Pros & Cons of Winter Tires
At Charlesglen Toyota, we continually believe in the importance of having a set of winter tires alongside your regular set of summer or all season tires. Calgary demands having proper tires for the season, with such a heavy presence of winter each year, and there’s many reasons why having winter tires and rims alongside will improve your driving and ownership experience. From avoiding damage to better storage and convenience, and contrasted against price, read on below and examine the pros and cons of purchasing a unique set of winter tires and rims, from the best brands.
View our how-to guide on Toyota tire size definitions here.
Winter Tire & Rim Set Advantages
Avoid Rust and Corrosion
Winter tires have a unique design to hold up in the cold weather and summer tires have special materials to withstand the heat, thus breaking down faster in their off-season. This means if you run the same tires all year, that means both those tires and rims will suffer the brunt of the road salt and snow from the winter and carry it on into the summer. The effects of calcium chloride (one of the two road salts used by the City of Calgary in the winter) on your vehicle’s undercarriage and wheels—especially if there are any dents, cracks, or chips in their coating—are harsh, and will lead to rust over time. This is especially true with alloy wheels, whereas with steel wheels you’ll have much less to be concerned about. With specific winter tires and rims, that allows you to let those rims take the beating of the winter season and get dirty, then you can switch back into your nice tires with your summer or all-season variants.
Avoid Wear and Tear
Your winter tires suffer a lot throughout the season, and even though they’re durable they still need your help to maintain as best as they can. Constant mounting and dismounting can do a number on your wheels, and especially if it’s the same set of rims getting damaged each time. Wear and tear may be slight, but it compounds over time and drastically increases if the tires and rims don’t get a break for the season.
Storage
A down side with another set of tires is properly storing them in the off-season, a small problem, but we can help you with that thanks to our dealership tire storage. Even though it’s not harder to store tires on their rims compared to off, a set of tires isn’t small after all and requires a sizable amount of space.
Convenience
Having another set of tires means actually taking the time to get them switched on and off, which takes time and effort, and can be done yourself, but that’s why we’re here to get the job done in our Tire Centre. Save yourself some time at our service department, and make the job switching out your tires fast and easy.
Winter Tire & Rim Set Disadvantages
Obviously, when purchasing an off-season set of tires and rims, you’re going to be paying a decent chunk of money for these additional wheels. While this may be a large upfront cost for some people, the aim is to help you spend less in the long term, by having reduced damage on your tires and switching them out from season-to-season to live a longer life. As well, you, your passengers and the safety of the people on the road is something that’s hard to put a price tag on, and improving your vehicle’s safe driving quality and reliability is always a good investment.
Tire? Rim? Wheel? What’s the Difference?
Tires, rims and wheels are words you most definitely know, but since they’re all concerned with similar and overlapping parts and definitions, they can often get confusing. Tires refers to the outside grooved rubber material ring that surrounds the metal part of the “wheel.” The “wheel” is actually the entire interior metal section the tire surrounds, while the “rim” is technically just the outer raised edge of the wheel that keeps the tire on, though in day-to-day speech many may refer to them interchangeably (like on this page!) with the entire piece of the wheel as the “rim.” Often times dealerships will even refer to all three of the tire, rim and wheels together as “rims.” Possibly confusing, we know, but if you have any questions about your tires, rims and wheels, we’re always here to assist.
In our eyes, the pros outweigh the cons, and it’s a smart choice to match your regular tire set with a set of winter tires and rims, allowing them to perform as they should, mitigating damage, and lasting longer.