Winter Tires Canada
Winter tires spend more of the year in storage than on the road. Those idle months are when most of the damage happens — not from use, but from sunlight, heat, ozone, and bad stacking. The good news: the routine that prevents it takes about twenty minutes per changeover, and it genuinely extends a set's useful life.
Step 1: Clean them before they rest
Wash each tire (and wheel, if mounted) with soap and water before storing. Road salt, brake dust, and grime are corrosive over months of contact — salt on an alloy wheel all summer etches the finish, and grime ground into rubber accelerates aging. Let everything dry completely; bagging a damp tire invites mildew and wheel corrosion.
Step 2: Mark the positions
Before the tires come off, mark where each one sat — front-left, front-right, rear-left, rear-right — with chalk or a paint pen on the inner sidewall. This makes rotation straightforward at the next changeover: move them to the next position in the rotation pattern rather than putting each tire back where it was. Even wear is longer life.
Step 3: Bag them
Seal each tire in a large airtight bag — purpose-made tire storage bags are inexpensive, or use large lawn bags in a pinch. Squeeze out as much air as you can before sealing. The bag's job is to limit exposure to air and, critically, to ozone, which attacks rubber and causes the fine sidewall cracking you see on neglected tires. Bagged tires age noticeably slower than bare ones.
The bag is the single highest-value step in this whole routine. Everything else here is good practice; bagging is the one that measurably slows rubber aging. If you do nothing else on this list, do this. That's our opinion — and it's the cheapest insurance your tires will ever get.
Step 4: Store them right — position matters
Where and how the tires sit for six months matters more than most people expect:
- Mounted on wheels: stack them flat, one on top of another, or hang them. The wheel carries the load, so the tire keeps its shape.
- Tires only (no wheels): stand them upright, side by side — and rotate them a quarter-turn every month or two so they don't develop a flat spot from sitting in one position all summer.
- Never hang unmounted tires by the bead or toss them in a pile; both distort the shape over months.
Step 5: Pick the right spot
Rubber's enemies in storage are heat, sunlight, moisture, and ozone. The ideal spot is cool, dark, and dry — a basement corner or a garage that stays out of direct sun. Avoid:
- Direct sunlight and UV — the fastest ager of rubber. Never store tires where the sun hits them daily.
- Heat sources — furnaces, water heaters, and hot attics accelerate aging.
- Ozone sources — electric motors (sump pumps, furnaces, power tools) generate ozone. Keep bagged tires away from them.
- Solvents and petroleum products — don't store tires next to fuel, oil, or solvents; the fumes attack rubber.
- Damp floors — store on a pallet, shelf, or rack rather than directly on concrete that wicks moisture.
Step 6: The reinstall checklist
When the cold returns, don't just bolt them on. Before the first drive:
- Inspect: check tread depth, look for new cracking or damage, and confirm the age still makes sense for another season.
- Inflate to spec: tires lose pressure in storage. Inflate to the pressure on your door-jamb placard — not the maximum on the sidewall — when the tires are cold.
- Torque properly: tighten lug nuts to the vehicle manufacturer's torque specification in a star pattern. Many shops recommend re-checking the torque after some driving, since wheels can settle.
- Rotate by your marks: use the position marks from Step 2 to move each tire to its next spot.
Improperly torqued wheels are a genuine hazard — too loose and a wheel can come off; too tight and studs can be damaged. If you don't own a torque wrench and your vehicle's spec, have a shop do the changeover. This guide is general information, not professional advice.
The bottom line
Clean, mark, bag, store cool and dark, reinstall with a checklist. It's twenty minutes of unglamorous work, twice a year — and it's the difference between a set that lasts four winters and one that lasts six.