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Need Dedicated Snow Tire & Wheels Suggestions

O

Ornery

Lifer
I'm going to purchase some snow tires for my wife's Grand Marquis. Right now, it has alloy wheels with 225/60-16 Michelin Symmetrys on it. Slips and slides quite a bit. I checked our city's unmarked patrol cars, and the fire cheif's car, to see what they use. They put dedicated snow tires on, but not very high quality. One had Kelly "Wintermark Magna Grips" and the other had Pacemark Snowtrakker ST/2s, which are pretty cheap tires. They were also 15", so I don't know if it will be a problem finding cheap 16" tires or not.

A couple months ago, I found a site that showed the profile of tires and wheels, that you could superimpose over each other to see the difference in sizes. As I recall, the 215/70-15 tires on my Town Car were almost the same height as my wifes' 225/60-16s, if not taller. Does anybody know that site, or one like it, off hand?

Should I just pay to have these remounted and balanced every fall and spring, or buy the extra wheels for it? Should I go for steel wheels, and wheel covers, or buy a new set of alloys? I bet those things cost a royal fortune! (Confirmed) Is it possible that certain all season tires could perform as well as dedicated snows? I think if that were possible, our local patrol cars would use them, instead of putting snows on.


Edit:
 
My Town Car is an even bigger rwd boat, and it gets by pretty well with some cheapy General All Season tires. Our local patrol cars get by with whatever they use on them, and they're "huge rwd boats", too. There must be a solution!

Originally posted by: LAUST
steel wheels for the winter, just go cheap, that way if she hits a curb you can just go to the junkyard and get another one for $10 😉

If you have the space I do two sets.. mine are abit of a pain since they are 31" tires but it's better then sitting in a tire shop line and payin the $10 a tire
Click to expand...
So, you're saying to put new rubber and wheels on all four corners? I'd need some wheel covers too, I guess. Man, that's a lot of money. I'm trying to get the best bang for the buck, and not have it look too bad. The cop cars look OK, since they already use blackwalls on 15" steel wheels, with hub caps. I don't think my wife would care much for that... or would she? 😕
 
Go for cheap steel wheels and caps. Get the smaller tire size so width is less (grip will be better, while maintaining load rating.) Depending on casing design, a 225/60/16 is basically the same height as a 215/70/15. However wheels for the town car may have a different offset than the mercury, so may not be interchangeable.

If you live where it snows often, get a dedicated set of snows and just use them for the winter months. Much safer than all seasons.

<---Dealt with fleet Lincolns in NYC, horrible performance in snow...(but the city spends a million bucks an inch to remove the snow)...so usually its not too bad.
 
My fleet Crown Victoria has steel wheels and regular all season tires and I get around fine in snow. Thier are chains in the trunk for when it gets really bad. Maybe she just needs a bit more training on how to drive a RWD car in inclement weather. It can be very treacherous if you do not know what you are doing no matter how good the tires are. This is why FWD is better for most drivers. ( I know you won't like that, but I personally believe it is true based on the characteristics of RWD and the skill level/training of the average American driver)

I hear Bridgestone blizzaks are pretty good winter tires. The Kuhmo winter tires available at tirerack are also supposed to be pretty good. Does it snow a lot where you are? If so I would just order winter steel wheels and tires from tirerack. They will come to you mounted and balanced and all you will have to do is put them on. That will save you some money.
 
discount tire offers the ugly steel tires with winter rims for cheaper than tirerack.

if you want a good/decent set of winter tires, it's gonna cost you a bit.
 
"Maybe she just needs a bit more training on how to drive a RWD car in inclement weather."

She's only ever driven RWD cars for 28 years. She was right about the van, when she said it was slipping too much. The tires it came with (used) were crappy, so I put new ones on it. They weren't too good either. Later I put Michelin LTX tires on, and DAMN, they were so much better!

When she told me her car was slipping too much, I took it out for a test. She's right. There's no sand bags, or any other weight in the trunk, but I doubt that would help much.
 
I think putting sandbags and stuff is the worst thing you can do.
you throw out the balance of the car. Just get her a set of good snowtires. Those should last 3-4 seasons on moderate use.

 
I wouldn't even know where to look for Nokians.

Blizzak WS-50
  • Due to the revolutionary traction capabilities of the Blizzak, Bridgestone recommends using Blizzaks only in sets of four to provide the best handling characteristics and tire performance.
TireRack says that about every winter tire. Is that true?

This is going to look wonderful.
 
Thanks, they say they sell them at Consumer Tire, but if I know that place, they'll have to order them, and there's no way to make them match prices, since they're the only outlet within 70 miles.

I showed my wife what her car would look like with steel rims on the back and alloys in the front. I also told her it would be twice the price to put them on all four. Since the snow has melted around here, she doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry to go forward with it. Maybe this is the solution...
 
Ornery,
They're the best damn snows money can buy. I have the Hakka 2's and although they're pricey, well worth the $. I can't imagine driving in the snow with any other tire now.
 
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