Winter Storage on Summer Tires - Shortened Lifespan?

Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
364
Location
Michigan
I just got a new set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2s installed on my 3-series earlier this summer (really pleased with them so far). I know cold temps are not healthy for summer tires, but how much does this apply to cold winter storage? It will be sitting aI have the ability to store the wheels & tires in a climate controlled basement but logistically it would be a pain to swap wheels and haul them down there.

My main concern is that in the past my tires on this vehicle "age out" before hitting the wear bars. My previous set were Michelin PSS and I was surprised by how quickly dry-rot started to settle in. Would any gain by storing them inside be pretty negligible?

Edit: Car will be stored in a non climate controlled garage during a Michigan winter. We are below freezing for much of the winter and usually have at least a couple sub-zero Fahrenheit days each season.
 
I don't think it's an issue of the cold aging them, but that the rubber turns hard in cold weather making them uncomfortable to drive on, reducing traction and handling characteristics.
It also makes the rubber less flexible and easier to tear in areas of bigger flex. A lot of the blamed "dry rot"is actually caused by running tyres under the glass temperature.
 
around 7c, so around 45F. But it could be higher when you go up the performance ladder
I realize that summer tire compound gets less flexible and less sticky at single digit Celcius temperatures. That's why summer tires are a bad idea in cold weather even on dry roads. But isn't this just the beginning of the transition to glass temperature which occurs at much lower temperatures? More like -60 or lower? I thought glass temperature was reached when a material had lost all its flexibility. At glass temperature I'd expect a tire to disintegrate if forced to roll with a load on it. But I don't know and that's why I'm asking.
 
According to Goodyear it's around 7C. It's the point of least wear. The tyres don't disintegate but tear easily. I do think it's a process that just starts at 7 ish degrees and continues until extremely low temperatures but damage seems to start early on. We don't regularly see -10C for instance.

I observed summer tyres that got used in colder weather to have tearing, regardless of age. Shoulders are vulnerable, but more so in between tread blocks and especially longitudinal grooves. It's not unlike dry rot in appearance, and I suppose that causes similar tearing but the ageing and curing is missing. But they all had at least 1 cold season behind them.

Winter tyres and our all-season tyres (all-weather in the US) don't seem to suffer this. All-season tyres like used commonly in the US are rare here in Europe so can't say if they do better or worse.
 
I've stored 'summer driver' cars in an unheated garage for many years without issues. Just make sure they are well aired up. Sometimes a bit of flat spotting in the spring that resolves quickly.
 
IMO -- I store all of my off season tires indoors, in the basement under the stairs, bagged. If in doubt, lug them down IMO. Tires are expensive, and you've stated that your tires always age out instead of wear out.

Also IMO - I'm highly skeptical that a tire manufacturer/retailer has recommended this "glass temperature" point of 7C as the exact same temperature used in winter tire marketing for when to switch from all seasons to dedicated winter tires for best traction. It sounds like a way to sell more tires by making sure that you instill 7C fear in both the all season and UHP summer tire crowds so we all buy winter tires just in case.

All that being said, I think we all know that summer tires are going to be far less than ideal in the cold, and foolishly dangerous in snow and ice. I only started seeing cold weather DAMAGE warnings starting with the Michelin PS4S, and only on American literature. Canadian documents from Michelin had the same old "don't be stupid" warnings. I often run my tires in weather lower than 7C (**) so this caught my attention and I started digging. The summary from my memory is that a trainload of new Corvettes were shipped and moved/delivered during an extreme cold event and the factory-equipped PS4S split open, so this is Michelin's way of protecting themselves from that particular liability repeating itself. I was researching whether there was something new, unique and fragile about the PS4S specifically and it doesn't seem that's the case, there was just a large and public issue affecting PS4S. I drove a weekend car to the mechanic for it's last pre-storage oil change in dry, -7C weather once on Bridgestone S-02PP tires decades before the warnings of permanent damage came out and everything was fine. Probably wouldn't repeat that though.

(**) while not the same as, say, Colorado, in the shoulder seasons in my area we can have really cold blasts of air when a front goes through. I might drive a mile or two to my commuter train in dry, near freezing temperatures at 6AM and it's back to 65-70F by the time I head home. This can go on for weeks/months, and I'm not switching to winter tires just for that. I know that the tires won't be their best, but wouldn't be doing any heavy canyon carving on the way to the train anyways.
 
Glass temperature transition depends on the mix, as one may guess - winter tires have much lower temperature.
7C (45F) is for supposed switchover from summer to winter - not glass transition temperature.

If tire has a warning that it MUST NOT be driven below or stored below temperature x that is good indication of the real glass transition temperature.

Krzyś
 
Something like this:

"Important Care and Usage Instructions: Important Care and Usage Instructions: The ADVAN A052 was developed using high-performance compounds which become brittle at low temperatures, and therefore should not be used in certain conditions. ADVAN A052 tires thus must be stored or used only at temperatures at or above 14°F (-10°C) to maintain performance characteristics and to avoid any damage to the tire or injury to persons or property."

I see them for track tires only.

Krzyś
 
IMO -- I store all of my off season tires indoors, in the basement under the stairs, bagged. If in doubt, lug them down IMO. Tires are expensive, and you've stated that your tires always age out instead of wear out.

Also IMO - I'm highly skeptical that a tire manufacturer/retailer has recommended this "glass temperature" point of 7C as the exact same temperature used in winter tire marketing for when to switch from all seasons to dedicated winter tires for best traction. It sounds like a way to sell more tires by making sure that you instill 7C fear in both the all season and UHP summer tire crowds so we all buy winter tires just in case.

All that being said, I think we all know that summer tires are going to be far less than ideal in the cold, and foolishly dangerous in snow and ice. I only started seeing cold weather DAMAGE warnings starting with the Michelin PS4S, and only on American literature. Canadian documents from Michelin had the same old "don't be stupid" warnings. I often run my tires in weather lower than 7C (**) so this caught my attention and I started digging. The summary from my memory is that a trainload of new Corvettes were shipped and moved/delivered during an extreme cold event and the factory-equipped PS4S split open, so this is Michelin's way of protecting themselves from that particular liability repeating itself. I was researching whether there was something new, unique and fragile about the PS4S specifically and it doesn't seem that's the case, there was just a large and public issue affecting PS4S. I drove a weekend car to the mechanic for it's last pre-storage oil change in dry, -7C weather once on Bridgestone S-02PP tires decades before the warnings of permanent damage came out and everything was fine. Probably wouldn't repeat that though.

(**) while not the same as, say, Colorado, in the shoulder seasons in my area we can have really cold blasts of air when a front goes through. I might drive a mile or two to my commuter train in dry, near freezing temperatures at 6AM and it's back to 65-70F by the time I head home. This can go on for weeks/months, and I'm not switching to winter tires just for that. I know that the tires won't be their best, but wouldn't be doing any heavy canyon carving on the way to the train anyways.


look at the description, the bit about warranty...

Goodyear's warranty states: "Ultra high-performance summer tires are not recommended for winter use, and tread or shoulder cracking on those tires resulting from winter use will not be covered under our warranty."
 
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