Topic: New Winter Tires for the Yukon

[rrocket]

^^^^

[HeliDriver]

And yeah, I should have done the wire brush & Tremclad thing myself, but I've got no time or patience for that right now.  [emoji14]

I'm assuming the GTI consumed the last of your patience and time.

Yeah, pretty much.   

[HeliDriver]

The forecast isn’t great, so thought I’d throw the old winter tires back on the Yukon for one last stretch.

Still can’t make up my mind what to do, and have been leaning towards just getting another set of 245/75R16s. Doesn’t look too bad at all on the “small” tires, right?



But then I remembered that the spare is a 265/75R16 (on a 7” rim.) It’s always been in the back of my head that the winters are an inch smaller than the spare. Not sure the Eaton locker in the rear end would be happy about mismatched tires, so could be a real PITA dealing with a flat back there.

So, definitely not going with the 245s again. Also spent the day looking at trucks on the road, and am absolutely not going with aftermarket rims sticking out past the fenders. Yuck. And I did a couple hundred km of driving on bare highways today, and I’m just not convinced I won’t hate the way the 235/85s will drive.

So, looks like I might have found a set of silver painted, 7”-wide, OE steel rims (like the spare) for a not totally insane price, and will put 265/75R16s on those.

[rrocket]

Sounds good...

[ktm525]

Or you could go 235s again and swap one of your old ones onto the spare rim?

[HeliDriver]

Or you could go 235s again and swap one of your old ones onto the spare rim?

Well, then the spare would be too small for the summer tires! 

But, yeah, I guess i could get another rim and mount up a special spare for winter, but changing that with every seasonal tire swap would be a PITA.

Also looking at another set of stock 17" rims now. Dirt cheap at C$140 on Rockauto, but shipping is a bit of a killer.    Still only C$720 total for the set, so not a terrible deal, but the 265/70R17s I'd put on them are $25 more per tire than the smaller sizes. I've also got the dealer pricing out some options for me: might just go with a steel 17" wheel instead.

[HeliDriver]

Ok, done deal!

Local dealer is getting me some 16"x7" steel wheels for $160/ea. Kinda pricey for steelies, but overall my best option. And they're supposedly OE rims, so should be hubcentric, which is really nice for wrestling the heavy beasts onto the hub for changeovers. I think the wheel/tire combo is like 90 lbs. 

[Fobroader]

My dad kicked himself for not getting some alloy rims for winters just because of the weight of the bastards....I remember loading those buggers into his Avalanche almost made me drop a testy.

[ktm525]

True but at least with a steelie you can hammer out the edges if you kiss a curb.

[Ex-airbalancer]

True but at least with a steelie you can hammer out the edges if you kiss a curb.

He will have so much rubber , the rim will never kiss a curb, he will just bounce off it 😉

[johngenx]

I’m always surprised at how heavy the wheel/tire combo on the Highlander is compared to pretty much every other car I’ve owned.

[Firm]

You haven't felt a heavy wheel until you've tried to lift the 20x9's with 35x12.5x20 Goodyear Duratracs I am running on the Ram....unbelievably heavy. Last time the truck was up on the hoist (chest level) it was a two-man job to lift the wheel and get it centered on the studs.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

You haven't felt a heavy wheel until you've tried to lift the 20x9's with 35x12.5x20 Goodyear Duratracs I am running on the Ram....unbelievably heavy. Last time the truck was up on the hoist (chest level) it was a two-man job to lift the wheel and get it centered on the studs.

So, a couple of years ago my Dad bought a JK with factory 33" mud-terrains.  A week after buying it, he took them off and installed 35's.  Long story short, he gave the wheels and tires to me to sell on Kijiji.  I sold them to a farmer who was going to put them on his field truck. 

When I picked up the tires from Dad's house, he had them stored up high in his garage.  I manhandled them down, feeling very proud that I was able to take these tires down with little effort, one at a time.

Anyway, the farmer comes to my house to pick up the tires, and he shows up with a buddy.  So, there I am, struggling to pick up one wheel/tire combo and carry it out from the backyard to the front, and the farmer with his buddy each picks up TWO wheels and tires, one under each arm, and walk out to the driveway like it was nothing.  Jaw dropped.  It gave me a new appreciation for the strength of a good 'ol country boy. 

[Gurgie]

You haven't felt a heavy wheel until you've tried to lift the 20x9's with 35x12.5x20 Goodyear Duratracs I am running on the Ram....unbelievably heavy. Last time the truck was up on the hoist (chest level) it was a two-man job to lift the wheel and get it centered on the studs.

One of those combo's probably weighs close to as much as you do though   

[Gurgie]

Anyway, the farmer comes to my house to pick up the tires, and he shows up with a buddy.  So, there I am, struggling to pick up one wheel/tire combo and carry it out from the backyard to the front, and the farmer with his buddy each picks up TWO wheels and tires, one under each arm, and walk out to the driveway like it was nothing.  Jaw dropped.  It gave me a new appreciation for the strength of a good 'ol country boy.

Yeah, good old honest hard labour builds some serious strength. 14yrs ago when I was between jobs, went to work for my electrician friend, was doing power supply upgrades for Rogers on their cable system, basically taking 9 car batteries out of the pedestal & replacing them with new ones, doing the wiring and a few odds & ends. I started doing this in October & finished in April and on an average I'd probably lug over 50 batteries over a day... was a trim 195lbs and 32" waist when it was all said & done... then I got a desk job again & it all went to sh!t 

[dkaz]

Reminds me of a farm girl we work with. Two guys were trying to drag a log each to a bonfire they were setting up during a company camping trip and they're both pretty fit guys, one of them plays all sorts of sports and works out every lunch time and the other is a jiu-jitsu fighter, but it's a bit of a challenge for both of them. Then here comes the farm girl, logs in both arms carrying it effortlessly to the bonfire site. There's strength, then there's strength.

[dkaz]

Anyway, answered the question. It depends on where you're driving. When the snow is light and roads often clear, you want a narrow patch of tread which results in more PSI and bites down through the snow onto pavement.

If you're going to be on ice or hard packed snow however, I might think the bigger the contact patch the better. Haven't tried it yet though.

[ktm525]

Anyway, answered the question. It depends on where you're driving. When the snow is light and roads often clear, you want a narrow patch of tread which results in more PSI and bites down through the snow onto pavement.

If you're going to be on ice or hard packed snow however, I might think the bigger the contact patch the better. Haven't tried it yet though.

Wider tire doesn't necessarily equate to a larger contact patch. It equates to a wide, short contact patch while a narrower tire equates to a skinny, long patch. Of course variable such as tire pressure and sidewall strength etc enter the equation to mess this simple generalization up.

[HeliDriver]

I’m really not sold on the “narrower for winter” thing. Yeah, if I had a sports car with 315-wide steamrollers on it, for sure I’d go narrower. But on a normal car? Meh.

The GTI runs 225/45R17, summer and winter. Never had a problem in winter, and it still drives decently on bare pavement. Seems a good all-round compromise.

We had 265/70R17s on the Suburban, and they were great in winter. The 245/75R16s on the Yukon were also great, but definitely a little less stable on bare pavement. I don’t know that any theoretical improvement in the narrower tire’s ice & snow performance would make up for its poorer performance otherwise.

Even though the 245s were perfectly fine on pavement, I was a little worried that the 235s would give up too much on the pavement. 

[johngenx]

I'm not sure if it's the narrowness of the tire, or maybe the compliance of the sidewall that used to make such a difference, but today I think that modern winter tires are all pretty good. It seems that the really sticky winter tires aren't available in low profile sizes. Is that because the low profile comprises the performance, or simply because the low profile sizes are used on cars needing more dry traction?  Hey tire engineers!