Sometimes you don’t intrinsically care about a topic but in the course of solving a problem you learn a bunch about it against your will. That’s me and winter tires. (For cars. Winter tires for bikes are fun and not a chore to me).
Here are my notes for … future me? My kids? In ten or fifteen years I’ll say “you should consider getting snow tires for your car, here’s the link to my blog.”
I find car stuff stressful, maybe writing this down will be cathartic.
Winter tires are worthwhile. Not having grown up in Michigan, I thought four-wheel drive was the thing for Michigan winters. I even bought a Subaru Outback. Then I learned from my car-savvy friends that winter tires make a bigger difference.
Why didn’t I have them when I lived in Chicago? I was about to blindly write that they weren’t necessary when I lived in Chicago because … the streets were plowed more? But that’s just wrong. Looking back on a few years of winter driving in Chicago:
- I slid in the snow getting on Lake Shore Drive around 2008. I hit the curb, dented my wheel, and took the world’s longest bus trips to get my Corolla back from the repair shop.
- About that time I barely made it home from work in a blizzard. The drive that normally took 25 minutes was 2+ hours. Along the way I totally lost traction on the Dan Ryan expressway. I was just sliding toward the barrier in slow-mo, wondering if I’d stop in time.
- And I have a memory from some unknown age of trying to turn left across Lake Park Ave in Hyde Park and instead spinning 180 degrees into the oncoming lanes.
I was lucky to get away in all of those cases! I should have had winter tires in Chicago, storage would have been more annoying but I could have figured it out.
The precipitating event to me finally buying winter tires was in early 2019. I tried to drive through the snow to drop off a kid at Rudolf Steiner Pre-K in Ann Arbor. The snow was falling, but it wasn’t enough to cancel school. I turned from Miller north onto Newport in my minivan – and couldn’t make it up the first hill. The vehicle would climb a foot, spin its wheels, and slide backward. I was extremely stressed and afraid of sliding into the cars behind me. After a couple of minutes I surrendered, making a U-turn and heading back down the hill the way I’d come. I then took the flattest route home, even though it cost me an extra twenty minutes.
Turns out the stock tires on a 2018 Odyssey are terrible in snow. (I will say that the all-season tires I purchased for my sedan seem to do better in the snow than the stock summer tires that the Odyssey came with.) I set out to buy replacements and I made some mistakes. Here’s what I wish I’d known.
Buyer’s guide for future me
Buy a separate set of wheels. If the shop has to swap your tires onto your existing wheels, it’s $$ and several hours, twice a year. Some people online seem to think this can also sometimes damage the tire, I can’t find a conclusive answer to whether that happens at a reputable shop. With the extra wheels, they’re heavier to store, but otherwise it’s a good tradeoff.
I’m going to look at solutions for hanging them on the wall of my garage. You can then DIY swap the wheels yourself with the right tools in the time it takes to go to and from the shop, or a shop can do it much faster and cheaper than they could if they had to mount the tires on the rims each time.
Get the smallest set of wheels your vehicle will accept. I wish I’d known this! It means cheaper wheels and cheaper tires. My 2018 Odyssey comes with 18″ or 19″ wheels depending on the trim line. I got the fancy one with all the safety technology which meant 19″ wheels. So I bought 19″ winter tires, which was a mistake. I could have saved money if I’d gotten 18″ wheels and tires – there are more options.
Look for cheap wheel options first.
Option 1: used OEM wheels. The original manufacturer wheels for your car will be nicer than cheap aftermarket ones, so go with these if available. You can shop junkyards online at https://car-part.com/ which has a quaint-feeling interface but lets you sort by distance. If I needed 18″ Honda Odyssey wheels I would have had options, but 19s were too scarce and pricey.
Option 2: steel wheels or “steelies”. These are durable, ugly, heavy, and cheap. The way to go if buying new winter rims – but not available in 19″ with the bolt pattern I need.
Option 3: Craiglist/FB Marketplace. Some people sell the tire + wheel combo which could be perfect. Again, this didn’t come through for the unusual size and bolt pattern I had backed myself into needing. (Each model has a specific bolt pattern that dictates which wheels will fit it).
Shop for wheels with tires in mind and vice versa. But I didn’t do that, fail.
Ignorant me had bought 19″ winter tires first, after which it didn’t make sense to start over with 18s. I ended up getting aftermarket new 19″ rims. All in all it was expensive, probably about $1800 including wheels and tires.
But regardless of all that, just get the tires.
Especially with flying less (I ought to revisit that post) I’ve been taking more winter trips in the frozen north. Last year’s spring break was a snowy road trip to Montreal and we’ve been lucky to ski in northern Michigan as a family in recent winters. Between those trips and local driving, the winter tires have been worth it for increased safety and peace of mind. Driving is stressful enough for me without the car sliding around.