well that sucks! It's great for you, but the rest of us who bought into the front to back size diff. are now stuck with tires that cannot be rotated. Anyone else run the same size all around last winter?

'04 coupe6mt
ivory premium aero

92 plymouth laser AWD
heavily modified for solo II
11.51@118 on 215/55 goodyear eagles

03 dodge ram quadcab 4X4 Hemi

 

Having a staggered setup might not be all that bad, you have to look at it from a different viewpoint.

1) You must keep diameter and rotation about the same as stock. So if you go with LM22s for example, you can do a 235/50/17 or 245/45/18 stock size. But if you wanted to go with a more agressive winter tire like the WS50s, then you would want to choose 225/55/17 since this is a lot closer to stock size. The drawback of course is that you cannot rotate the tires with the fronts.

My dilemna is do I go with the LM22s and stay stock all around (17s), or do I go with the WS50s and go with 225/55 in back and hope that the 10mm narrower tire won't contribute to poor driving in the wet or dry, although it should help on snow and ice since narrower is better.

Do you guys think that the LM22s can bite into the snow as much as the WS50s, or even 90% equivalent ??

 

A staggered setup isn't necessary. If you live in Canada, buy a thin and agressive winter tire (Bridgestone WS 50, Toyo G-02 Plus, Nokian Hakka, etc.) and forget about the LM22 or the Pirelli. My personal setup is:

Toyo G-02 Plus 215/60/16 (T rated) all around.
Dry: moderate
Snow: moderate
Ice: moderate
In my opinion, this car needs all-wheel drive for harsh winter.

 

The WS50 205/65R16 has the same diameter as the rear pilot 245/45R18 and is 1" bigger than the front 225/45R18.
I haven't tried these yet but this is what is recommended by my dealer. A wide rear tire is not great in snow. I don't expect to be driving aggressively in the winter. I do expect to be driving carefully and defensively for 4 months then Vrooooooom!;^)

 

To add some more value to this already useful post, I thought I would comment on winter tires, and list some of the more popular ones out there. Here's one thing to keep in mind (at least in my personal opinion)

Unless you plan on driving your car on highways at 100+ MPH in the winter, then you may be wasting your money and traction by going with High Performance Winter Tires. These high speed tires are meant for people who rarely see snow or ice, maybe for the occasional trickle powder coating of snow on the roads. By gaining in handling, cornering etc on dry roads , this category of tire will sacrifice some, and I say only some, snow and ice traction.

If you have serious snow fall in your area, avoid the Performace Winter category and stick with the Studless Ice & Snow category. For example, the LM22 is an excellent Performance Winter where as its counterpart Studless Ice & Snow is the WS50. Almost every tire company has a tire in each category. My point is this, figure out your annual snowfall, compare that to your driving habits, and that should determine what category of tire you need.

I know for me, here in the cold "white" north of Canada (Montreal), I really don't have a choice. I can't afford to care about high speed dry road performance driving, I need the serious grip of the Ice & Snow category of tires.

Michelin:
Pilot Alpin & Alpin PA2 (Perf)
Artic Alpin (I&S)
XICE (I&S)

Pirelli:
Winter 210 & 240 (Perf)
Winter Carving (I&S)

Bridgestone:
Blizzak LM22 & LM25 (Perf)
Blizzak WS50 (I&S)

Dunlop:
Winter Sport M2 & M3 (Perf)
Graspic DS-1 & DS-2 (I&S)

 

has anyone had any experience with the hankook w300 winter performance tire? i'm thinking of running 225/50/17's all over, after reading a couple of posts saying that staggering is not necessary.

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...d=007926&ar=50

they're $98 per tire on www.discounttiredirect.com, comes out to $900 with a set of wheels and hazard protection (free shipping).

 

2001 Dodge Ram 4x4. G in the garage.

Mark

2003 Sedan AT. Sport Aero Ivory Pearl/ Willow
20% tint. Z-tube. Clear Corners w/ PIAA.
Aluminum Pedals

 

I will be running Dunlop Winter Sport M3 tires
Size 225X55X17
Rims ASA KA 3
Size 17X7.5

Total cost including 4 center rings, 20 lugs for rims, socket for lugs mounting/balance and shipping
$1244.00


I will be mounting them on my car this Friday 11/19.....
I will take some pics of the device I made to lift the car at the recomended jack points using a low profile floor jack....

I know many people hear rant and rave about using the same size tires all around, due to the factory stagger set up..

I was skeptical myself, but with the advice of several memblers of this forum who have already gone with my set up, I feel quite confident that I will not have a problem....

I usually make a point of driving quite conservatively and consistently in inclement weather, so unless I have to make an exteme manuever to avoid an accident, I do not see any VDC/ABS problems....Chances are in a situation like that the normal set up would trigger the VDC anyway....

I should have some pics and comments about the set up by the weekend


04 cpe JDM clear corners/Piaa's/MTEC H4 Super White fog/highs

 

I have a 6MT Coupe and I bought a set of used 17" 350z wheels with pilot sport all seasons for $330. Fronts have a lot of tread left and the rears have about 1k-2k miles of life left. i will probably just get snow tires (blizzaks) for the rears and use the all seasons for the front.

 

Just recieved my today ASA JH3 with the blizzaks WS50. The door man was pretty surprized about the tire and rims becuase they said it's the first time anyone had ordered tires to the apartment. I heard some tenants were asking who actually buys tire and not get it done at the dealer. Maybe because I live in downtown manhattan
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by yah on 11/17/04 11:37 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

GR8TG35 -

I am surprised you did a 225/55 setup all around versus the 225/50. I understand that you get a higher profile all around, and I also made some calculations, and here are my findings regarding this setup:

Front:
stock: 225/50/17 or 225/45/18
winter: 225/50/17 (same stock 17, -0.2% off stock 18)
winter: 225/55/17 (3.4% off stock 17, 3% off stock 18)

Rear:
stock: 235/50/17 or 245/45/18
winter: 225/50/17 (-1.5% of stock 17, -3.1% of stock 18)
winter: 225/55/17 (1.9% of stock 17, 0.2% of stock 18)

With these calculations, it seems like the better setup is to have the 225/50 in front (stock), and have the 225/55 in back, which comes closer to the stock sizes, and gives you more sidewall & tread than the 225/50 setup.

Trust me, I am not knocking the 225/55 all around setup, I am having the same dilemna right now. Do I trade maintaining the stock diameters for the convenience of tire rotation in all 4 corners. This is the famous question .....

 

neils......Please don't follow my lead if your not comfortable with my decision....

I don't condone the use of any tires not recommended by a tire/dealer store...

I, like you, was very torn about finding exact sizing from my original 18" set up....

I searched the boards, and found a few of the members who were recommended my setup by the actual dealership.
From their experiences and testimony, I came to the conclusion that this is what I wanted to go with..
None of the people had any problems with VDC/ABS, and they still have the option of rotation each year......

I drive during the winter months approximately 10,000 miles. So, I figured the option of rotation would give me at least 2-3 seasons before they were useless.......

I will install the rims and tires tomorrow, and will post some pics and my observations good or bad at that time.....I'm hoping my choice was the right one for my situation....



04 cpe JDM clear corners/Piaa's/MTEC H4 Super White fog/highs

 

My Dunlop Winter Sport tires (4) 225/55/17
Rims ASA KA3 17x7.5 silver finish

Entire removal and remounting process took a little over 1 hr. including cleaning and storage of my Pilots....

You will need to remove the 12mm bolt and sleeve off the front hubs in order to mount any aftermarket rims.....This is in place so you cannot put the OEM back rims on the front and vice versa

Impressions.....on my first test drive the SLIP light flashed twice, and then never came back on despite all my efforts to activate it...
No problems with the ABS either, all worked very well......

Ride......after about 60 miles I can say the ride is less harsh compared to the Pilots, because of a larger side wall. Road noise is diminished considerably, but time will tell if they become louder as they wear in.....

Handling.....Not in the Pilot Sports category, but they are well behaved considering they are snow tires.....Now for the snow...where it really counts!!!

I feel confident in my choice, and a special thanks to gsedanman and Blitzjb for their input which helped me greatly with my selections.....

 

Pic 2

 

Pic 3