Tire storage, the correct way.
Hello and welcome to our article about how to store your tires the proper way when not using them.
This is pretty basic knowledge so I won't keep babbling about it for too long though
At some point in life (that sounded out of place) you may need to store your car tires / wheels, maybe when changing to summer or winter tires if you run on separate sets, or if you'd just want an extra set of wheels available to change to. If you store the tires at your local tire dealer they will of course take care of it all, but that isn't free or most of the times cheap though, but saves you the space.
So, if you are going to store them yourself you'll need to do it the right way, which will keep the tires from aging in advance = there may be cracks on the profile side = making them less safe to drive! Storing them properly is really easy to do though, in conclusion you need to keep them inside in a cool and dry place away from sunlight , heat , dirt and moisture , just as you store a lot of your food at home =) Notice, it doesn't have to be inside, but it's hard to find a place outside which meets the requirements.
Storing your tires properly will make the ride both safer and more comfortable.
You must also make sure to stack the tires correctly, in example, if you have a set of tires without rims (just the tires) and are going to store them, you can either stack them in row (on top of each other) with their tire sides, or place them on a tire rack (a specific shelf made for tires and wheels). Do not keep the tires directly on the floor if you're stacking them, add a pallet underneath which raises them a bit from the ground. Another tip is to stack a maximum of four tires in a row, keeping the weight to a minimum regarding the tire profile for the tires at the bottom, or else they may change shape and make the car wobble while driving. This is also why you should keep the tires on a tire rack if not stacking them, so the weight distribution is spread and not in one place which it would have been if they where stored standing (tire thread facing the ground). A last tip is to regularly change place of the tires while storing them, rotate them kind of. The same of the above goes with tires mounted to rims, basically.
Here we have (picture below) some summer tires, and as you can see they are stored incorrectly as they are outside = exposed to weather of all kinds which means sunlight, heat, rain and moisture, cold, dirt, etc. The only thing done correctly is that they're stacked four in a row on top of each other, although without any distance between the ground and the tires, like a pallet which is missing. If you are only going to store them for a short while, maybe a couple of days or weeks, it's mostly okay to do it this way..
Storing summer tires outside in pile.
We have a similar example below, but those tires are kept correctly inside in a cool and dry place, with no sunlight or heat or dirt anywhere near them. BUT, they are stacked too many on top of each other, which puts too much pressure on the tires near the bottom, re-shaping the tire profile sides a tiny bit!
Storing winter and summer tires inside in pile.
Tire racks is the way to go professional, just like a tire dealer! In the photo below the winter and summer tires are stored on racks, inside in a warehouse which is both cool and dry and has no windows to let any sunshine in. Also, there's no heat near the tires such as radiators or similar. Since the single purpose with this warehouse is tire storage, there isn't any risk for excessive dirt either.
Storing winter and summer tires inside on tire rack.
Just like above, the following image describes the same situation with the only difference is that winter tires are missing from the photo, only summer tires are stored on this rack.
Storing summer tires inside on tire rack.
Remember to rotate / change place of the tires once in a while!
Storing a car with the wheels mounted.
Many people store their cars (sports cars and such) when not using them, whether it be over the winter or similar, the tires must be remembered and taken care of, you shouldn't just park the car and leave it in a warehouse over 4-5 months!
There's a lot to think about when storing a car, but here we're only going to talk about the tires and wheels unfortunately. So, the best thing to do is to lift the car and put it on jack stands in all four corners, which leaves no weight on the tires and the wheels = no pressure on the wheel bearings etc. Of course you'll also need to store the car / tires in the same way as mentioned above (cool and dry place without any sunlight and heat...). Remember to securely position the jack stands according to the vehicles owner manual and such!
If the above method isn't possible for any reason, storing the car with the wheels mounted and also on the ground will flatten the tires at some spots, so you will have to roll / rotate them often and also fill them with almost maximum air pressure (should be written on the tire side) to minimize the risk of flattening them. Of course, you must let the air pressure out to the normal PSI when you are going to use the vehicle again.
As always, I hope you've learned something from this post, but should you have any questions, just comment below or send me an email or message at Facebook.
P.S., sorry for the long post, it was initially intended to be much shorter =)
Take care!