Help me buy snow tires and wheels?

Stay with all seasons and be careful when driving in the snow.

--Vic

Snow tires are good on unplowed snow. If they don't plow the roads where you live and loose snow stays for days at a time, then go with snow tires. Otherwise don't bother.

The difference is like night and day.

Why? Are you actually driving in such a way that you need super sticky tires for dry pavement?

Go to a junkyard. Get some used rims.

I don't know. Possibly it's because the number of V-rated snow tires is limited and that was all they could get for you.

That's fine too, but it'll cost you a bit more in the long run. My dad did it for years.

--scott

Might as well go with the 14" rims assuming they will clear your brakes because snow tires work best when they are tall and skinny. You don't need low profile sidewalls in snow, you're not going to be developing any significant G-forces. A 60 series 14" tire will be less expensive than a 50 series 15" tire.

an example, my Porsche 944 if you read the owner's manual, they recommend 215/60VR15 tires for summer and 195/65R15 for winter. (of course, TR's database did not list the 195/65 recommendation, so I had to agree to some waiver or other before they'd send me the tires...)

call 'em up and see what they say, maybe you're just not finding the steel wheel option on their web site? Or call a junkyard, maybe they have some 14" steelies from a base model Protege that they'll sell you for cheap. Might want to wave a spray can at used rims before putting them on, and have the tire shop spin 'em up and check for runout before you have the tires mounted.

If your car uses lug bolts instead of lug studs, make sure you don't need different bolts when switching from alloy to steel wheels or vice versa (VW does this. I can tell you from experience that the alloy wheel lug bolts do not work on the rear drums. Got stuck one night with a flat and my spare was a steel wheel... oops.)

Good luck

nate

Depends on the car and the summer tires.

The only reasonably priced summer tires available for my 944 (Yoko AVS) are NOT all-season. They suh-huh-huck on snow. Of course it is an evenly balanced RWD car which doesn't help matters any. I (heart) my dedicated snow tires.

nate

Ahhhh...so THAT is the reason!

Thanks

does there exist any fast an EASY on/off tire chains or treads one could use instead of snow tires?

or improvise something such as dog collars thru wheels and around all season tire and cinched TIGHT?

Nate probably has more current information, but we used to use an easily installed device called a Knipetak. It looked something like a large four pronged claw and installed easily on the tires. It was good ONLY for slow speeds, heavy snow, as around a ski resort. I dont know if it is still available. You would definitely not use this all season.

There are some "chains" that are really made of multi strand cable, and some of those are easy to put on.

But, IMHO, all these are a PITA compared to having good snow tires.

Pretty decent prices here.

I really don't. Where I live now we maybe get one good snowstorm a year, but I found that it's easier just to have snow tires on three months out of the year and then *know* that I can get around in all weather. (especially so since my company vehicle for the last few years has not had good snow tires on it - I hated the Goodyear Integrities that they came with from the factory, so if it was really bad out I'd drive my own vehicle rather than risk an unintended wheel/ curb interface.) Back when I lived in areas that got Real Snow (tm) I was driving beater FWD VWs which didn't seem to much care what tires you put on them - I remember being caught in a freak early snowstorm with Yokohama A509s (one step below the A008s) on my Wabbit GTI and they worked unbelievably well. I was astounded, honestly.

nate

The cheapest Cooper 'performance' tire I could buy for an old Celica I paid $250 for. I believe it was the Cooper Cobra GT. $65 each.

I drove the car one day that they weren't predicting sonw, and, sure enough, it snowed. It snowed HARD! Knowing certain models of Toyotas were horrible in snow (1980 Corolla SR-5, '85 Corolla GT-S and of course, my '85 Celica GT-S) I feared the worst for the ride home. NO PROBLEM!!! I drove the car again the next time it snowed, and the grip was incredible!