Hey everyone, so it's almost time for my cars first winter (with me) and I am really considering getting winter wheels/tires. Here is what I am thinking.
I have never changed wheels/tires specifically for the winter but last year I got into an accident because some Ishtbag cut me off and slammed on his breaks so I figured $650 was a cheap insurance for better stopping/handling. I don't know much about them but have done some research and think these will work well enough.
See if you can't get a set of steelies at a junkyard. Take em home, sand them up a little bit and throw a couple coats of Rustoleum on them and they'll look fine.
Tirerack has new 15" wheels as low as 82.00 a piece. If you also buy your snow tires from them with the wheels, they will mount and balance them for free and deliver them with new lug nuts ready for immediate installation. It's pretty convenient when you think about it. Discount Tire has similar packages as well.
Most tire companies recommend 5.5 to 7" wheel width for a 195/60-15 snow tire (wheel width recommendations are available on Tirerack's web site for each tire (size) they carry). 6" wide rims would be more or less ideal for that tire size. FWIW, stock Focus 15" alloys are 6 inches wide.
As for the craiglist tires, they look like a lot of the fine sipping is worn off. That's the most important part of a snow tire. They probably spent a good deal of the "claimed" 4000 miles of bare warm pavement for that to happen so soon. 250.00 maybe a little high for a no name snow tire so I think I'd offer less if you're really interested in them.
Siping are those very thin zig zag grooves ( look like razor cuts). The more of them the better. Look at some of the snow tire treads on Tirerack to see what a fresh tread looks like.
Thanks Much for the advice, decided not to go with those and I am now considering getting some on the cheap. I found a set of steelies near me so I think I am just going to get them.
One question, will a 14" rim fit my car if I have stock breaks up front and rear disk upgrade in the rear? I was also thinking of mounting these bad boys on the wheel:
One question, will a 14" rim fit my car if I have stock breaks up front and rear disk upgrade in the rear? I was also thinking of mounting these bad boys on the wheel:
Thoughts, Comments, Questions? I would love to hear them!
Well, in my quest to find winter rims I inadvertently found a new set of summer rims I want to buy. Weird how that works out.
Here are the Winter rims I am going to get, instead of those steelies I had posted earlier. I wanted to get some nice rims but then realized that was really dumb because they would probably just get wrecked.
They are Montegi Tracklite rims with a gunmetal finish and a polished lip. Would be better if they were solid gunmetal but @ just over 12lbs a piece, I think I can make them work [grinking].
I plan on buying some Blizzaks from discount tire for the steelies because parts of MN are already getting blasted by snow so I can tell this winter is going to suck [thumbd]
EDIT: Just got some pics of the rims (wheels).... Tires will get replaced as soon as I throw my winter set on. What do you bastards think?
The open end design is great for race cars (where they are removed and reinstalled frequently) but they can seize up in harsh conditions on a daily driver. You can use a lubrication to prevent that problem but then you face the problem of the lug nut not being able to retain torque settings.
sorry dont mean to hijack the thread, but I have a 2002 ford focus SE(stock size is 195/60/15) and was looking to get a downsize to 14 inch rims for winter.
But I am slightly confused with the size because I know the 2002 focus lx model came with 14 inch rims with 185/65/14 tire size. So when i use the tire calculator comparing the 195/60/15 vs the 185/65/14 size there is a difference of 3.1%.
Generally you want to be within 3%...............I am confused that if it was a stock size then should it now be spot on or very close?
I don't think it would be a problem as the 185/65-14 is the stock size tire that came on the Foci equipped with 14" wheels. If you're concerned, why not stick with 15's? I really think this is is an ideal size for snow tires on a Focus. There's lots of tire (and wheel) selection available at very reasonable prices.
It's just that I found it weird that there was that huge difference. I mean 185/70/14 is the better size.
I already bought the 185/65/14 because that's the downsize the shop suggested. So out of curiosity I checked it with the tire calculator and was intrigued with the percent difference because it is a oem size.
just makes me 2nd guess myself.
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