Separate wheels or seasonal tire swap?

[msb175]

I have the TS5's in 20" for use as winter/cold season and the OEM 20s with the PS4s and swap them out.

 

[Cobalt3]

So I have a 2020 P3D. I got the PILOT ALPIN PA4 N-SPEC as my winter tires. So far, i've had the tires swapped twice, both times using mobile services.

• The first swap, they really struggled with the swap. They said low profile tires are difficult to do. They also scratched up one of the rims, it wasn't too bad but noticeable. (it was pretty expensive, $250 for the swap).

• The second swap, I used Tesla themselves to do the swap. They actually use roadside service to do it, since mobile doesn't have the equipment for tire swaps. The cost was about the same (~250%) but this guy really ****ed up one of my rims. He very slightly comped the service but didn't come close to the $100 cost of repairing it.

So now before winter comes, im wondering what to do. Is it hard to do tire swaps on low profile tires, are scratches just the nature of it? Or am I just having bad luck on tire places?

I'm debating just getting another set of wheels but my problem is also that the Alpin tires are pretty large, im assuming I would need 20 inch rims to accomodate them, so im looking at $2k+. I would honestly prefer 18 inch rims in the winter for cost, comfort and range but now i've already bought these tires and they are pretty new.

What should I do? Get new tires + 18 inch rims, get new rims only for the current tires, or just continue doing the swaps until I find a better shop to do them?

Definitely buy a set of 18" with winter tires. 18 because you certainly don't need low-profiles for snow/ice. OEM w/ Aero covers help a little with range.

 

[afadeev]

So now before winter comes, im wondering what to do. Is it hard to do tire swaps on low profile tires, are scratches just the nature of it? Or am I just having bad luck on tire places?

Yes, it's not trivial, and you are inviting cosmetic rim scratches every time you do it.

More importantly, you are stuck with a service event every time you want to switch between winter<->summer rubber. It's far easier and more convenient to have a set of dedicated rims per tire set.

I'm debating just getting another set of wheels but my problem is also that the Alpin tires are pretty large, im assuming I would need 20 inch rims to accomodate them, so im looking at $2k+.

No really.
Shop here for <$800 options:

https://www.tirerack.com/content/tirerack/desktop/en/homepage.html

I would honestly prefer 18 inch rims in the winter for cost, comfort and range but now i've already bought these tires and they are pretty new.

Yep, that's exactly what I did:

Winter Tires on Model 3

I guess. I just switched to Conti VikingContact7 and it's a whole new world, but I also went from 235/35/20 to 235/45/18, and I think the dimension has a bigger effect than noise. My 2021TM3P is much quieter than my 2020, so the tire noise probably dominates more than before.

teslamotorsclub.com

What should I do? Get new tires + 18 inch rims, get new rims only for the current tires, or just continue doing the swaps until I find a better shop to do them?

For me, it would be purely a financial decision (unless you dislike your current winter tires).
How much life (# of winter) is left in your winter tire set?
How much does cosmetic damage to your summer rims bother you?

If >2 and "a lot", then get a dedicated set of cheap winter rims.
If <2, then get a dedicated set of winter 18" rims and tires.

HTH,
a