Putting on the WInter Tires

Yesterday I decided to put the winter tires on our Toyota Matrix. The job takes about an hour, and all I use is a hydraulic jack and a socket wrench. I would much rather do it myself than make an appointment at a garage, and I'm hoping that I can keep doing it for many years because it's not really that hard to do, except for some bending over, and being able to lift a tire.

We are not required by law in Ontario to have winter tires, but the way I see it, they really don't cost anything. There is that initial investment of course, but when I talk about cost I mean "expense", or money out the door to never come back. An "investment" is using money to save money or even with the hope of making money. This makes a big difference to someone who might be retired but living on investments rather than a monthly pension.

The reason I call winter tires an investment is that they save me money on summer tires over the life of the car. They also have the potential to be cheaper than buying all season tires, because in the summer I can run my tires until they are down to the legal tread limit and so I may get an extra season out of them. When I use the same tires all year, I often need to throw away tires with a fair amount of tread left on them when winter storms arrive. When the winter tires are worn down so much that they are no good for snow and ice, I can save some more tire wear by leaving them on into the late spring.

Another way I save money with winter tires is by not buying a four wheel drive vehicle for winter. That saves both on purchase price and on extra fuel required on those vehicles. Frankly, I have never been all that interested in four wheel drive for winter, because it does nothing for braking and stability. Four wheel drive is mostly about not getting stuck, but I rarely get stuck in winter even with front wheel drive.

The big disadvantage with using winter tires is taking an hour twice a year in my driveway to switch them around, and then putting aside some space to store the off-season tires. The other, smaller problem is what to do if you decide to drive to Mexico or Florida in the middle of winter.

Many people have no problem driving in the winter with all season tires, and I did that myself from 1976 to 2006. Before 1976 I had a 1956 Chevy that needed snow tires on the back or it was undriveable.

Back in the seventies, they were called snow tires and they had a very aggressive tread which was rough and noisy on dry pavement. They were pretty good in snow with the deep open tread, but not much help on ice. "All Season" tires made their first appearance in the seventies, and for about thirty years that's what I used all year.

Today we have a new type of tire called "Winter" tires, and they are designed to run better than all seasons on dry, wet, snow or ice. They are not really "Snow tires", although I suppose some could be specialized for snow. Other than tread pattern, a difference between All Season and Winter tires is the rubber compound. A winter tire's rubber is designed to work better than an All Season tire below 7 degrees Celsius. The winter tire is not suitable to run at high speed in hot weather. But in cold weather, at normal speeds and loads, they are superior in every way except fuel mileage. With my tires I have not noticed a drop in fuel mileage, but that is because my winter tires are narrower and do not have a particularly aggressive winter tread pattern.

I was pretty much forced to start using winter tires because my new Matrix came with wide, low profile tires. While these tires are popular for their sporty appearance, they are not good for snow or slush. They aquaplane at low speed on slush, and spin helplessly in three inches of snow. If the car makers keep making the wheels wider new cars, it might force everybody (in Canada anyway) to use winter tires.

Important safety tip, on front wheel drive cars, you need four winter tires. Back in the days of rear wheel drive I recall that we often put the snow tires only on the back wheels. But those tires were only really good for getting unstuck in snow and had very little effect on steering or braking. Today, with winter tires and front wheel drive (another issue), the only way to go is all four tires.

Picture: On our trip to Labrador in February 2007, Mary Ann cleaning the car window. I don't think I would want to make that trip without winter tires. The rest of the photo album is here: