Why it Pays to Have your Tires on Rims

It seems like many drivers out there use steel (black) rims for their winter tires, let's find out why.

We called our local Canadian Tire to get prices for averaged sized steel rims, the cost was about $200 for 4 steel rims, aka 'steelies'.  The charge for a tire changeover on separate rims was $40 and the charge for a tire changeover with one set of rims was $100.

The cost for a tire changeover with one set of rims is higher because mounting tires on a single set of rims take a much longer and is more labour intensive.  

Each off-season tire would need to be removed from the rim, then the in-season tire would have to be put back on the rim, and then the tire and rim would need to be re-balanced (balancing is a process by which small weights are added to the rim so that the complete tire and rim roll smoothly).

Let's see how much it will cost after a few years in both cases...

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Here we can see that the break even point occurs after only 1-1/2 years!
Furthermore, after 4 years the savings add up to $280, definitely not pocket change!

So if you're one of the smart ones out there with winter tires on separate rims, you can now tell your co-workers that you're saving a pile of money and you have the added convenience of having Tire Changers come to your home :)