Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

I have bought a highlander with 18inch all seasons fitted. When I took the insurance out with Allstate, I got a premium reduction if I fitted winter tyres ( in the winter I presume). On kijiji, there is a set for a highlander but are only 17 inch, would these be acceptable and would the warranty on the car be valid?

As always, your views are all welcome. Thank you.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

OH handles everything to do with our car ........ but I do wonder if a 17" winter TIRES will do when 18" are specified

Do however make sure you buy winter tires not all-season tires ............ winter tires are much better than all-seasons when it comes to traction in snow and ice. There should be an "S" marked on the tire.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

Won't the manual list the officially acceptable wheel sizes? Our Forester's manual lists 17" or 18" wheels, for example.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

Go on to https://www.tirerack.com/content/tir.../homepage.html and fill out the details of your car and it will give you the correct 17" winter tire size.

Most people downsize one inch for winter tires. Actually my old Mazda went from 18" summers to 16" winters.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

Good site, it recommends staying with 18's, with wheels it is less than the price being asked on kijiji. Thank you.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

All Season aren't good in the winter at all.

Remember there is a difference between "All Season" and "All Weather".

Believe it or not All Season are only actually any good for 3 seasons.

All-weather tires are not the same as all-season, and here's why - WHEELS.ca

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

I have 17" summer rims with 45 profile tires an 16" winters with a 55 profile. Same rolling circumference but gives me 1/2" extra give in winter.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

The size of the tire specified in inches is the diameter of the inner edge of the tyre, i.e. the diameter of the metal wheel, and has little or nothing to do with the outer diameter of the tyre, which is what Pizzawheel said, post #7 above.

Manufacturers recommend certain sizes of wheel because that directly correlates to the "thickness" of the tire, usually known as "the profile" to provide some combination of comfortable ride and the "feel" from the road that a driver expects. So sporty cars come with larger wheels and lower profile tyres, whereas SUVs come with relatively small wheels and big fat tyres to help absorb bumps when driving on rough terrain.

A small wheel and a "fat" tyre will give a softer ride than a low profile tyre on a larger wheel (which BTW will have the same outer diameter as the tyre on the smaller wheel) because there is more wall on the fat tyre to flex and absorb unevenness in the road surface. Conversely a low profile tyre will give a firmer ride and more "road feel", which is why it is preferred by drivers of sports cars.

In short there is likely no reason not to fit any particular tyre (wheel) size, other than personal preference and an awareness that a lower profile tyre on a larger wheel will give a firmer ride, and a higher profile tyre on a smaller wheel will give a softer ride. That said I wouldn't deviate more than 1" from the manufacturers recommendations, not least because getting tyre for 19" or 20" wheels may be difficult.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

An extra half inch can mean a lot. :nod: Even when it comes to tires. :lol:

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

Things can shrink a bit when it's cold.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

That's why you need a bit more to start of with :p

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

I run 20" rims in the summer, and 18" rims in the winter. The winter rims have "thicker" tyres on them, that makes them the same rolling distance as the 20" I have with low profiles. Both sets of rims and tires came from the dealer.

You do realize that manufacturers offer the same vehicle (say, a Toyota Highlander) with different rim options depending on trim? The base model will come with 17s, and the top line Limited trim will come with 19s or 20s. To ensure the speedometers work correctly in them all, they put thinner tires on the 20s and thicker tyres on the 17s. They both have the same rolling distance.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

On a serious note, there's no real savings on insurance with winter tires. The 5% discount is eaten up by the $60 I pay to get the rims swapped twice a year ($30 a time).

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

...whereas in my case the discount is, IMO, worth the 40 minutes with a trolley jack and an air wrench that it takes me to swap the rims over in spring and fall. The compressor was bought for a different project so is a sunk cost; the cost of the impact wrench and the hydraulic jack have been paid back several times by now with two cars to deal with.

Another note about sizes of winter tyres. The rims on my minivan are the same size (16") winter and summer, but the winter rims are a bit narrower. From memory, in summer I run 235/65 R16; in winter 225/70. The rolling radius is about 1% different, the narrower cross-section and higher profile supposedly gives slightly better performance in snow. I don't have any direct evidence of that, but a convenient side-effect is that the winter boots are a slightly more widely available size than the summer ones so are a bit cheaper to replace.

Re: Yep, winter tyres and rims!
 

Quite. My son does our rim change, using a jack he borrows from his uncle and the impact wrench I got him from Crappy Tire when it was on big sale. It takes him about 20 minutes. Then he does the oil change.

The time he spent working in the Wallyworld car-servicing bit while a student has proved to be time well-spent.