My mechanic who installs my snow tires offers a service to store tires for $12.50 per tire per season (about $50 plus tax for the winter). We store my wife’s tires since they are on rims; however, we don’t store them for my car (they aren’t on rims). My car’s tires are loose and tend to take up some space in my garage, which has been one of the reasons why my car would not fit into our garage (a double car garage).
Mrs. C8j noticed that Canadian Tire had a “Black Friday” (yeh right) sale on a wall-mounted tire rack for $56 (around), and I had been dithering about how this was going to be the year we try to fit my car into the garage (my wife’s van provides with little work), so it seemed like this past weekend we were going to try to fit both cars into our garage.
Saturday was the day. Thus we spent a reasonable amount of time throwing things out and then playing garage Tetris. Still, thanks to mounting my tires on the wall, some judicious destruction, and decluttering, my car fits into the garage.
The exciting part of all of this is that the cost of the rack is about the exact price as we paid for my wife to have her tires stored. So in some ways, this rack paid for itself if I had kept my tires (as you can see from the picture, I have other stuff that I can stuff into the rack).
At the end of it, we continue to play garage Tetris to see the optimal setup for the cars and the snowblower, but Mrs. C8j also points out that maybe we need a backyard shed to store the remaining stuff (others might say, have less stuff).
If you own two sets of ties, don’t you need 12 months of storage per year?
Another reason to store them yourselves.
Storing tires is a pain. Thankfully I have a garden shed where they go. Or more properly, where the summer tires are stored right now.
For those that don’t put winter tires on their cars, it’s worth doing some research to uncover the benefits to swapping tires twice a year. Or just buy them – once you’ve driven in icy/snowy conditions with top ice tires you’ll be sold going forward, The difference is immediate and noticeable.
And in Quebec, “This is the Law!”, I miss that TV show…
I’ve always stored my tires myself, never paid for this service.
As for your rack, nice one. All men enjoy a good rack.
First, @Michael James, if you are nice to me, I’ll let you come over and see my rack. To the others who think the $50 is extravagant, don’t think of it as $50 to store my tires (trust me they are NOT fitting in the garage) think of it as $50 to put BCM’s car in the garage, which is pretty darn cheap given the price of parking in Ottawa.
Big Cajun Wife.
First I would never pay someone to store my tires for $50 a year.
What I would have done is bought that the rack and combined it with something else useful and given it to my good wife for Christmas!!!
One year l gave her a lawnmower for her birthday that went over like a lead balloon.
This year my good wife is getting a roomba 650. Go figure from lawnmowers to roomba ‘s.
I guess I know who is Boss but will never admit it!!!
I think you just admitted it?
Don’t give her a black cast iron frying pan (is a friendly suggestion) too easily turns into a weapon!
Worse gifts might be:
1) A Gym membership
2) A Jenny Crag Subscription
3) A subscription to Playboy
4) Season tickets for the local sports franchise
I was just skimming. Did you say you bought your wife a new rack?
Actually she has a very well constructed rack now (sort of a DIY project), since you are asking
Good work. Paying $50 a year to store tires seems kind of insane to me. Even in a condo building you typically have a storage unit you could put tires and you have a double garage. Definitely no excuse going forward. BTW, swapping out the tires yourself would save money and I, for one, find it’s a great way to assert my masculinity.
I get where you are coming from in terms of “DIY” snow tires, however, I have done it myself for many years, then when the car fell off the jack almost pinning my legs under the car, I decided I had reached the “tipping point” for this activity, and would surely kill myself the next time, so I now have my mechanic do it.