Winter tires - need wheels?

Can you just show up at Costco with loose rims, not disclose the car they'll go on. If that's not on, try other places, sound them out, about the loose rims scenario. It's very frustrating that it's come to this in the States. In Canada you can still do what you want (knock on wood).

This is what I went with btw:

Corolla steel rim, part no: 42611-02471 (2003-2008 corolla or matrix, CE, LS, S)
steel rim lug nuts, part no: 90942-01007 (plain, open-ended, galvanized)

 

NOTHING beats dedicated snow tires for snow and ice!

Tire Rack has snow tire packages that included new tires and rims, pre-mounted AND balanced for not much more than just the tires at most local retailers. I realize space is an issue, but can you not store them somewhere; even in the rafters of the garage?

 

You'll still have to put your summer tires somewhere. I don't see how 4 tires take up less space than 4 tires and steel rims. However $10/tire sounds like a good deal.

 

Yea, you find a place for a 3' tall stack of tires about 24" across. Summer in the winter and winter in the summer. Did that for YEARS when we lived in the Arctic (sorry, I meant MN.)

 

Here are a couple of things to consider:
1) "All Season" tyres are jacks-of-all-trades, masters-of-none (IMNSHO) and good "snows" will beat any A/S hands down! Studs are great if you have lots of ice and sub-sub-zero temps, but are v. noisy, and chew up the pavement to the extent that many states only allow studs at certain times of the year.
2) My solution is to have a set of summer tyres on the OEM alloy rims which came with the car, and a good set of snows (Bridgestone Blizzaks WS-80s) on a set of steelies (bought from TireRack.com) for ~$52/rim (inc. shipping). But having dedicated rims, avoids changing the tyres (twice a year) which plays hell with the sealing beads on the tyres! (…think about it! ) …and the wheels only need balancing once when the tyres are first mounted!
- hope this helps - Wil

 

The one fly-in-the-ointment being US TPMS regs, hopefully there are still ways to do an end-run around them, or cloneable sensors or whatever. I greatly prefer the former, life is simple.

 

Skip Costco, find a local jobber, steel rims nokian studded tires, tpms, have the jobber match them to the factory wheel tpms, changing rubber over twice a year isn't good for the rubber, get a jack and change wheels yourself, no waiting hours for service.