How to store customer tires
You are holding somebody else’s property for six months. Most of what ruins a stored set is in the room rather than on the tire, and almost all of it is decided in the ten minutes the set is in your hands.
Where tire makers say different things — and on stacking, hanging and how long a set keeps, they do — this says so rather than picking one. What your insurance covers and what a maker’s warranty survives are questions for them, not for us.
On the rim, or off it
The one decision that changes how a set is handled for the next six months.
- Mounted on rims: lay them flat or hang themA mounted set can be stacked on its side, four high, or hung from the sidewall on a rack hook. What it should not do is stand on its tread under the weight of three more sets. Stacking is the easy one in a shop with shelves; hanging is the easy one in a shop with walls. Makers do not all say the same thing about this, so check the tire maker’s own advice for the sets you handle most.
- Unmounted tires: stand them uprightA tire with no rim in it has nothing holding its shape, so it goes upright on its tread, not stacked and not hung — a hook under one bead of an unmounted tire is a flat spot waiting to happen.
- Turn the upright ones now and thenA quarter turn when you walk past moves the part that is taking the weight. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a set that rolls true in April and one that thumps for the first mile.
Where they sit
Most of what ruins a stored tire is in the room, not on the tire.
- Out of the sunDirect sunlight through a window or a roof panel is the one to design around, because it works on the same patch of the same tire every afternoon for six months. If a rack catches the sun, that is the rack to move or the window to cover.
- Away from heatNot beside the furnace, the boiler, a heater or a hot pipe. Somewhere that stays cool and even is better than somewhere warm, and better again than somewhere that swings from one to the other every night.
- Away from motors and anything that gives off ozoneElectric motors, generators, welders and arc equipment put ozone into the air around them, and ozone is hard on rubber. A compressor in the corner of the tire room is worth moving, or the tires are.
- Away from solvents, fuel and oilAnything that dissolves grease will work on rubber given six months. Keep the drums and the parts washer out of the tire room, and keep spills off the floor the tires stand on.
Clean, dry, and kept together
- Clean them before they go awayBrake dust, road salt and whatever was in the puddle they came out of all sit on the tire for the whole season. A rinse and a chance to dry is enough; they do not need dressing, and a tire that goes away wet in a sealed bag comes back damp.
- Dry before baggingA bag keeps a set together and keeps the dust off. It also keeps water in, so a wet tire in a bag is worse off than one on an open shelf. Dry first, then bag.
- Bag or tag, but keep the four togetherThe thing that costs a shop a morning in April is not a damaged tire, it is three of four. Bag the set, or band it, or tag each tire — whichever you will actually keep doing in the third week of November — so the four cannot drift apart on the rack.
- Mark which corner each one came offFront left, front right and so on, in chalk or on the tag. It takes a second with the set in front of you and it is the difference between rotating them properly next time and guessing.
Write down what came in
Ten minutes at the changeover, and the only version of the set’s condition that both of you agreed on.
- Tread on all fourThe number, not a judgement. It is what makes the call in March a conversation about a measurement rather than an argument about an opinion.
- Anything already damagedA curbed rim, a cut, a plug, a cracked sidewall — noted, and photographed if it is the kind of thing somebody could later say happened on your rack. Thirty seconds now against a conversation you cannot win without it.
- The date codeThe four numbers on the sidewall say the week and year the tire was built. Read them while the set is in front of you — it is the one time in the year both sidewalls are reachable.
- Where it wentThe shelf, the slot, the pile. A set whose condition you recorded perfectly and whose location you did not is still a set somebody spends twenty minutes looking for.
What Treadstock keeps of it
The part that has to survive six months and a change of staff.
- The tread on all four and the date code, taken at the changeover and on the set’s own screen afterwards — so whoever is at the counter in April has them without the tires.
- Photos of anything already damaged, with a line saying what it is, the date, and who took it.
- Where the set went, and where it moved to afterwards, with every move in the history.
The questions shops ask about it
Should mounted tires be stacked or hung?
Either works. Stacked on their sides, four high, is the usual way in a shop with shelves; hung from the sidewall suits a shop with wall space. Makers do not all say the same thing about this, so check the tire maker’s own advice for the sets you handle most.
What about tires with no rims in them?
Upright, on their tread, and turned now and then. There is nothing inside an unmounted tire holding its shape, so stacking it under weight or hanging it from one bead is what puts a flat spot in it.
Do tires need to be bagged?
A bag keeps the set together and the dust off, which is most of its value. It also keeps water in, so the tires have to be dry before they go in one. A band or a tag does the keeping-together job just as well if bagging is not something your shop will keep up.
How long can a set be stored?
That depends on the tires and on the room they sat in, and makers do not all say the same thing. Read the date code at the changeover so you know how old the set is, note the tread, and have the conversation with the customer when it is their tires in front of them.
What should we write down when a set comes in?
The tread on all four, anything already damaged, the date code, and where the set went. All of it is easy with the tires in your hands and hard every other day of the year.
Related guides
The next things a shop usually wants after this one.
- How to read a tire date codeWhere the DOT code is on the sidewall, what the last four digits mean, and why only one side carries them.
- Chalk or labels for stored tiresWhat each way is good at, where each lets you down, and why most shops end up doing both.
- Getting ready for the winter tire rushPlanning the fall: who to ring first, how to spread the bookings, and what to write down while the tires are off.
- Tire storage fee calculatorYour sets, your fee, your space and your labour — and what a season actually leaves you.