spijun

I support the option of summer and winter tires and here's why:






Season classifications
Summer tyres

Summer tyres are optimised for mild conditions. They can be used year-round in many regions, but performance decreases below 7°C.
Benefits

Optimal grip and handling in milder weather
Reduced noise

Limitations

Reduced grip in cold weather
Unsuitable for snow and ice

All season tyres

All season tyres are a practical solution for regions with short snow seasons. They give acceptable performance on wet, dry, mud and light snow.
Benefits

Consistent grip in warm and cold temperatures
Good traction on light snow and mud
No need to change tyres when winter strikes

Limitations

Reduced grip in extremely cold weather (below 0 °C)
Limited traction on heavy snow and ice

Winter tyres

Winter tyres are optimised for cold weather conditions (below 7 °C). Treads are designed for high traction and braking force on snow and ice.
Benefits

Rubber stays soft and grippy in extremely cold weather
High traction on severe snow, ice and slush

Limitations

Dry handling is less than optimal
Prone to wear in mild weather

Gossip Girl

The 19x7 for the SQ5 seems really skinny. Where did you get this data? Thanks.

spijun

Post #11
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2851963

from the official website Audi.de
http://www.audi.de/de/brand/de/neuwa...er-reifen.html

Reggie

Good advice from Donna

I recommend Hartmann rims - or OEM as you want a tough wheel for a SUV

BTW I went 19s and snow tires for my Q5

idale

Don't you want skinny wheels for snow use? (Not an issue here in Texas, but I seem to recall that you want to be skinnier rather than wider, and spijun noted that this was only for winter use.)

Gossip Girl

Yes I do want skinny wheels but not if they don't fit. I can't believe 7" wheels will fit on that car with those brakes.

MP4.2+6.0

Actually not much of a debate in most circles; the "normal" advice as you suggest is to reduce the tread width by several notches relative to stock, and certainly not to go wider toward the optional sizes. Pushing up the aspect ratio also helps protect the wheels from the winter pothole stuff. Thus on a Q5, that means probably the 235's at most and by this line of thinking, yet less, and in turn down into the 7 or 7 1/2" wheels if headed below the 235's. The underlying rationale is the narrower tire width helps push the road wheel down through the snow crud and loose ice and get a surer line on the pavement/road. From having driven with 255 and even 275's in both snows and A/S's in these conditions many times and been being able to contrast it with other similar weight vehicles with anything from 195's, 215's, 225's and 235's on three different > 4000 lb. AWD vehicles, there is something to this. Basically with the wider tires, the vehicle feels more floaty as speeds increase. It doesn't come remotely close to spinning or losing any grip at rational/pruent speeds for winter driving on serious crud, but it's a little unsettling if you aren't familiar w/ it.

HOWEVER, being a contrarian here, I've settled more toward OE regular sizing on winter widths rather than the narrow sizing. First, driving on an interstate at 60MPH with lots of crud on the road is not a great idea, TV commercial macho stuff or not. First time you have to hit the brakes in a panic scenario, or especially after one of the many, many underequipped A/S vehicles driven by those with little snow experience spins into your area of the road, good luck. In CA, it's a real issue in the mountains because many are non-locals and have little or no harsh winter driving experience. But more specifically, my scariest experience in Sierra local conditions have been ice related stops on hard frozen pavement, often shortly after it's been plowed. There I can literally skid an A/S equipped AWD vehicle 1-200 feet on a slight downslope from < 25MPH, and dozens of feet in crawling interstate snow traffic (with somewhat less slope and the road surface looser packed) for that matter. By contrast, with snow tires, the drama largely goes away. In turn, actually as I broaden out the tread in that specific scenario, I'm getting more sipes onto a hard icy surface to get some incremental braking traction. And net, I'll trade some high speed "stability" where both the road conditions and the sped limits (widely ignored 30MPH in CA when chains required) don't really allow it, for some panic stop on ice improvement. Since I have a T intersection with a stop sign a the end of the downslope on my second home street and it can remain iced for days for several hundred feet or more up the road, I've both experienced the delta and seen more than a few vehicles (or their grill "footprint") stuck in the opposite snow bank to reinforce my own take on it. The other 90% + of the miles out of the real snow in winter meanwhile let me drive on a performance snow set up and with the greater cornering and braking of the more generous tire on dry or rain pavement.

MP4.2+6.0

Width and diameter are independent. For the SQ brakes, it's already confirmed from the Audi parts listing the 19's go. Since the SQ brakes are 380MM, I suspect even (the right) 18's will clear. On my D3 A8 W12 with 385mm factory brakes (shared w/ the D3 S8 and C6 S6), even the baseline OE 18's will fit, and indeed the factory spare in the car with the 20's is a full size baseline 18. I also know I could buy down into the 7" range for factory snows even on that vehicle, which is in the same weight class as any of the 6 cylinder motor Q5's (including TDI and SQ), or the Hybrid for that matter. You do have to be a bit careful with the side clearance of the brakes too, but since Audi/ATe/Girling/Brembo/others started streamlining the brake calipers in this regard about 10 years ago, it doesn't seem to come up as much; using a more aggressive offset in the given width is also a practical way around this since it tends to open up clearance somewhat in the spoke area of the wheel where those conflicts with the side of the brake caliper can occur.

Even my now underwhelming but similar weight Chrysler and Toyota AWD minivans did it with factory wheel widths of 6 1/2 to 7", and with OE 215's and 225's. D2 A8's for that matter with similar HP from the old 4.2 to the higher performance Q's from as recently as about 10 years ago used to come with regular tires in about the 225 range; D2's had the particularly clunky but nice old HP2 brakes too with lots of side clearance problems (also used on early 2.7T's and C5 4.2's). I like bigger wheels and tires too, but admittedly much of this is about fashion and look, not performance. Performance would tend to be smaller wheels (more like 18's) with wider and correspondingly lower aspect rubber in summer, somewhat lesser in winter. That's what would be found on the track--not that anyone would seriously track these. Given what's out there in Q5 wheels and tire fitments, I suspect the sleeper fitment may be 255/50-19's on stock 19" wheels with more aggressive bars to balance out these factors, but that's a longer subject, and off track from the winter part of this thread.

MP4.2+6.0

See the link. It's in German, but still can be used. Once you click on it, fill in either a Q5 or an SQ5 at the part of the page just under the moving image where the drop down choices are. You can then sort and see various options over on the German side for Q5's and SQ5's (the pumped up TDI flavor for them). Chrome or something similar can translate for you, but most of the needed info is numerical anyway.

Putting aside the wheel choices themselves and the big bucks (Euro) pricing for OE at retail, you can see the various specific tire fitments Audi suggests in winter set ups, and the related wheel sizes in 17's and 20's. In between with 18's or 19's, you can get there as a DIY at various widths and aspect ratios (including the obvious OE sizes) as long as you end up with the approx. 29" tire diameter for the vehicle. 18" OE wheels frankly sit by the month on eBay and hardly seem to move, and 19" wheels are pretty easy to come by too. Only the OE 20's (not winter specific) command bigger prices and are scarce.

https://shops.audi.com/de_DE/web/zub...=Kompletträder

Also, a bit the wrong time of year just now, but TireRack's site can also get you there. Here is one result I got by selecting a 2015 Q5 3.0T: http://www.tirerack.com/snow/WinterP...r=Premium+Plus They don't have an SQ listing yet, but that is already in Audi's above, and could also be approached w/ no more than a 19" choice (18" being TBD, and 20" already known) from the info already available.

bjweber

I started this thread and wanted to thank everyone for all of the advice on snow tire options. I picked up my new Estoril blue SQ5 this afternoon and have been driving it around for a few hours. I think this car is going to be a lot of fun!