Freelander winter tire selection

Hi:

My 2003 Freelander skids a lot this morning and I'm researching for winter tires option. Based on the car's spec, the tire size should be

225/55R17 and I'm looking into the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50, Goodyear Eagle Ultra Grip, or Toyo Garit HT of the spec size. While calling to the dealer, they said their winter package for Freelander has different tire size of 205/75R15 (Toyo G-02 plus with the OEM steel wheel), and they said the steel wheel cannot be found elsewhere.

I'm now confused, so my questions are:

1) should I stick with the spec size of the current tires for winter tires 2) should I buy winter tires of the dealer's winter package tire size? 3) if I want to buy another set of wheels, what would be the right size of the steel wheels for (1) or (2)? Is the dealer only place I should get the right steel wheels for Freelander?

Btw, I'm located in Canada

Reply to
liuk
Loading thread data ...

The general view on snow tyres is that should be narrow so that they can use the cars weight to bet below the surface of the snow to more grippy stuff underneath.

Of course the reason the Freelander slid about a bit this morning may be more to do with your driving style than any inadequacies in the tyres. No offence meant in the above observation :-))

You can almost certainly for 205 tyres to the same rims as your 225's. I'm not sure why they would suggest steel wheels, except that they will be less brittle and therefore less prone to catastrophic failure in the event you hit something hard, at very low temperatures than cast aluminium (or even aluminum) ones.

Regards Steve G

Reply to
SteveG

Don't know about Canada but in Germany most drivers have two sets of wheels with winter and summer tyres. AFAIK its a condition of the insurance companies. So people have nice alloys for eight/nine months and steel (cheaper) wheels with chunkier tyres for the winter. The standard tyres on my 2002 Freelander are classified as all season in Germany so I only have one set of wheels and tyres. In Norway by law they use studded tyres in winter and if I lived somewhere with serious/predictable snow I would get a second set of steel wheels with studded tyres. I'd ask Landrover Technical Department about the options.

*************************************************** big_giblets snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
Reply to
Big Giblets

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.