When to change shoes for winter tires 2015

From year to year, owners of personal cars during the off-season are preoccupied with the same question: is it time to change tires to winter ones, or will this matter still wait? This year, the solution to the age-old dilemma has been moved to the legislative basis, because on January 1, 2015, the technical regulation “On the safety of wheeled vehicles” came into force, popularly known by the name reflecting its essence - “the law on winter tires 2015”.

when to change shoes for winter tires 2015

The essence of the new law on winter tires 2015

The essence of the newly introduced regulation is as simple as its informal name. If you conclude all the conditions and regulations listed in the law in one sentence, which should be remembered once and for all by all motorists, then you will get the following: for three months of calendar winter, that is, from December to February inclusive, your vehicle must have winter tires ... Another question is what exactly falls into this category, and what is the situation with the regulation of compliance with the law in the off-season, because for two years in a row, residents of the central regions have met the first snow already in mid-October.

What should be winter tires according to the law

To begin with, let's designate which tires are determined by the Customs Union as permissible for use in the winter. The first condition: change the car into the rubber on which the corresponding markings are present, and there are several options here.

Approved by law:

• tires with abbreviations familiar to the eye "M & S" (aka "M + S" or "M S", Mud and Snow, that is, mud and snow in literal translation);
• tires R+W (Road and Winter);
• universal rubber AW or AS (Any Weather / Season - any weather / season);
• the same kind of "all-terrain vehicles" AGT
• But in fact, drivers do not even have to peer at the letters: tires intended for the winter season are always marked with a snowflake pictogram, usually found on the side of the tire.

Winter tire marking

In addition, the law on winter tires also regulates the tread depth of the tires on your car. Most drivers should remember the 4mm parameter, which is set as the minimum allowable depth.

Further, the regulations provide for special cases:

• the required tread depth for passenger cars is set at 1,6 mm;
• for cargo (weighing from 3,5 tons) - 1 mm;
• for motorcycles (and other vehicles of category L) - 0,8 mm;
• for buses, the limit is set at 2 mm.

The next item directly related to your tires is their condition. In the name of road safety, legislation provides for a solution to the issue not only of when to change shoes for winter tires, but also of how this rubber should look and, therefore, function.

winter tires law 2015

All points indicated by the Customs Union are absolutely logical and reasonable: the tires should not have cuts, severe abrasions and other already noticeable external damage. In short, if you "shod" the car in last year's rubber that looks worn out, you cannot avoid claims from the regulatory authorities. It is also worth noting here that the updated law does not contain the previously imposed requirements for wheel disks: this paragraph, due to its impracticality, was quite reasonably excluded.

Regulated terms of replacement of winter tires

Thus, the 2015 law on winter tires looks quite decent and seems, so to speak, quite adequate and feasible. However, there is one "but". The list of requirements of the Customs Union is obviously "slack" in relation to its main parameter: the exact definition of the period of wearing winter tires.

It follows from the law that the car must be shod in the correct rubber from December to February, but what should you do in the off-season? And what should those motorists who live in the southern territories do, where winter, in the general sense, may not come at all?

when you need to change your shoes to winter tires

The answer to the second question can be the fact that among the parameters specified for winter tires there are no indications as to whether the tires should be studded. This means that for the southern regions, the best option would be to replace the rubber with the so-called "Velcro".

With regard to dates, our advice is just as simple - the law must be taken literally. Even if you ride with winter tires at + 5 / + 8 degrees, this will not bring any harm to the car, moreover, in the summer period the category of tires is not regulated in any way, which means that you will not run into a fine.

But if you dare to appear on the roads in December-January with summer tires, you will be fined 500 rubles in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 12.5 of the Code of bringing about administrative responsibility.

Summing up all of the above, the answer to the question "When do you need to change shoes for winter tires?" is this: change tires in mid-October - early April, or use Velcro for your own safety, comfort on the road, and in order to avoid a fine of 500 rubles.

Switching to winter tires. When do you need to change your shoes?