Storing Winter Tires

Price can vary greatly depending on rim size if just getting the rubber, not to mention quality, brand names ect.

I had a variance of about €300 for just the rubber, wheels are on the larger size so is more costly.

Some people have a set of rims with winter rubber so can swap with no wheel balancing needed. Get few offers and weigh it up.

All the offers I had have standard ratings for, wet grip, fuel efficiency, noise DB, and noise wave to compare, not sure if regulated though.

For the storage most will store for free if you buy a set. I had
offers for storage of 20,65 and 23,14 ex VAT (+/- 6 months storage) so expect to pay again when swapping back unless you can get a better deal.

Living in an area where everyone swaps between summer and winter tyres, I would say that not buying a complete set of winter WHEELS (as opposed to just tyres) is a totally false economy. Most people do their own changeover (last week in October and no earlier than the last week in March) but I pay € 15 a time to a local tyre factor - a charge that would be 4 - 5 times greater if he had to refit the tyres to a single set of rims each time.

This is not a good time of year to buy winter tyres as prices are at a peak. During the summer (and particularly early months of the summer) you can find a complete set of winter wheels on a reputable internet site for considerably less than just the tyres would cost you during the winter.

Cheap winter tyres are a totally false economy, my car has Contjnental ones, generally considered the best, but Michelin make some good ones too. When we had a 40 cm dump of snow in four hours last January, it became very obvious who had the good winter tyres, who had the cheapies, and who still had summer tyres on - the last group were all at the side of the road abandoned, unable to make the slightest grade.

Good winter tyres make a huge difference to your driving ability in cold (not just snowy) weather and countries like the UK where they are almost unknown are mad to reject them.

You need to shop around. Try First Stop, Vulco or Monsieur Pneu. If you buy the whole set, the first swap is often free. The simple swap of four wheels (on rims) costs EUR 40 - 50. If you have just tyres, and not the whole set, the swap is more expensive but I don't know the prices, as I have never done it - as far as I understand, it reduces the tyre life expectancy and in the end it may cost more than having a complete set. You should also be aware (and ask a dealer) that winter tyres are not required to have the minimum speed index indicated in your "certificat de conformite". You can buy a tyre with a lower speed index (which is typically cheaper) as long as you put a sticker which is visible to the driver and which indicates the maximum speed.

To follow up on Becasse - as he says, winter tyres are not just for snowy condition. Winter tyres have a shorter braking distance in temperatures under +7 degrees, in comparison to winter tyres.

No info on storing, sorry.

Unless you live in the Ardennes (and even there it's a stretch) why switch in a country where it almost never snows...

Sensible motorists (and that includes 40% of Belgian drivers) recognise that they are LOW TEMPERATURE tyres which improve the grip of the tyre on the road whenever the temperature falls below 7 degrees.

Better grip not only means better traction (which is, of course, very useful on snow and ice) but also improves braking performance.

Given that the Belgian winter often includes days when the temperature falls below 7 degrees, sooner or later (and probably initially in Wallonie) winter tyres will effectively become compulsory in Belgium, just as they are already in Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (inter alia).

Whilst all that Becasse says is valid, if you live in or around Brussels - or any other big city - and that is the only place where you drive in winter, on the rare occasions when winter tyres are a genuine benefit you will find yourself stuck in a queue of the 60% of Belgian drivers who have NOT got them and you will wonder why you bothered.

The fact is that winter tyres result in a shorter braking distance in temperatures below +7 degrees. That is most of days in winter in Belgium, including Brussels. The difference in braking distance from 50 km/h is around 20%.

Yes, winter tyres may not help one to circle the Brussels ring any faster. But with the ubiquitous right hand priority, with pedestrians trying to get on zebra crossings in between parked cars and with the slightly chaotic situation on Belgian roads, being able to stop the car quickly seems like a good idea.

PS: From speed of 50 km/h on wet surface at 5 degrees, car with summer tyres stops in 43 meters. With winter tyres in 35 meters. Difference of 8 meters - that's about two zebra crossings?