Snow Tires

[breezy423]

Hey guys I have a 35is on order that should be arriving early August. I was wondering if anyone here ran snow tires on style 326M wheels? I've used Blizzak for years on my E60, but i'm not sure if they make 19" size snow tires. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mstevens]

I would not recommend snow tires on 19" wheels. Snow tires work best with more sidewall than summer tires. They also work better when they're narrower (at least in deep snow). The very small sidewall on your 19" wheels is very likely to lead to more wheel damage even on summer roads, which have fewer wheel-killers such as potholes and frost heaves than do winter roads.

A further point is that you do not want to be pulling summer RFT's off and replacing them with winter tires in the fall and repeating the process in the spring. That's expensive and carries a significant risk of damaging your wheels or tires each time. My view is that you only remove a RFT when you're ready to throw it away.

I spent just over $100 per wheel on some cheap but attractive alloys from tirerack.com years ago for my e85 Z4. They still work fine on my e89. Where I live, I put nearly equal mileage on my summer and winter tires (probably since I ride the Ducati a lot in the summer). The cheapo alloys, even with more tire sidewall, have had to be straightened twice. I'd certainly rather break one of them than my nice BMW summer wheels, and the summer wheels are even more likely to need straightening if they were driven on winter roads around here.

You southerners might not have quite the same challenges I face up here in the woods, but I really think your best bet by far is to shop for a decent set of inexpensive alloys, pop some really good snows* on them, and swap wheels twice a year instead of changing tires.

*Blizzaks have gotten better, but for the most part they're really passenger tires, not performance tires. The best winter tires I could find for my Z4 were Nokian Hakkapeliitta R, with which I've been happier than with any other winter tires I've tried.

[STOOF]

Yes they make Blizzaks in 19" but i agree with mstevens, you should just get a cheap set of 17 or 18s and get blizzaks for those. Much easier to just swap wheels then get tires remounted.

[breezy423]

Purchasing an extra set of winter wheels was my original plan but before I went out and did that I wanted to see what others had experienced. Thanks for the feedback!

[cdeslandes]

I use my 17" OEM wheels with Blizzak LM-25s. Works great.
Highly recommend you get 17" wheels for winter.