Winter Tire Setup

[Randy Schmidt]

Anyone in the north going to run a winter set of tires or wheel/tire combo?

Looked on Discountire.com and couldn't find any "real" snow/ice rated tires...

Any help would be most appreciated. Not going to change wheels... So looking for a winter only tire in a 22".

 

[rumline]

This is the only one I found so far, but Blizzak's are a decent choice:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...ne&tireModel=Blizzak+DM-V2&partnum=845TR2DMV2
The problem with Blizzak's is only the outer 50% tread depth is any good in the ice/snow, the rest is a harder compound.

Edit: also found Toyo Observe G3-Ice available in 285/45R22

 

[rs4-380]

Have you considered a dedicated wheel/tire setup? You can get a 17” setup with steel wheels for less then just a set of 22” blizzaks (tire rack). There are obviously many more tire and wheel options in the smaller wheel sizes (17,18, even 20). Normally you need to factor in the cost of 2x/year tire changeovers to make a dedicated setup to make financial sense, but in this case it’s s no-brainer

 

[marcel]

agree with rs4, a dedicated wheel/tire is worth, free swaps and no winter damage to your expensive 22” as well as potential tire change marks!

also 17” tires will have much higher sidewall, better traction!

I recommend nokian r2 or r3 tires, I use the r2 but recently noticed they updated to r3 version, it’s definitely available in the 18” size so probably also 17”

 

[rumline]

It just depends. For me I don't have a lot of room (aka don't want to give up a lot of room) in the garage for wheels and tires. We have a three-car garage and three cars that I like to keep parked indoors out of the snow/hail/etc. Currently I switch out just the rubber and I can hump those up a ladder and into shelves that hang from the roof of my garage. If it was wheel + tire I wouldn't be able to lift them over my head and up a ladder.

With that said I really like the idea of wheel + tire sets so I could just switch them out at home. First world problems.

 

[Yukon Joe]

@Randy Schmidt
If you're willing to go with a smaller wheel, I'd recommend the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac tire. Ran them for many winters on my Raptor. I recommend them because I have trusted them and they have performed much better than I'll could have imagined.

Cooper used to be my go to tire, but after I quite getting stuck using the Duratrac tire, I can't recommend Cooper any longer.

@Yukon Joe

 

[1111ExpyEL1111]

Nokian all the way if you can find them. BEST winter tire made. Just research where they are made and how they test them.

 

[rumline]

Nokian all the way if you can find them. BEST winter tire made. Just research where they are made and how they test them.

I agree. They make the Rotiiva AT in 275/55R20 which is an on/off road "all weather" tire (softer tread compound than all season. I use these on my Jeep for Spring through Fall and they're great) but I don't see any winter tires they make that will fit.

 

[5150 pops]

I bought a set of used rims off eBay that are almost identical (exact same design) to what came on my 18. The entire face is machined, where my 18 wheels have every other spoke painted charcoal.
~$450
Plus I bought a new set of dedicated ice/snow tires, ~$400 and a set of new tpms sensors with the "learning tool" another $100.

We don't normally get bad snow, but we do always get a crapton of ice, and ice storms. I have my own manual tire changer (no-mar classic).

 

[5150 pops]

I got these for ~$625 including shipping for a set of 4...
GENERAL Grabber Arctic 275/65R18XL 116T

 

[5150 pops]

Here are some pics of the stock rims vs. the rims I bought 2nd hand from a shop in Indiana via eBay. They were packed extraordinarily well, imo, as well as the tires.

 

[5150 pops]

Pics

 

[NyackRob79]

Mine is a lease, so I'm not spending any money on dedicated winter rims, but I did buy Bridgestone Blizzak P285/45R-22 off TireRack for $1100. It's the only winter tire available for the 22" size on my Platinum. Best get them early before the tire sells out in Oct/Nov. The way I figure, with our 49k mile lease, the OEM all-seasons will be finished at around 35k miles, so if I'm going to have to buy a new set of tires for the term of this lease, it might as well be dedicated winter ones. Excited to put these on sometime in November.