Thanks to some surprisingly warm weather in Chicagoland, I'm thinking about removing my winter tires early this year (like tonight). I thinking I'm better off with all-seasons even if we got light snow rather than wearing down my winter tires on dry pavement. Still second guessing myself though...so I figured I'd ask what everyone else is thinking.

I've read that 45 F is the warmest you should run winter tires but I know a day or two of warm won't destroy them. Still, I'd hate to change them out and get blasted by a storm in a few weeks just to "save" the tread life.

I know it's only February but, with 60s in the forecast, I'm starting to think spring. Maybe I should pull the R52 out of storage too?

 

I'll probably wait until the end of March switch my wheels to give the maintenance crews a chance to fill some of the potholes. My wife usually takes her car out of storage after it's quit snowing and has rained twice to get the salt off the roads...usually beginning of April.

 

If you have all seasons on the other set you can do it any time you want lol.

 

An extra month of driving on winter tires is no big deal unless temps skyrocketed. We have had some crazy temp swings this year, ours will stay on until April.

 

I start looking at the 15 day weather forecast in March and wait until there's
no snow or really cold mornings in the forecast.

 

Not today. The snow bank at the road is over 3 feet high.

 

I usually wait until at least mid-March. Wait until after the spring solstice, when you know for sure the days are getting longer.

 

According to just about any weatherman might you ask, take them off and it will snow like hell. Leave them on and it won't.

 

Usually well after the bikes come out. I'll de-winter prep the motorcycles around the middle of April and put the car back on it's summer tires around the middle of May.

This is for southern PA.

 

In the case of the missing winter, such as what you and others are experiencing, I think it's prudent to remove the snow tires when they are not needed.

I have a second set of wheels adorned with Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2s, and change to the winter wheel/tire setup only when there's snow on the roads (or forecast), and take them off when the roads are clear, which of the past two winters here in New England, has been most of the time.

The fact is, winter tires aren't particularly responsive (fun) on dry roads, and I see no good reason to run them "just because it's the winter months." Changing them out when there's an actual need for them preserves my winter tire investment, as well as allowing me more "quality time" with my All-Season Conti DWS06s.

With a small car such as the MINI where you can get the car on stands with a few strokes of the jack, it's a 15-minute job to swap all-four tires out. Obviously, having the facility (garage) to do this helps greatly. Not all have this option. YMMV.

 

Given the 60+ degree temps in Chicagoland this weekend, I was just thinking about this as well.

Seriously debating swapping back to my summer wheels/tires once I get my new KW V2 coilovers installed (hopefully this weekend, hopefully). Then I can set ride height with my 17" wheels on the car, as opposed to my 16" winter wheels.

Of course, if I do that...I am pretty much guaranteeing Chicago will get a record snowfall.

 

15 minutes for all tires swapped? You must be young. I spend 15 minutes looking for all the things I need to do the job. Lol.

 

With an air wrench and the second set on premises, yup - about that...

That said, I look at it differently; especially when Mod MINI can remove the entire engine/gearbox from an R53 in one-hour & 16-minutes...

 

google for historical weather/avg high/low temps

winters go on when avg high gets down to 40F in the fall and come off when avg high gets up to 40F in the spring

 

I take mine off in March, just in time for my birthday.