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With all this discussion about the necessities of getting 2 sets of tires and rims, changing out the tires every year because of all the snow, makes me happy I live in central Virginia.
We here in central Virginia, we never have to worry about the expense or hassle of changing out tires every year.
I'm surely for two separate sets. In winter I've always used Snow tires (now called Winter). Usually studded. That's how I grew up. Here in Delaware we don't get snow like we use to, but we get a lot of the freezing stuff, or it refreezes at night and we get that hard, rutty, crusty crap. Studs will get ya out of that. My summer tires are Cooper AT3's, but I use Cooper Discoverer M+S tires on the truck in winter. I decided not to stud these though. Wasn't sure how that would go, but OK so far. I usually wait till the first sign of real snow. As a matter of fact I just had them put on for the season. Gonna be doing some traveling over the holiday. As for cost, in my case I usually only put maybe 2,000 miles a winter on them. Got the M+S tires in Dec. of '13, so I'm on my 4rth/5th season with about 9/32" tread depth. Got about 34,000 on the AT3's with about half tread on them. I remember in my teens my dad had a '74 Ranchero. He always put four studded snow's on it, and a few hundred pounds in the bed. He put a Locker rear in it and that thing had no problem.
My '91 Tracer LTS 5-speed with stock rims, then Cooper Weathermaster STII's. And the truck with Summer KMC rims/AT3's, and the stock Lariat rims with Discoverer M+S tires.
On my last truck went to TR and got 17" steelies, and Blizzaks, with TPMS, mounted, roadforced and road hazard, shipped for $1200. Since one of them got destroyed with the truck, I kept the OEM wheels and tires that still had plenty of life left and sent the remaining 3 Blizzaks with the truck to the wrecker.
On my new truck, I have the ones that came with it, the crapyear wranglers, and the ones off the 14. I got another summer out of them, then they got too hard to be useful, though still had tread. I found BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport LT which are Severe Snow rated. They cost me $841 with an alignment and road hazard.
Now if these tires turn out to suck beach ***** in snow, then next year I will repurchase what I got from TR. That's $2000 of tires to be replaced every 2-3 years due to how many miles I drive a year. Snow tires are normally good for 20K, and the BFG supposedly 60K. It is less expensive to go with one set of tires, but not as sure footed as dedicated winters.
Will see how well the BFG do, they have wide grooves down the middle for snow channeling, and decent looking tread blocks for cornering. All boils down to the compound when cold. I do know, wet handling from a dead stop, too easy to spin.
$700Cdn for a set of 17" OEM ford steel wheels with Nokian nordman Studded tires of kijiji. Tread indicator still shows as new. It saves you money by avoiding a single fender bender or worse. 149 crashes just overnight. This morning's commute tally isn't even in yet.
I see I started a controversial thread, didn't mean to! I was just looking for some suggestions for tires haha. Although I do have to say..
Originally Posted by Eduskator
You forgot one little detail... The cost of 4 additional rims (1000$?) or 2 mounting&balancing per year (100$?)
Add 3-4 hours of wasted time per year to swap them yourself if they're mounted or go to the garage if they need mounting.
This is why having 2 sets is actually more expensive than running just one. No need to explain further, this is just logical.
3-4 hours to swap wheels? What? It takes less than 45 minutes to swap all 4 wheels, possibly 30 if I'm in a rush. It's not wasted time if you want to protect your summer wheels and beat up your stockers for the winter. I agree that it is more expensive, but the time is negligible.
I use to swap them myself too until I hurt my back. I take the truck to the dealer every year now. Depending on who's in when I show up I usually pay $20-$40 bucks for the swap. They had to reseat a tire this round cause it was leaking around the bead. The initial hit was a bit, but over the long term it's working out OK for me money wise.
In Dec. '13 a set of the Discoverer M+S tires in the stock size of 275/65-18 were $704.00 mounted. I believe I paid around $375.00 for Lariat take offs on Ebay, been awhile. So I have about $1,100.00 in them.
In March '13, the AT3's were $920.00. I paid $877.00 + $75 shipping for the KMC Skitch rims, + the cost of chrome lugs and locks. So I guess around $1,900.00 there. I'll get at least another two seasons out of the M+S tires, maybe another season on the AT3's. Probably starting to get stiff now?
