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Winter Wheel Thread: Who plans to get a second set of rims/tires for winter?

216K views 884 replies 252 participants last post by  willyjp 
#1 ·
What are you doing for winter wheels and tires

I have a T6 with the lovely 20" wheels. In New England we always switch to dedicated snows, and I like to keep on their own rims for ease of changeover and to protect the summer rims from salt (many use steel wheels in winter for this purpose).

What might be a good winter wheel, and what size would you do? How do you manage the ABS?
The tire I will use is the Nokian Hakka H2 SUV - have them on my other car and they are great. So the question is wheel choice, size, and ABS.

Thanks!
 
#51 ·
i am not so sure if i am willing to spend the extra money for winter and non-winter tires/wheels. seems like to much effort, cost and storage for me. i have never switched tired for my previous cars, not sure if its really worth it for me in north jersey for the 5-10 snow storms we have a year
 
#52 · (Edited)
What makes a good winter rim?

Smallest diameter possible for three big reasons.

1. Bigger sidewall for pot holes etc and more cushion on the sidewall height.
2. Tire's an rims will be significantly cheaper.
3. Snow won't chunk as easily inside the rim causing massive vibration. If you get a rim that just clears the brake caliper it almost self clean.

As far as look you have a trade off. Multispoke bbs style keep snow out of the rim but are harder to clean, where as 5 spokes are super easy to clean but snow will get in, I get massive vibration with my oem pegs when snow cakes up. This is also why I said run minimum diameter, it does get quite bad with large size rims.

As far as forged, it's not worth the money IMO. If you hit hard enough to crack or bend it's going to happen regardless most of the time.
 
#53 ·
Thanks! Extremely helpful. I'm posting a pic from a different thread that shows the 18" rims that Volvo sells as part of their Accessory packages (in Canada they come paired with Michelin X-Ice 2 tires for $2800). Looking at this, would you go any smaller than 18s on this car? How would you feel about 19s for winter?

And I guess based on what you're saying this type of rim would be very prone to snow build-up / vibration?

 
#59 ·
All good points above. I ran super basic black steel winter wheels on my previous vehicles, and would have gladly put them on my new XC90 (had I been able to source them). I thought they actually looked better than the alloys LOL. If anyone finds a steel winter wheel option for an XC90 I might consider NOT running the 20's, but since this is the first model year and there were literally no options in the US when I ordered, I had the 20"s fitted with blizzaks for my November delivery. Even Steel wheels (with no vents) can vibrate if snow gets blown in or stuck in the wheel. The only time this ever really happens is when you plow through a snow bank while making a turn. If you are driving through un-packed snows on the road, you will rarely have problems with snow creating vibrations.

Agreed... If you drive your winter tires in the summer, your vehicle's handling will become awful, sloppy, rolly and downright dangerous at speed in corners with such soft compounds + they will wear on the edge blocks quickly (where you really want square edges for cornering traction in winter).
 
#62 ·
Perrelli Scorpion winters is what I have on my XC60 (20") and I plan on getting the same for my XC90. They are a performance tire and are meant to run at 40 degrees and below. I swap the rubber on my existing wheels each season for $60-80. The rubber compound on all-season tires gets very hard during the cold and you lose a lot of traction. It's not about snow, more of a temperature thing. Since winter tires extend the life of your stock tires they don't really cost anything except for the service to swap and storage. I picked up some storage racks and covers from Tirerack.
 
#63 ·
Have never bothered before in south of England but on a two ton lump i don't want to take chances. Never a deep snow here, some black ice and early morning frosts, but main requirement is wet grip in 0-7C cold that does not deteriorate too much if we have unseasonal warm weather 10+.
Read up all I could find. This is what sealed it for me with full winters but look for good wet grip and only good enough snow grip given my conditions.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Is-there-a-true-all-season-tyre-We-find-out.htm
This next confirmed to me that it's not clearcut about going with smaller wheels and narrower tyres
http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/tyre-widths-narrow-or-wide-winter-tyres
I went with these in the end - they are not current best in winter tests but have been around for a few years and conti still don't change them and they meet my criteria for good grip in higher temperature not just sub 7.
Continental WinterContact TS 850 P 275/45R20 110 V - exact size match to my summers.
Work out half the price of getting 18in winter shod 235 profile same wheels from Volvo. According to conti wider profile will still drip better in cold wet just loses in deep snow. Deep snow would paralyse England south east so you will sit home or in a long traffic queue even in snow chains.
My dealer will store them for free and charge me gbp60 a swap.
I don't have to spoil the look of the car with stubby little 18inchers.
 
#64 ·
I have always fear switching wheel/tire sizes will mess up the metrics when it comes to miles, fuel economy, mph, etc... no? I would expect the cars are calibrated for the wheels they are shipped with. 1 full rotation of a 17'' wheel vs a 21'' wheel goes a different distance.
 
#65 ·
If you get a tire with a smaller rim and a larger sidewall there are usually options that match up outer tire diameter within a few millimeters, which shouldn't affect speedometer.
Tirerack has a good article in their information section about plus- and minus- sizing. It's complicated (for me) to figure out what sizes you need, what fits on a given wheel width, etc. Luckily they do a lot of the legwork for you.
 
#66 ·
providing you retain the same overall rolling diameter there will be no deviation from manufacture design and functionality. (on vw/audi/bmw you can calibrate navigation and speedo for larger or smaller wheels than what the vehicle was installed with. this way there is no irregularities or inaccurate data on these devices. i am guessing volvo MAY have a way to do this as well but i am not sure since this product is new to me and i have not had time to play with it since i haven't even taken delivery of it yet.)

you can look up tire and wheel calculators which will help you figure out which pairing would replicate the original specs the best.
 
#68 · (Edited)
We live in CO and do quite a bit of winter snow/icy driving as we are all skiiers. Any of our vehicles that we use in the winter ALL get snow tires in the winter for safety, and then summer tires for summer, again for safety.

An all season tire is maybe 20% better in the snow/ice compared to summer tires whereas snow tires are 100% better (subjectively speaking but backed by tests too). And, summer tires are probably 20% - 50% better (depending upon the tire) performing (handling, braking, noise etc) than all season tires in the summer.

If one owns (say) a $50,000 vehicle and the performance (safety, handling and noise etc) can be improved by 20% to 50% by owning two sets of tires optimized for summer and winter, it would seem an easy investment of (say) $1,000 - $2,000 to achieve this. Spend 4% of vehicle's purchase price (4% x $50k = $2,000 for additional set of tires/wheels) to achieve 20% more performance is a no brainer for me.

another way of saying it - I will NEVER own all season tires as they deteriorate the experience of an otherwise excellent car.

It has already been said, but a snow tire's soft rubber melts off the car in hot weather. And, summer (and also all season tires) become like hard plastic in the icy temperatures. Look on Youtbe at the braking results for winter tires vs summer tires. In an emergency situation it can easily mean the difference between getting stopped and ending up in a horrible accident. The differnces in braking distances are huge.

Get winter tires in the winter and summer tires in the summer.
 
#69 · (Edited)
http://www.thecarcrashdetective.com...inter-tires-for-your-car-suv-or-minivan.html/

As many others have said, it's about the temperature as much (if not more) than it's about the snow.

I also have to agree with the folks questioning the logic of buying a $50,000 vehicle and not willing to spend an extra $1,000 for protection from conditions that affect 25% of your yearly driving time (i.e., late fall to early spring).

Finally, I'd also recommend buying a full set of rims (as do most folks on this thread) vs just buying tires and sharing rims. Besides the fact that this allows you to actually switch the tires on your own, saving $50-$100 each time, and allows you to choose tires that fit smaller rims (which are almost always cheaper than tires for larger rims), it also dramatically reduces the risk of damage to both sets of tires, because every time you mount or unmount a tire, you're risking bead damage.
 
#71 ·
Basement, we have 3 sets stacked in totes for each car. Definitely stack them on top of each other, saves a ton of room.
 
#89 ·
Check out the epiphany I had a year ago. Harbor freight moving dollys with pieces of 1×4 screwed on to make a flat surface. One setup stacked on each. Move them around with ease...



 
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#74 ·
I am about to replace a Q7 with a new XC90. Does anyone know what procedure, if any, is required to make the XC90 recognize a different set of TPMS sensors when switching between summer/winter tires on dedicated rims? The Q7 requires a simple reset that can be performed by the owner using the dashboard interface. Other vehicle manufacturers require a stop at the dealership so a technician can reset the system. Still others require no reset at all - the car figures it out on its own. What does the XC90 require? I'm a little annoyed that the Volvo service advisor I spoke with said the XC90 uses ABS as its TPMS system (i.e. no sensors in the wheels). A previous post in this thread mentioned wheel sensors, so it seems the service advisor was incorrect. Has anybody actually installed winter tires on dedicated rims who can tell me how this system actually works?
 
#75 ·
I live in NoVA. Traditionally, we get "bad" snow maybe twice a year and a few smaller storms where the streets get plowed in a few hours. Although I'm sure I could have done fine with the stock Pirellis all-seasons, I just got a set of Continental Extremecontact DWS 06s swapped in. I had great experiences in winter driving with the previous DWS on a Mitsubishi Evo so have confidence these should do well. These are all-seasons as well, but are supposed to have better wet, slush, ice, and snow traction than your average a/s tire, per the reviews. Dry handling is also reported as pretty much the best for ultra high-performance all seasons. I considered Nokian WRG3 all-seasons but read that they are "75% winter/25%" and I don't feel that the winter weather described above warrants that. And, when it gets to be 90-100 degrees in the summers, I felt the Nokians wouldn't be in their sweet spot. I'll report back on winter performance of these Contis in the next few months. So far, dry and wet handling is just excellent; couldn't imagine much better.

I didn't want to have a dedicated winter wheel set as my other car already has that, so was a bit lazy to swap wheel sets on 2 cars twice a year!
 
#79 ·
I finalized the deal on our Momentum+ today. The "selection specialist" at the dealer (passed off to my by the GM who i got referred to from connections at a sister Audi dealer) was severely uninformed on the benefits of snow tires and baffled by my insistence on them delivering the car this weekend with a mutally agreeable snow setup on the car. In the end, we're getting 235/55 Blizzak DM-V2s on the stock 19 inch wheels @ no charge and i'm fine with them keeping the stock no seasons, saves me the hassle of trying to sell them. This spring i'll figure out a summer package (20s on 275/45 Michelin Latitude Sports maybe?).
 
#87 ·
Good to know, thanks. I have a set of Pilot Super Sports for my STi that are hands down the best performance daily driver tire avaliable (though I haven't driven sport cups yet)
 
#83 ·
I'm not sure yet with the rim/tire combo. There aren't many aftermarket choices yet, so hopefully in a few more months here will be. I do know that with new rims, you would need to purchase a TPMS for each and have those programmed at the dealer.
 
#84 ·
You can purchase (directly or through a shop) a separate set of TPMS sensors that can be cloned to the same codes as the sensors in the stock wheels. Any decent tire shop or mechanic should be able to do this, just ask, call it $300 installed. Otherwise if the sensors have different codes then you have to reprogram with each swap which means a trip to a shop (no need to go to the dealer) or you can do it yourself with a $150 reset tool that you can use over and over again.

This assumes the car's software does not allow for multiple sets of TPMS sensor codes to be remembered, which would be lovely...
 
#90 ·
I definitely need to go out and pick those up, it will help stop dry rot as well. Have you ran A048's by any chance? I was thinking about picking up a set for autoX come summer.
 
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