why do people take their chrome rims off in the winter? Does something happen to them that ruins them or what? I never could understand this.

I'll take a pic of all the sand on the road. Then you can see the nice coat of salt it has as well. When I have my chrome wheels on I like them to look nice and shiny all the time, that'* impossible to do in the winter.

I run my chromes in the winter, zoop seal in the fall and wash once a week. I dont think they use as much salt and sand on the roads up hear as they do down south?

I'd say the top reasons I would if i had some nice rims (chrome or not)

1) Potholes start forming
2) sand and salt
3) possibility of curbing them, or hitting straight on.

another reason people may change them is if they have larger rims the car tends to have less control in icy conditions than stock size rims. when you move into or past the 17" barrier vehicles tend to have a better chance of sliding and loosing control it has alot to do with how much air in the tire and how much rubber it has and weight can also be added into the picture.

Many people have performance/summer/rain tires on chromes since they are aftermarket. Keeping all season/touring/winter tires on the original'* or some cheap steels are worth the money in wear, repair, performance and damage.

Yup, I think that when I was looking for 18'* the only tires that I could even find were only for summer, or somesort of performance rated. I don't think I saw anything that was an all season that would fit an 18" rim...

I run winter tires on steelies because it'* saves my good tires and rims for the summer. The salt/sand hurts them. And in the winter with the ice, more of a chance of hitting a curb and damaging your good rims. Also with the winter tires/rims it makes changing them for the winter really easy.

Not to mention a spare set of rims/tires incase you need to refinish your good rims.

i wondered if they would disintegrate or be ruined or something. thanks for the info.

On older chrome rims they would start to bubble up,flake, or start to crack from rust being formed underneath. But the newer chrome rims aftermarket at least and dipped 5 times in Nickel, instead of the 3 times like factory rims are. But if you maintain them & try keeping them clean you really wont have a problem. Friend has had his 18" Cobra R rims on his car now for 4 winters and hasnt had a problem.