porsche man

Just struggled removing the winter wheels and installing the summers today and realize the winters are ugly AF. Thinking about replacing with 20" Blizzak's. What have been some experiences with that setup? Currently running 18" Blizzaks and the car is a beast in the snow,I know the smaller the tire. I hate my rims and the looks of the smaller tire.

Also, it was built per the Monroney sticker with 20" wheels, but the spare reads 18?" 2013 PP and the rims on it when I bought it used were the "Blades." Which I swore when I sold them they were 19." TIA!

bspurloc

I am wondering if you ever tried to use the normal all season tires in the winter?
My main car for the last 30 years has been rear wheel drive which I get studded tires in the winter.
When I drive this car in the winter on normal all season tires I notice how crazy the QUATTRO system is especially compare to other AWD systems.
So it seems silly to me this car needs special winter tires for snow.

porsche man

20" Conti DSW brand new are still scary on the interstate. i live in Chicago and would probably not run snow tires, but I frequently travel north to Wisconsin and Michigan for snowmobiling. My white knuckle driving days are over. Older....wiser.

bspurloc

Lol I grabbed this Q7 so I could stop playing with my life in my rear wheel drive car in winters lol.
People in suv's on snowy roads annoy me lol, i'm always passing them and driving faster in rear wheel drive with no issues it always made for an "exciting" drive to work lol
This car in the snow, I always tell people is the most boring thing ever. I've driven in blizzards and still the drive is boring lol. but u have to see it in my perspective lol, I've driven in blizzards tons of times with rear wheel drive and its crazy! so this car is super boring lol.

dreadlocks

Have you considered the price? its like $700 for a set of Blizacks for 18s, and $1100 for 20's.. Given how absurdly the blizacks wear down I'd be lucky to get two winters out of em.. and also consider potholes, I deal with blizzards and hard winters here, and I have my doubts that 20's would survive some of our potholes at speed with so lil sidewall.. changing tires in the winter sucks hard.

There's a good reason why people put smaller wheels on if they have dedicated winters.. but who am I to talk, I rock 17s every day of the year and love the look..

FYI, Spares are not full size clearly, what matters is you match the OEM outer diameter if you wish to use it.

porsche man

Dread, I thought the 20's had more sidewall and considered that side wall comfort vs 21's etc. You have air and can drop it to make up that ugly gap which I hate. My current 18" snow wheels are ugly as sin and are going bye bye regardless of my choice in diameter. I also think I would consider buying the Yokohama Ice guards based on the TR reviews and the price difference vs Blizzaks. Wish I had AS, at the time I bought it was 8k more for vehicles that were available.

BTW, when I started driving, RWD was the only game going. Quattro was yet to be invented. Boulder to Copper Mountain in a 18" blizzard, in a Dodge Polara RWD was downright scary. If you were not driving, closing your eyes was the most comfortable way to ride.

dreadlocks

The OEM spec for all the wheel sizes have same outer diameter.. its just your sidewall gets smaller.. You can put larger tires on if you want, but then you get that donky oversized wheel look because the wheel arches are smaller than the wheel and you got 3in of gap at 12 and 1in of gap at 9 and 3 o-clock.

The solution is to drop it, heh.. though I found going with 17's and all terrains I dont HAVE to have it in dynamic (lowest setting) all the time like I did with the factory 20's, fender gap suddenly looks fine w/tough looking tires.. shrug.

porsche man

I would gladly pay for AS after the fact. A must have option after the fact. Damn it.

dreadlocks

If your in Colorado, use AT's for winter tires.. the'll go like 40k miles instead of 10k miles and cost less.. work really well since we have such dynamic winters and Blizzacks and other winter tires start melting above 50F.. City Fuel Economy goes to crap because they weigh so much, but in exchange none of the potholes here will get cha.

My KO2's are 3 Peak Mountain and Snowflake rated, drove through the worst of the bomb cyclone in march like a friggin tank.. I just dont see the point in taking em off in June after muddy roads are dry and putting em back on 4 months later.. having one set of tires that handles it all is kinda nice, if you can look past the road noise.

dreadlocks

PS here's a fairly good list of all the OEM wheels in our bolt pattern since you wanna ditch your ugly 18 wheels: https://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/...ls-gallery.htm