srbarnes4ever

Say folks, has anyone looked into the possibility of using the stock 17" rims with a snow tire? I've found 17" versions of the Blizzak off of Tirerack that would fit the OEM rim and would certainly be a marked improvement over the RE92 in ALL aspects. What are the pros and cons you see to this tire.....Here is the link.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/bridge...blizz_mz01.jsp

akrus

iTrader: (1)

I had the MZ-01's on my 2k Lincoln LS (5spd man.) They were really good in the dry and rain, but put them in 3 or 4 inches of snow and they aren't that much fun. I had the Lincoln 'catch an edge' and spin out on me at about 80 km/h. By 'catch an edge' I mean that the wide center groove caught a frozen ridge. Picture something that a tractor trailer would leave between it's duallie wheels. I've had the other Blizzaks (WS-15) on a high performance Camaro (94 Z with ~380 hp) and, sure the MZ-01 do handle better, but the WS-15 were much more predictable. What makes a summer tire good is exactly what makes a winter tire bad. I decided to give up the dry road holding and go for pure snow/ice traction. The MZ-01's are ice/dry biased.

You didn't say where you were from, so maybe they'd be perfect for you. If you drive in slush at all, I would look at something else. Especially something narrower. I went with 215/65-16 Nokian Hak NRW's and I think that they are really too wide. I bought them on the advice of the tire guy, which I obviously trust. If we ever get any snow in Ontario, I'll let you know how they are.

Albert

bert

I have WS-50s, 205/65/15 on steel wheels, they are fine.

If you use your mags for winter they will flake and get pitted from the road salt. If you are leasing it may be less of an issue.

akrus

iTrader: (1)

15" steel wheels wouldn't fit on my 2k2 SE 6 stick. Alloys may, but I had to go to 16" steels.

Albert

srbarnes4ever

Thanks for the response, I'm in Kentucky so its hard to predict whether we'll have snow only or a snow/ice/slush mix. I guess I'll do some more investigating, I'm trying to minimize costs here and I figured not having to buy new wheels would be a significant savings, plus our last few winters have been relatively mild.....I'll have to see what other folks in the midwest region use for winter tires.

bigbadboss101

My question is what size tires would equal the stock 225 50 17?
Do you calculate by multiplying the 50% by 225 and get 112.5mm, and that being the amount of sidewall? So would 205 55 be the same?
The GLE has 215 55 17, and the GXE 215 55 16. That means the speedometer on these had to be adjusted?

I am thinking 17" snow tires will be expensive, and if I go to 16" it would be 205 55 16. If one wants to go to 60 series wouldn't it mean it has to be more narrow to keep the speedo in sync? 195 60 16? That would be skinny but good for traction.

I looked at tirerack and they have Blizzaks in LM-22 performance,
ws15, and ws50, which are little less $. The MZ01 ranked a little bit lower than the other Blizzaks.

Stereodude

You can get 15" steel wheels that will fit. Tirerack sells them. I'm going to put 15" steel wheels with Arctic Alpines on them on my 2002 SE when I get it.

Stereodude

akrus

iTrader: (1)

I would be extremely cautious about that. Discount Tire had 15's listed for the 2k2 Max as well. Even though they assured me that it would work, I decided to do a little more research on what tire I wanted. The next time I went to the site, it wasn't listed any longer. Just 16's. The guy at Steelcase tire and mag in Toronto even reassured me that the 15's would fit - 'I've done loads of Maxima's' he told me. When they tried the rims (tried 3 different 15's in all), none of them would fit. The caliper casting was a little too big. I read somewhere that one of the improvements on the 2k2 Max included larger brakes. Maybe someone can take a look at their 2k or 2k1 front driver side brake and compare it to the picture I have at http://www3.sympatico.ca/akrusvar/Susp/maxsusp002.jpg to see if there are obvious differences.

The tire guy figured there is no steel wheel that would fit in a 15 for my car. He does believe that some alloys would work because of the steeper hub faces that are possible to engineer on alloys compared to steel. Maybe tirerack is selling you alloys. They do that alot.

I'd be interested in knowing the outcome of your tire purchase when you get them.

Albert

Stereodude

Hmm... I may get steel 16's or some cheap alloy 16's then instead. Since I don't want, or need a long fight with TireRack.

Stereodude

akrus

iTrader: (1)

1) Theoretically you should be able to perform a mathematical calculation and get the dimensions you need, but you need to remember that there is no real consistency in the tire industry ie- a 215-55/16 from manufacturer A might have a rolling radius slightly larger than the same size from manufacturer B. The best way I've seen to get identical tires is to find out what the rotations per mile are. A couple of manufacturers used to use this, but I don't see it much anymore. The next best thing is manufacturer's width and diameter or circumference measurements.

2) 112.5 is correct, but that again will not be exact for most manufacturer's as they haven't standardized exactly where to take their measurements from. They are roughly the same, but there are variations none the less.

3)Doing the math

a)225 50 17=(225*50%*2)+(17*25.4)=881.8 mm total diameter with no load

b)215 55 17=(215*55%*2)+(17*25.4)=940.3 mm total diameter with no load

c)215 55 16=(215*55%*2)+(16*25.4)=914.9 mm total diameter with no load

the rolling kilometer:
tire a) 881.8*3.14/1000=2.768 m circuference
1000/2.8*1.6=571.4 rotations/mile

tire b) 940.3*3.14/1000=2.953 m circumference
1000/3*1.6=533.3 rotations/mile

tire c) 914.9*3.14/1000=2.872 m circumference
1000/2.9*1.6=551.7 rotations/mile

4) your assumption in paragraph 2 is correct. That said, some snow/ice tire thoughts don't follow the 'narrower is better' anymore. Because many tires are geared towards either snow or ice, there are two different approaches. Narrow with large voids in deep snow, but wide with many closely cut sipes on ice. Narrow to bite down, but wide to apply as many biting edges to the surface as possible when that surface is ice. Very important to know what is most critical to your driving environment.

5) search the org for some of my comments re: Blizzak MZ-01. I had these tires on my 2k Lincoln LS. In short, not overly impressed with them.

Sorry for the long post.

Albert