Seems there is a split on the forum with those who get their tyres changed for winters and those who have winters on a spare set of alloys.

Other than the ease of simply swapping over wheels when needed and the (small?) amount of degradation over the winter months of the alloys, are there any real benefits of having a spare set of wheels?

I recently asked my local garage how much it would cost to put new tyres on if I provided them and it was about £7 per wheel, which seems pretty good value. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

I never change mine just leave the same one's all year and never had a proplem on or off road.

I'm sure many people do the same archie. As you may have seen from all of my many recent posts, I want to ensure I have a decent set of winter tyres on the car in the next few months as we have moved to an area which does cause issues for our neighbours. I had, in haste, bought a set of alloys with tyres in the hope of using these, but in hindsight I might be better just getting winters put on my current alloys and then putting my current tyres back on later.

I simply wondered if there was any disadvantages to doing that. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

If you have them swap them for the winter it's not going cost anything to keep the others in the garage untill summer,give them a coat of tyre cleaner to keep the rubber in good order.

There is a disadvantage in swapping tyres rather than wheels. Everytime you put a tyre on or take it off the beading round the rim is necessarily stretched and is likely to fail over time. Tyre failure on the car is not nice. Also, not all tyre fitters are careful and you increase the risk of having your rims damaged.

The ideal is to have two sets of rims fitted with summer and winter tyres. However, if you're doing relatively low miles put winters on and keep them on. That's what I will do this winter. driving on the right side

Hadn't really thought of the Tyre/rim damage. I know it has been discussed loads of times before but there is so much conflicting info on using winters in summer. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

anglaslt wrote:

There is a disadvantage in swapping tyres rather than wheels. Everytime you put a tyre on or take it off the beading round the rim is necessarily stretched and is likely to fail over time. Tyre failure on the car is not nice. Also, not all tyre fitters are careful and you increase the risk of having your rims damaged.

The ideal is to have two sets of rims fitted with summer and winter tyres. However, if you're doing relatively low miles put winters on and keep them on. That's what I will do this winter.

It is an expensive way to do it though. Assuming you put the same wheels back on the same point, they don't need balanced or anything do they? Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

I needed some new tyres on my standards alloys, it was autumn so I bought some nokians. Come new year I saw some evoque 18s with scorpion verdes for less than a set of new tyres. I keep them in garagein a bag I had made for them, well pleased

Last edited by stevep999 on 28th Aug 2015 6:26 pm. Edited 1 time in total

the wheels are balanced individually, ie off the car, so you can put them back anywhere you chose.

and you can buy a cheaper set of wheels for the winter tyres ( even steels !! )

Iain

You can tell how experienced I am eh? The set of wheels I have for sale have various weights on them and I assumed I would have to have it rebalanced on my car. Makes sense that it is the actual wheel that is balanced and so position is irrelevant.

Getting off topic though

Think I get the pros and cons now so thanks everyone. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

My new Evoque wheels came with individual zipped and vented wheel covers just like formula 1. So my other wheels live a life of gift wrapped luxury in the garage when not on the car.
A good trolley jack, wheel brace and torque wrench make the change over much easier  No Longer the owner of a 2013MY Fuji White GS

"Fiat Lux" a philosophy not a car

I was swapping tyres rather than wheels and had concerns about longevity. I asked at AJS and they felt that 2-3 years worth of tyre changes would be fine. I almost always go to AJS to get them done, so I know that the tyres and wheels are looked after.

Will I wear a set out in 2-3 years? Given my mileage I certainly hope not, so I was on the lookout for a set of wheels. However the FL2 is coming up to 5 years and since the hesitation/judder issue is still not fixed I might change marque, so will wait until then to decide what to do in case tyre sizes change.