Winter wheels and serendipity

[c21vhpd]

Changed the 18" summer tyres for 16" winter wheels yesterday.  Audi wheels off eBay, Quatrac 5 all season tyres off Oponeo and the local garage fitted them.  They noted that 16's are a tight fit over the brakes (170 4x4) - they had to reposition some of the wheel weights to get them to clear, so if you're going the same route you might want to advise your fitter.

 

I thought the 55 profiles might feel a bit wobbly after the low profile 40's, but after a few miles on them, so far so good.

 

The serendipity was that when the garage took the 18's off, they discovered that the O/S front inner sidewall (i.e. the side you can't see) was bulging in several places.  The affected areas can be easily pressed in with your finger, so I couldn't have been far off a blowout.  I can't really think what caused it, as the off-side tyre isn't nearly so likely to hit anything like a pothole, and I certainly haven't since I bought it a few months ago.  Perhaps just a manufacturing defect?

[Solarstorm]

Not sure if it would have caused this situation; but the speed humps in the road that you're 'supposed' to straddle can wear out the inner parts of your tyres apparently...

[silver1011]

My winter tyres are still sweating in the garage!

 

Well over 10 degrees here and only just dropping into single figures during the night.

 

We had a few frosts the other week but it'll need to be regularly below 7 degress before I make the change.

[c21vhpd]

My winter tyres are still sweating in the garage!

Yes, it is a bit keen, but the Quatracs are actually all season tyres. Having spent years faithfully swapping from summer to winter tyres and back again, I decided to try all seasons on the my previous car last year (Passat B5.5 aka poor man's Superb I) and they seemed fine - but we had no snow in the Midlands, of course, so they never got tested in that respect.

[c21vhpd]

And the verdict after 200 miles is that the 16s are like a magic carpet ride after the 18s. Potholes are now something heard, not felt, and general cruising is noticeably more serene. The steering is also lighter, which I guess is down to the narrower tyre width.

I don't get much opportunity on my commute from Solihull to Cambridge to worry the handling much, but chucking the car round a couple of roundabouts it seemed that the car was fine, if possibly a little less certain - but the Superb has never been up there with the Caterham so I'm not really going to worry about that ☺

[ihinhk]

Had my WT's fitted 10 days ago and yes I know the temperature was not 7 degrees or below but there are times in the middle of winter when it rises above 7 degrees so...

 

Anyway, I had Nokian tyres fitted onto new alloys and so far I have to say no noticeable difference but the ride does feel a little softer and when you ride a pot hole it is not as harsh with the 16" as it is with the 18" and I find that I am less concerned about pot holes as long as they are not 6" deep...

 

The real test will come when there is ice and snow on the roads I guess.

[c21vhpd]

Hmmm.  Another observation - I either got a really good batch of fuel from Tesco's, or the tyres have cut my rolling resistance as well.  I normally scrape an indicated 50mpg (a real 44mpg), whereas my last 2 trips have seen an indicated 58mpg (real 51mpg).  Which is nice :-)

[silver1011]

Smaller tyres equals reduced rolling resistance.

 

Reduced diameter and width when moving from 18" to 16" will all help to improve fuel economy.

 

I think it is widely acknowledged that larger wheels on road cars are all about cosmetics and aesthetics.

[Hedgecutter]

I`ve used Nokians for several years now; The last ones were good for 4 seasons on a Legacy. They are on 16" steels on the Superb, fantastic ride, and never slip on ice and snow in the Alps. I`m not sure that all of the improvement in economy is real, though.   

[psycholist]

I stuck some Avon Ice Tourings on 16" wheels on a couple of weeks back. It wasn't cold enough for them, it still mostly isn't during the day, but I do mostly evening and at least one late night drive a week and have seen -2.5 on the temperature gauge within the last 2 weeks. They had to go on for my peace of mind as the Kumhos on 17s I was using were on the wear markers, grip from them was immense wet and dry, but I wouldn't trust them on standing water or if they were spotted by a bored cop.

 

They were also noisy as hell, which seems to be a Kumho feature. There was a bit of sawtooth wear on the back tyres before I rotated them earlier in their lives too, which probably didn't help. I love the 16s for the quiet ride and extra smoothness over the bumps, but it's not like the 17s were in any way harsh. Now that they've got a few hundred km on them and are more or less worn in I think, they don't have the same traction in the wet or dry as the Kumhos, I can break traction by flooring it in places where the Kumhos held on. The Kumhos were A rated for wet grip rather than B for the Avons, though that is the highest rating I've seen for a winter tyre. Fuel economy seems slightly better too, but that could be down to people driving more slowly because of all the fog we've had lately in Ireland.

 

Hopefully I'll get the kerbing on the 17" alloys from the previous owner repaired and choose summer tyres for them by April next year...

[JakeBlade]

I'm trying Winter tyres for the first time ever. Got a deal too good to turn down on a set of alloys, complete with Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme tyres. Had them on for a week now, and very pleased with them. Just as quiet as my GY EfficientGrip Performance.

I would post a pic of them, but the TapaTalk machine: it no likey.

[Pesmog]

And the verdict after 200 miles is that the 16s are like a magic carpet ride after the 18s. Potholes are now something heard, not felt, and general cruising is noticeably more serene.

You would not be the first person to find this, I have always bought my cars with higher profile tyres when possible as I found that with driving 150 miles a day that the crashy ride that low profiles give just gets tiresome towards the end of the day.

 

Pleased to see that there is another Caterham Driving Superb owner on here.