Switching to the winter tires

[spinkao]

Hi guys,
I was changing the tires today, preparing for the winter, and decided to share some pictures .

Pic 1) The first wheel come off. I have dedicated set of rims for the winter tires, which allows me to simply swap the wheels and avoid messin' around with tire replacement/wheel re-balancing every autumn and spring, which obviously cannot be done without special equipment.

Pic 2) The summer tires are still looking pretty healty even after 42 000 miles. I have the Michelin Primacy Pilot the car had as it came from the factory.

Pic 3) Rear left brake. Contrary to the US versions, European Prii have disc brakes on all four wheels. The disc is in good shape, with plenty of meat left.

Pic 4) One of the winter wheels, ballanced and prepared to go on. I put on Nokian Hakasipe WR, which is not a pure snow tire, but rather a winter all weather tire, much better suited for the conditions usually experienced here in Central Bohemia lowlands. The winter here is usually wet and muddy, with occasional snow patch here and there and temperatures wildly oscillating just around freezing. So we need tires which can cope with all those rapidly changing conditions, rather than a dedicated snow tire. The Hakasipes are tailor-made especially for the Central European winter conditions - they offer good snow traction, but do not wear excesively on the dry roads either, are not much sensitive to temperature variations and are excellent on wet and muddy road. They are certified to speeds up to 275 km/h (171 MPH), so no worries on dry highways either .

Pic 5) This is how I mark the wheels that went off, so I could rotate them the next spring as I put them back on. "LZ" Stands for "Leva Zadni" (meaning Rear Left in the Czech language ).

Pic 6) I put some anti-corrosive grease on the bolts. I know there are many people around arguing that the bolts must be kept dry, but I prefer to be able to untight them again the next spring . In all those years I've been using this on all the cars I worked on, I never experienced a single bolt come loose, so no worries.

Pic 7) The front left wheel coming off.

Pic 8) The front left brake. The disc looks pretty good so far, with only some minor corrosion inside. I had the calipers dissasembled and cleaned only three months and 4500 miles ago, so no need to do any brake job now.

Pic 9) Pressure check. Yes, the tires *are* overinflated, right to 50 PSI (the sidewall limit is 51 PSI). I want to hypermile even in the winter . The Pri behaves very well on the Nokians; they are just a tiny bit noisier and have a little more rolling resistance than the Michelins, but the car is still capable of pretty impressive glides.

Pic 10) Done. I did all this on *four* cars today, doing the job for the whole family . It's quite an effort for a single person equipped only with the hand-held wrench and hand-cranked jack .

[Matt Herring]

Do they only make blue cars in the Czech republic? Just playing bro...haha! Thanks for the pics!

[BAllanJ]

It doesn't look much like winter there...

[Tideland Prius]

*Moved to the Knowledge Base Section*. I've left a permanent link. Thanks spinkao!

[spinkao]

Originally Posted by BAllanJ

It doesn't look much like winter there...

Yes, it was very much like autumn yesterday, but just several days ago there was snow lying around . That's what the winter is here - very unpredictable and rapidly changeable wheather. You can hardly predict what the weather will do the next day. That's exactly why we prefer a good all wheather tire here.