With winter quickly approaching, now is the the best time to start looking at purchasing winter tires. Winter tires add much needed traction for controlled acceleration and sudden stops on icy and snow covered roads. They even save you money on tire wear in the long run if you run dedicated winter and summer tires. Plus many insurance companies offer discounts on having a set of 4 installed. Lastly, they can save your life. Recently manufactures have started to equip vehicles from the factory with 18",19" and 20" rims. Buying these size winter tires and rims can be really expensive. Down sizing winter tires and rims may be beneficial to some people. Pros: Cheaper (in most cases) to buy smaller rims and tires Narrower tires can cut through the snow as opposed to plow through it Larger stiffer tire side walls and smaller rims (if you hit a curb it will hit the tire and not the rim) Better fuel efficiency (smaller rims and tires weight less and are easier to turn) Larger selection of tires available to choose from (19-20" winter tires are typically low volume special order from a handful of companies) Cons: May not fit over larger brake calipers Speedometer can be off by up to 5-10% Reduced dry road handling/braking (not a big concern in the winter) Example: 18" 55 Series, OEM tire size: 255/55R18, Option #1: 235/60R18 Option -1 Size: 235/65R17 Option -2 Size: 235/70R16 In this example someone's car came with 18" rims but they have the option to size down to 16" rims. The tire width is smaller as well as the rim size but the tire height is almost identical to the OEM size. OEM Size 255/55R18 VS Option -2 235/70R16 Change Diameter: 29" 29" 0% Width: 10" 9.3" -7% Sidewall: 5.5" 6.5" +18.2% Circum: 91.2" 90.9" 0% Revs/Mile: 695 697 +2 Comparing the two tires, they would ride at the same height. The 16" rim would have a larger tire sidewall, narrower tire and the speedometer would read the same as OEM. Below is a tire conversion chart: https://www.sendspace.com/file/84rktr
Hey, my wife just had a blow out on one of her winter tires which are like two seasons old, can i just replace the two drive wheels and keep the two current one, its not a 4x4, its a FWD. was hoping to just get new ones for the front wheels.
