This article notes that many tire shops will store your snow tires in the summer: http://www…erDriving/
My local shop currently stores my off-season tires, but I am moving to Chicago. I called several tire shops and no one I spoke to had ever heard of such a service.
Does anyone know where I can store my snows in Chicago – I’d like to find an auto place rather than rent some sort of public storage locker.
I stack them like pie plates, throw a cheap blanket over them and put a piece of wood on top to make a makeshift table in my garage. Do the same for Summer tires. DO NOT store them “standing up” (like they’d be on the car, they’ll get a flat spot on them, no kidding.
Unfortunately, I’m living in an apartment downtown and have no garage in which to store them.
Whatever you find, make sure that your snows are stored in a cool, dark, fairly dry place. No they don’t flat spot now; that went away with bias ply nylon tires. Steel belts will prevent flat spotting. With no car weight on the tires, flat spotting is history for sure. If you have the tires mounted on separate rims, that is no problem; no need to release the pressure or store in whatever position, flat on their sides or vertical; it simply does not matter.
Do you have a relative or friend with a cool, dark, fairly dry basement in which to store your tires?
If you store them mounted, do it either way. If they are off the rims and you store them lying flat, the beads will be close together in the Fall and will be harder to install. You don’t want the tires to be beaten up when they are installed. Most tire places have the rubber donut to help seat the beads for inflation but some do not. So I try to make it easier for the tires.
Did you ask your apartment manage if they have a place you could use to store them? The only need to be out of sunlight and standing water, UV rays and water will damage to them when in storage.
Tires without the car’s weight can be stored anywhere in any position you have room without problems. If you’re putting snows on and off seasonally, however, I do want to suggest that you have them mounted on spare steel wheels, available by order from almost anywhere. Not only will it be far more convenient for you when you do your seasonal changeover, but repeated mounting is hard on the beads and can result in slow leaks. Besides, you won’t have to keep paying mounting and balancing fees.