510tl

Hello cleveland people. I am moving out there at the end of July from California to go to school. Just had a few questions. What are the winters like. How much snow is average? Do I need to do anything to my car to prepare for the winter. Right now I’m running 18” wheels with yokohama es100’s. Do I need a winter set of tires? Also I’m dropped on H&R sports and wanted to see if that is fine for up there year round.
Someone also mentioned to me that I should undercoat my car so that it won’t rust. Any info on this stuff would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

stan

shogun

ohio has some rough winters but it can vary from year to year (last year wasnt too bad here, plus they plowed frequently). some can be tame others can blizzard. i'd recommend some allseason tires unless you want to swap come winter time obviously. im in columbus, not cleveland but there will probably be more snow since its a hair north plus the 'lake effect'. the drop will depend on alot of things (snow, where you're driving, etc). maybe someone else can chime in

Herbie2222

510TL,

shogun is right, it can vary from winter to winter, and even westside to eastside. I live on the east side of cleveland, so I get to deal with the lake effect snow. It could be sunny and clear on the west side, and we are getting dumped on. During late Jan/Feb there can be as much as a foot of snow on the ground. Usually you only have to worry about driving in deep snow during the storms. They are pretty good about plowing, so by the next day the streets are pretty clear. If you don't have all season tires on your 18s, you might think about getting a winter set. My Type-s does okay with its stock tires, but if you are going to swap rims and tires for the winter, there are much better choices. Depending on how much of a drop, you shouldn't have a problem. The only thing you would run into is the monster pot holes that show up in the spring. You might also find it slow going if you get caught in a snow storm and the roads have 4 or 5 inches of snow. I didn't do any special undercoating, but if you keep the salt from building up to bad, you should be okay. There are usually a couple of decent days during the winter where you can at least take the hose out and spray the car off.

Herbie2222

510tl

thanks for the info guys. I'm looking into a set of all season tires for my wheels. I'll be living in the cleveland heights area....not sure where that is in relation to everywhere else.

neuronbob

Well, a preliminary welcome to Cleveland is in order. Given your future location in the Heights, I'm assuming you're going to CWRU? (medical graduate here) Cleveland Heights is on the East Side, so you'll be pounded with snow during the winter. Your Yokos will be fine during the summer, but for winter you will either need to

a) consider all-seasons as you state in your message above--the advantage is that you don't have to store a set of tires somewhere, or
b) a dedicated set of winter tires and store your Yokos during the winter.

Cleveland is not as bad as people say, you just have to get used to the weather.

510tl

Thanks for the welcome. Yah, I'll be attending CWRU this fall for my JD/MBA. So I'll be out there for a min. of 4 years. So do you think with the H&R sport drop i'd be ok in the winter, as long as I had some all seasons or winter tires?