part will be getting them up the stairs though.
Yeah, that's basically what I was talking about. You store them vertically, but with a bar in front of them to keep them from rolling. Though in my case the "bar" was a length of 2 by 4, not a steel bracket, when it was up top. (Lifting the damn things that high is not pleasant). Now that they're on the bottom shelf, the "bar" is part of the shelving.
My setup is not nearly as nice looking as what BlazinPond's got. I'm using the disposable white plastic covers I get from the tire place, not whatever those covers are, which are much classier looking.
12-05-2017, 01:02 PM
Tire Storage
