The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[zamler]

Cheapest? Pick N Pull.

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Do you guys buy rims for your winter tires and change em out yourself every season? Wondering what would be cheapest for me dad.

I don't care what my car looks like (one of them is a hail damaged 2008 Yaris), so I just buy steel rims and change them myself every spring and fall. They've paid for themselves several times over and it feels good to do the job yourself.

[sleepingmoose]

I bought some rims off Kijiji that matched my regular rims - it was cheaper than buying new steel rims. I change them myself as well. You just need somewhere to store them.

[chedder]

Just bought a set of factory aluminum rims for daughter's car at a wrecker. Pretty much the same as her rims and 3 out of 4 tpms worked so just had to get one for $40. $400 so 2 winters and they're paid off.

[wwkayaker]

Where can I get hub centric rings for an Acura MDX? The inside diameter is 64.1mm and outside is 80mm. Is this something special I need to order or would most tire shops carry these? I searched online but rings with the exact measurements are tough to locate.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Got mine done as Blaskin and Lane (now called Trail) on 16th Avenue. Those guys are just great - honest mechanics that look after you. They were able to get both my vehicles done on back to back days. Highly recommend.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Anyone have any familiarity with Westlake SW606 tires?

The local shop I tend to deal with threw in a quote on these (they have immediate access to them and not the Blizzak or xIce's that I was curious about a price on).

A quick Google search shows they're a good tire, but I feel like a Google search will tell me that about every tire.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

I don't care what my car looks like (one of them is a hail damaged 2008 Yaris), so I just buy steel rims and change them myself every spring and fall. They've paid for themselves several times over and it feels good to do the job yourself.

I believe if you have a set on a set of wheels, you can also pay AMA (as a member) $80-115 depending on membership tier to swap sets. They show up to your place to do it.

https://ama.ab.ca/auto/vehicle-maint...le-tire-change

This might not purely be a consideration for yourself, but if you have someone you do them for (ie: Parents) who you help manage for and having it done at their home would help a ton to avoid making a trip/dealing (on occasion) with huge lines at different auto shops.

[Sliver]

Hey guys. Need some help here.

I have staggered tire sizes on my car:
Front: 255/40/R18
Rear: 285/35/R18

I'm looking at getting winter tires and wheels. If I go with a non-staggered set (all at 255/40/R18) will it look weird/out of place/goofy? Is there a way to know an answer to that without more info?

It's a 2012 MB CLS550 if that factors in at all.

The reason I'd want to go with non-staggered is because it would save me a metric fata-ton of money.

[timun]

It depends on the backspacing of the wheels. I don't know the CLS well, but there's a good chance the backspacing is different between the front and rear axles. If you could find the right wheels it would look okay, but you'll never be able to rotate them front to back.

[photon]

This suggests that the offsets are the same front to back: https://tirewheelguide.com/sizes/mer...cl-class/2012/

But the wheel width is different, so if you went with the same wheels the tires in the back would be what, a half inch further into the wheel well?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

This suggests that the offsets are the same front to back: https://tirewheelguide.com/sizes/mer...cl-class/2012/

But the wheel width is different, so if you went with the same wheels the tires in the back would be what, a half inch further into the wheel well?

Hey Photon, that link you posted is for a CL, whereas mine is a CLS.

Here's the CLS: https://tirewheelguide.com/sizes/mer...ls-class/2012/

What in there tells you about the offset? I've never understood that, so whenever I buy used wheels I always just get ones from the exact model I have. In this case, the CLS isn't that popular so used is out of the question.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by timun

It depends on the backspacing of the wheels. I don't know the CLS well, but there's a good chance the backspacing is different between the front and rear axles. If you could find the right wheels it would look okay, but you'll never be able to rotate them front to back.

I could live with not rotating them. I wonder how you'd deal with the backspacing. Like, if I go to a tire shop will they just figure everything out for me, or do I have to go in there telling them how much offset and backspace and crap I want them to do? I found a set up I like on blackcircles, but I don't know if I'm fataing anything up due to my lack of understanding about backspacing and offsets.

[photon]

Whoops!

The ET number is the offset. So 34.5 for the front and 48 for the back.



So if you used rims that have a smaller offset it'll push the edge of the rim outwards? Which would counteract the narrower rim. The offset is in mm, so 13.5mm difference would push the wheel out 13.5mm but the 1 inch narrower rim would pull it back in by 1/2 an inch, so it would look almost the same?

I could have that totally wrong though, I never seem to properly understand offset.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Hey guys. Need some help here.

I have staggered tire sizes on my car:
Front: 255/40/R18
Rear: 285/35/R18

I'm looking at getting winter tires and wheels. If I go with a non-staggered set (all at 255/40/R18) will it look weird/out of place/goofy? Is there a way to know an answer to that without more info?

It's a 2012 MB CLS550 if that factors in at all.

The reason I'd want to go with non-staggered is because it would save me a metric fata-ton of money.

Since they're your winters, I wouldn't be too worried about the rear width being skinnier like the fronts. If it was for summers, then knowing the tune you're running I would say not to skimp on the tire width.


Offset explained and the impacts of changing offset: https://www.lesschwab.com/article/wh...el-offset.html

On the whole, the closer the offset is the 0, the better. Failing that, you want to find an offset and width that will work together with what you can fit based on your stock offset. What is the offset of the aftermarket wheel package?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

Whoops!

The ET number is the offset. So 34.5 for the front and 48 for the back.



So if you used rims that have a smaller offset it'll push the edge of the rim outwards? Which would counteract the narrower rim. The offset is in mm, so 13.5mm difference would push the wheel out 13.5mm but the 1 inch narrower rim would pull it back in by 1/2 an inch, so it would look almost the same?

I could have that totally wrong though, I never seem to properly understand offset.

Okay, crap. So I'm looking at some rims that are 8" wide with a +34.5mm offset. That would mean I'm 1/2" in from the fender on the rims +1.35" further in because of the offset. So I'm sucking the wheels in almost 2" inside the fenders on the front and even more on the back because the OEM wheels are 9.5 wide on the back. Man, that'll look dumb.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Since they're your winters, I wouldn't be too worried about the rear width being skinnier like the fronts. If it was for summers, then knowing the tune you're running I would say not to skimp on the tire width.


Offset explained and the impacts of changing offset: https://www.lesschwab.com/article/wh...el-offset.html

On the whole, the closer the offset is the 0, the better. Failing that, you want to find an offset and width that will work together with what you can fit based on your stock offset. What is the offset of the aftermarket wheel package?

I'm looking at one with an offset of 34.5 and one with an offset of 40.

I guess I've been assuming my current offset is 0, but I better go back and check that link Photon gave before I give up here.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I'm looking at one with an offset of 34.5 and one with an offset of 40.

I guess I've been assuming my current offset is 0, but I better go back and check that link Photon gave before I give up here.

Oh boy, I'm really blowing it here.

Looks like factory offset front is 34.5 and factory offset back is 48 so maybe this isn't as bad as I thought. Lemme do some math and see if I can wrap my brain around this. BRB

[Sliver]

Okay, I think front wheels with the 34.5 offset should be fine.

On the back, the OEM offset is 48. If I put the 34.5 offset on, that's like subtracting offset (maybe), so that should push them out toward the fender 14mm, which is good. Then maybe I take the 1.5 narrower wheel and divide by two (half on one side of centre and half on the other side of centre?), so then I guess I'm .75" - 14mm = 19mm - 14mm = 5mm. So if I understand this (I'm not sure I do), then maybe the rear wheels would only be sucked in like 5mm from factory, which is just fine IMO for winters.

I could have messed up literally every aspect of the above, though.

[photon]

The link says your current offsets are 34.5 for the front and 48 for the back.

So if you go with the rims that match your current, you'll get 1/4 of an inch further in on the front due to the narrower rims, and on the back it'd be 13.5mm outwards due to the lower offset of the rim, but 0.75" (19mm) inwards due to the narrower rims I think? So both front and back would look about 1/4" inwards compared to now?

Lol this is one of the reasons I just ended up getting winter tires and putting them on my existing wheels which are also staggered.

EDIT: Hah yeah we came to the same conclusion, but I trust my understanding of offset about as far as I can throw a wheel.