A7 Prestige Winter Wheel and Tire Recommendation?

[ACHiPo289]

I'm looking at wheels and winter tires for an A7 with 19/255/40 all season tires. I live in Portland, so deep snow isn't an issue, but stopping and handling on ice, slush, light snow, and wet pavement are very important. Any recommendations? Thanks, Evan

[Reggie]

Originally Posted by ACHiPo289

I'm looking at wheels and winter tires for an A7 with 19/255/40 all season tires. I live in Portland, so deep snow isn't an issue, but stopping and handling on ice, slush, light snow, and wet pavement are very important.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Evan

I run 19" Dunlop 3Ds as my winter tires on my RS4 and they have been great for four seasons here in Colorado. As for wheels I would go with either Hartmann or OEM rims as these seem to be the strongest out there. It is always better to go one size down if you want to be safer in wheels (in your case 18") as the more narrow tire will give you more weight per sq inch that will squeeze out the water on ice and give you better traction. We do not get a lot of ice here in Colorado but I know you do in Portland (my daughter lives in Seattle)

[ACHiPo289]

Originally Posted by Reggie

I run 19" Dunlop 3Ds as my winter tires on my RS4 and they have been great for four seasons here in Colorado. As for wheels I would go with either Hartmann or OEM rims as these seem to be the strongest out there. It is always better to go one size down if you want to be safer in wheels (in your case 18") as the more narrow tire will give you more weight per sq inch that will squeeze out the water on ice and give you better traction. We do not get a lot of ice here in Colorado but I know you do in Portland (my daughter lives in Seattle)

Reggie,
Thanks! I hear good things about the Dunlops, as well as the Contis. I'm leaning toward the Blizaks or Alpins for improved ice handling, since that's the thing I'm most worried about. The thing is that wet and dry handling (and noise) really seems to suffer with the ice tires as opposed to the winter performance tires. It's tough to make a decision without a qualitative feeling for either. Also, looking at Tire Rack's scorecard, there's only about 0.6 improvement in any of the winter tires over the best all-seasons, which I know aren't great in Portland's nastiest weather. There are a lot of folks that run studs here, but I'm not crazy about that idea.

Are chains totally out of the question on the 19" set up?

Evan

[ACHiPo289]

Correction: I'm not leaning toward the Alpins, but rather the X-ice Xi2, which is an ice and snow tire rather than the winter performance-style.

Thanks again!

[uberwgn]

Originally Posted by ACHiPo289

but rather the X-ice Xi2, which is an ice and snow tire rather than the winter performance-style.

I bought this tire for my A4 and have been somewhat disappointed. I've put a total of 1500 miles on them so far and they are relatively quiet, handling is good, better than I would have expected. On the downside, the tread pattern is "closed" and the day I drove in the snow was a surprise. The first corner I took revealed a huge amount of sliding - - it was a real shorts-changing experience. While I'm not ready to write the tire off yet, I don't think I could recommend them for failing during modest cornering. I've had all the prominent brands of snow tires fitted to cars in the past, including the Mich Alpins, and never experienced such poor traction while going around a corner. I've only had the chance to drive in the snow once, and the roads had not been plowed and lots of people had been out driving. Maybe conditions were atypical, but the tire sure did not inspire any amount of confidence on that brief trip.

Apart from the cornering issue, stopping traction and hill climbing traction are as one would expect. "Handling" is very good for a snow tire. The set I have is just T rated. I could not find the H rated flavor anyway even though Michelin does say they were produced this season.

Frankly, we've got the Continental snow tire on our Avant and that is probably a much better all-around tire. They have been excellent over the past three seasons, good wear characteristics.

[ACHiPo289]

Thanks for your experience with the Xi2. I don't have to deal with deep snow, but I'd not be happy if snow and ice tires didn't work in snow.

[uberwgn]

I understand what you're trying to achieve, there must be a better solution. Maybe check-in with Gary at Tire Rack and see if you can share a few thoughts with him on the topic.

I had my reservations about this Michelin when I saw them for the first time. I did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling. I'm almost hesistant to drive the car on the highway with these tires. The sliding was that bad. OTOH, I don't know that we have any additional snow to look forward to this season. We've only had that one 6" event so far. It's been a complete drought.

[Gary@Tirerack.com]

Given what you're looking for in 255/40R19, I would suggest the Blizzak LM60 as the best available option in that size.

Winter http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AR8&...nter/index.jsp

[ACHiPo289]

Originally Posted by Gary@Tirerack.com

Given what you're looking for in 255/40R19, I would suggest the Blizzak LM60 as the best available option in that size.

Winter http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AR8&...nter/index.jsp

Thanks. I'm planning on getting a second set of wheels, so I'm not constrained the 19s. I didn't see any ice and snows at 19 or even 18 unless I missed it. I'm concerned that the performance winter tires like the LM60 won't be significantly better than good all-seasons on the black ice and slush in the hills (i.e. still scary slippery).

What about if "-2" down to 17s? There seem to be several options at that size for studless ice and snow. There doesn't, however, seem to be much selection in wheels for 17 x 7.5-8.0.

Finally, I see a lot of warnings about chains, but for the kind of weather we get, they work great. I'm just concerned about beating up the fenders and suspension. Does anybody have experience with the Spider Spikes (sic)?

[Gary@Tirerack.com]

The LM60 is indeed signifcantly better than an all season tire in snow and ice.

If you're trying to maximize winter traction, you'll need to minus size to 17" and use 235/55R17 with the Michelin Xice XI2.