Winter wheels and tires
- Thread starter Jarlaxle
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Yeah but it will feel good. You know it.
I was strategizing snows for a new (used) car this past month. found both 17 and 18 wheels that could work. The price jump from 225/55-17 to the 225/50-18 was eye-popping. So the 18 was a big bite, I'm sure. My brakes let me get away with less wheel so I skimped and went that way. Not an option for you I bet.
On something like that Challenger, where it's easy to over-drive the rear wheels even with the assist devices, you'll feel better.
I was strategizing snows for a new (used) car this past month. found both 17 and 18 wheels that could work. The price jump from 225/55-17 to the 225/50-18 was eye-popping. So the 18 was a big bite, I'm sure. My brakes let me get away with less wheel so I skimped and went that way. Not an option for you I bet.
On something like that Challenger, where it's easy to over-drive the rear wheels even with the assist devices, you'll feel better.
I got factory 17" wheels for my 300S because they were so cheap. I could get wheels and snow tires using 17's for less than just the snow tires for my 20" wheels.
I do oddly really enjoy having new tires.... Just got my new snows mounted last month. Ready to rock.
I do oddly really enjoy having new tires.... Just got my new snows mounted last month. Ready to rock.
Kind of embarrassing to say, but I feel the same way. I got new HT tires on my SUV last Nov/Dec and enjoy it more now every time I drive (old ones were well used/gone/old - I drive few miles a year). Getting new snows soon as I mentioned and excited about it. A little silly, but I do feel the difference in ride, noise, and safety margin.
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
Like said here often, that $1200 or so you spent will still be cheaper than a winter induced fender bender. Plus if you get rid of the vehicle at some point, that wheel/tire set still has value that you can recoup.
Did you go with TPMS sensors too?
The newer FCA ones are nice. No programming needed.
Did you go with TPMS sensors too?
The newer FCA ones are nice. No programming needed.
Muscle cars are fun, but Subaru better in winter.
That's why my next set will probably be those 3PMS rated variety from one of the big brands. All weather tires, I think they're called. Decent mileage rating, one set, etc.
No.
This is the way I justify the cost. You’re only using one set of tires at a time, so you’re closer to buying two sets of tires every 6 years vs one set every 3 years. The added cost mostly ends up being the price of just the wheels and TPMS - which are also the easiest to sell if you get rid of the car someday 
I agree with Jarlaxle. I have driven my Camaro through Michigan winters since it was new, always on winter tires. Blizzaks or X-Ice2's. I have always gotten where I intended to go, as long as I don't get overconfident. I have passed countless 4wd vehicles in the ditch, whose owners thought they could get through the winter on all-seasons because 4wd made them feel invincible. 4wd makes the vehicle accelerate quickly, but doesn't make them stop or turn any better than 2wd. And the overpowered pony car thing? The driver is the thing in the car that decides how far to push down the acceleratore pedal, and when. In low-speed turns, I have become calibrated to give enough spin on the rear tires to swing it around, and arrest the spin, while remaining in my lane of traffic. The main difficulty that I have found is that heavily siped winter tires don't grip well in slush. But in snow, they are great.
I just swapped out Michelins w/5K on them for a new set of Grabber AT2s. This was on my 4x4 pickup. Many of us are doing the best we can with what we have to work with....
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I drove my M5 in the winter, bought a full set of snow tires for it. It was not a great winter car, but it worked fine. My sister drives her 330i year round and we had a nice set of snows on my wife's Charger R/T.
He's driving a 7 year old Challenger, not a Ferrari, the car is more than capable of handling winter conditions with a good set of snow tires on it. My buddy that owns the local FCA dealership drives a 707HP TrackHawk in the winter with a set of snows on it and it's incredibly sure-footed, I'd say even more so than my SRT because of the additional weight on the front wheels.
GASP! An M5 in the snow?? How did you not slide off the road and crash in a fiery ball of German steel at the first snow flake? /Sarcasm
Some of us know how to drive, especially with proper tires. Others think AWD alone will save them, and those are the ones that end up in the woods upside down.
If you're offering, I'll take a Grand Cherokee.
I too agree. You have a nice car and want to enjoy driving it some in the winter season, more power to you. It's not like every Northerner is sentenced to owning a storage garage and multiple seasonal vehicles.
Ha! I've passed 4WD pickups and SUV's with the 4WD disengaged, struggling to get past an ice patch. Those days are pretty much over now that full-time AWD has become so common, and not just an expensive upgrade.
I disagree. I've explained multiple times why 4WD vehicles stop better than 2WD in poor traction (assuming same tires). The same applies to steering, but to a lesser extent. I have explained the physics multiple times here, no one has contradicted me, and yet the myth continues to be repeated.
Yes, it is easy for a novice driver to overdrive a 4WD vehicle with A/S tires. But that does not change the laws of physics.
You don't have to have a blizzard to have "winter conditions significant enough to need winter tires". Nor does the OP have to take the car out in heavy snow to justify his purchase.
Winter tires are fully justified whenever the temperatures are at or under freezing. They are just plain safer on patches of frost and ice, that can occur anywhere and anytime the thermometer is near 0C/32F. I have a Corolla and run Winter tires on it every Winter. I leave it at home when I know things are going to get real bad. Was that a bad plan? Do I have to explain the number of times I've seen people lose control when I didn't?
Your answer to Jaraxle was rude and ignorant, literally ignorant in terms of you what don't understand. Dropping the money on plain wheels and winter tires may hurt financially for a moment, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of oversized bling wheels and tires, and a drop in the bucket in the lifetime ownership costs of a new vehicle. Yet the payoff is large, in both safety and value (value in that; your car is more usable most of the year).
Well at least it wasn't a classic blunder like getting involved in a land war in Asia...
You mean we all don't need some sort of 4x4/AWD to not have a "blunder"?
Wish I could have done that.
Put on the snow tires today. They are Cooper Discoverer AT/W with a mountain snowflake rating. I believe this is the third season for them. I don’t think they sell them any more and have been replaced by AT3 4S Tires.
Got to use my 24 in 3/4 inch breaker bar with a 22 mm 3/4 inch drive socket to fit the spline adapter tool. After breaking them by hand I spun them off with a battery impact wrench. I put on the winters and torqued them with my old battery impact wrench to 70 ft lbs and snugged them up to 140 ft lbs with a 1/2 inch drive torque wrench. Also got to use my new Motomaster Eliminator 3 ton jack. At first I was going to jack at the U bolts but it was easier just to jack at the factory pad on the frame. I had plenty of height, enough to lift the tire off the ground on this 3/4 ton truck. Here’s a few shots. The two tires shown are my Motomaster M&S on the left and Cooper Discoverer AT/W on the right. It was a good workout.
Got to use my 24 in 3/4 inch breaker bar with a 22 mm 3/4 inch drive socket to fit the spline adapter tool. After breaking them by hand I spun them off with a battery impact wrench. I put on the winters and torqued them with my old battery impact wrench to 70 ft lbs and snugged them up to 140 ft lbs with a 1/2 inch drive torque wrench. Also got to use my new Motomaster Eliminator 3 ton jack. At first I was going to jack at the U bolts but it was easier just to jack at the factory pad on the frame. I had plenty of height, enough to lift the tire off the ground on this 3/4 ton truck. Here’s a few shots. The two tires shown are my Motomaster M&S on the left and Cooper Discoverer AT/W on the right. It was a good workout.
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