Winter tire storage and the seasonal swap, at your address

The reason most people who should run winter tires do not is not the tires. It is the other eight months.

A second set has to live somewhere. Four tires take up most of a small garage wall, or a corner of a basement, or the space where the bikes go. If you have no garage, which in older city housing is common, there is nowhere to put them at all. And twice a year you have to get four wheels to a shop and back, which means either two trips or a car with the seats folded flat and a boot full of road grime.

So we take that part away. We come to you, swap the sets over where the car is parked, and take the off-season set away with us. When the season turns we bring them back and swap again.

How it works

1. First visit, autumn. We arrive with your winter set if we are supplying it, fit it, and take the summer set away.
2. Between seasons. Your tires are stored indoors, off the weather, stacked or racked according to whether they are on wheels or loose.
3. Second visit, spring. We bring the summer set back, fit it, and take the winter set away.
4. Repeat, or stop. If you move, sell the car or want the tires back, we bring them to you.

The swap itself is the same work as any fitting: wheels off, balanced if they are coming off the rims, torqued to spec, TPMS reset or relearned where the vehicle supports it.

On wheels or off

This is the decision that changes the price and the time.

On their own wheels is the easier and cheaper swap. Nothing is unmounted, so there is no tire machine work and no rebalancing in most cases. The wheels come off, the other wheels go on. If you are going to do this every year, a second set of wheels usually pays for itself in saved labour within two or three seasons, and it is gentler on the tire beads.

Loose tires means unmounting four tires from your wheels and mounting four others, twice a year. It is more work, it costs more each time, and repeated mounting is harder on the tires. It is the right answer if you do not want to buy a second set of wheels.

What we check before storing

• Tread depth, because there is no sense storing a set that will not be legal next season. We tell you if a set has one winter left rather than two.
• Damage, including sidewall cracking and any repair that has been done, since a stored tire is easy to forget about.
• Age. Rubber ages whether it is on the car or not. We read the date code and tell you what it says.
• Which corner each came from, marked, so they go back on in a sensible rotation rather than at random.

This is not a new idea, and we will not pretend it is

Several national chains already run tire storage: Discount Tire calls it the Tire Hotel, Switch Mobile Tires keeps them in what it calls a Tire Vault, and Dunn Tire, Belle Tire and Les Schwab all store sets, typically wanting a few days' notice before you collect. Zohr does seasonal swaps. In Pittsburgh, Tire Closet in Cranberry Township does nothing but seasonal storage and valet.

What differs is where the work happens. With a shop-based programme you still drive there twice a year and wait. With us the car does not move, because we come to it.

What we do not do

We do not store a set we did not inspect, and we will not take in a set that is already too worn to use next season just to keep the business. We will say so and recommend you replace instead.

Questions people ask

• Where are the tires actually kept? Indoors, out of sunlight and away from temperature swings. Sunlight and ozone are what age an unused tire.
• How long does the swap take? Roughly the same as a tire fitting. On their own wheels it is quicker, because nothing is unmounted.
• Do I need a second set of wheels? No, but it makes every swap faster, cheaper and easier on the tires. If you intend to run winter tires for several years, it is usually the better buy.
• When should I book the autumn swap? Before the first frost, not after it. Everyone books in the same week once the weather turns, and that week is the hardest one to get an appointment in.
• What if I sell the car? Tell us and we will bring the stored set back, or fit them if the new owner wants them.
• Do you store tires you did not sell me? Yes, provided they pass the same inspection.