When is it time to put on the winter tires?

Right after it snows and you slide into the ditch. Then you can line up at the tire shop and bitch and moan why its taking so long since you just need a simple tire change over just like 80% of the people out there.

haha; this.

Ha!

I lived in Ottawa when Quebec put a date on their regulations on winter tires - people would whine to me about how long it was going to take to get their tires put on, even after hearing all year about how every Quebecker would have to have theirs on by Oct. 31st…somehow they couldn't put 2 and 2 together and realize that it would be busy in Hull AND Ottawa and they needed to either get theirs on early or (ghasp!) call ahead and schedule an appointment.

My favourite however was the folks who bitch about the timeline but have their tires mounted on winter rims already. Ummmmmm…do it yourself, the tools are in your trunk.

Right after it snows and you slide into the ditch. Then you can line up at the tire shop and bitch and moan why its taking so long since you just need a simple tire change over just like 80% of the people out there…

Doing mine this weekend. Dealer charging 24 buck. Sounds like I'm just in time for snowmageddon next week.

The week before Whistler opens and I go up to ski for the first time :)

WTF is with TPMS sensors and the inability for mechanics to get them programmed correctly on each changeover!

If you have the newer, addressable TPMS then it takes time to set it up right so that the monitoring software knows which wheel each monitor unit is on. I haven't done it, but what was described to me is the software says that it is looking for "left-front", and you have to drop the pressure in that tire by about 5 psi, so it locks that unit in that wheel position. Then pump back up and move to next and next and next.

I suspect the shops typically don't budget enough time to go through the whole routine. They just want to swap out the wheels and move on to the next paying mook.

I got my Haks [HTML_REMOVED] steel rims at kal tire so I just load them in the truck, leave it with them 1st thing and they have the tires swapped either in spring or fall by end of day for free, btw steel rims pay for themselves on tire swaps in [HTML_REMOVED]3 yrs

my TPS sez i have a tire problem because it can't monitor them when they are sitting in the shed, everything works fine so I just wait for the light to go out when I changeover to summers

If you end up in the ditch with summer tires … you probably waited too long

Soon as I can afford new rims and tires. So probably February.

roads are frosty all day in my area in spots so i put mine on at the start of Oct , plus if you want to head up country to ride you needs snow tires earlier than most Vancouverites do .

i also have true ice tires on a 2nd set of rims , i drive to the valley everyday and it gets quite slick on those wind blown ice streets

Sometime in October I put them but I live in Whistler part time. This morning in Van though I think I got the old square tire thing. Car sat from Tuesday evening to Friday morning and the tire had a frozen in flat spot. Thumped a bit for about a k. One would think a winter tire wouldn't do that.

About 6wks ago.
Got a 'new' car that needed tires right away…so it's been rollin' studded winters for a bit now..haha

I think it was mid sept for me. My summer's were down to about 1/16th and finally, finally breaking loose which was fun but they were below the min temp a few nights in a row and I dont like the feel of that one bit.

The paycheque after you paid to get pulled outta the ditch

When you see your neighbours needing to warm the car up in the morning, it's time to put on the winter tires.

Over here it is depending on the weather, but a safe bet is from late September, early October to the Easter bank holidays, so around late March, early April.