Thinking about winter tires

[1990lumina]

Hey guys, I've been thinking about picking up some 14" wheels from a wrecker that would have came off a base Lumina...I believe the tire size is 195/75R14 ...anyway what's your opinion on this??

The tires will be cheap when buying them in 14", they are about $50 cheaper/tire compared to running the same brand on my stock stock aluminum wheels (215/60R16)

 

anyway what's your opinion on this thought? I can get the rims for next to nothing, throw some black spray paint on them and run them all winter. I like the thought of a higher profile for more cushion in winter (our roads here are TERRIBLE), plus a narrower width is ideal for snow as the tire will dig down instead of glide over top..

 

One question though, is the 195/75R14 the same diameter as the 215/60R16 (will my speedo be out at all??)

 

the tires I'm looking at buying are Kumho KW11 (actual model is KW11-974) and i can pick them up for around $70/tire CDN, they apparently are a good winter tire and are highly rated

 

Thoughts, opinions?? Thanks!

[Pontiac6KSTEAWD]

Your speedo will be 2.52% off. So when you are going 51.5 MPH, you will actually be going 50. Not that much of a big deal. If you deal with alot of snow issues, and being from canada, I will assume you deal with more than we do here in the mid part of the states.

 

As far as whether or not you should do this, I dont know. I would probly see about getting some cheap alloy wheels from a Pontiac Trans Sport or Chevy Lumina APV. Narrow rim, looks good, same bolt pattern, and i beleive they are 15" rims. I just hate Steelies (no offense montecarlochick). Just remember you will need storage space for all this stuff when you arent using them. Same tires are available for the 15" rim, and a few more..

 

I dont like the Kumho brand much. but i did some research on it on http://www.1010tires.com. They dont seem to rate to badly, but it looks like the Yokohama S401 or some Blizzaks Would work just as well. The Yokohama S401 looks to be about 101 bucks, and the Kumho you want looks to be about 79 bucks.So you do pay a little more.

[1990lumina]

for winter I honestly don't care if the wheel is steel or aluminum...I'd perfer steel even just in case I'm forced to drive somewhere less then ideal to avoid an accident (some times around here other drivers do the stupidiest things, and even the most defensive driving can't predict what they might do)....I'll look into the 15" APV wheels though..if there isn't much difference in cost between steel or aluminum at the wrecker that'll be the deal maker....i'm trying to drive on winter tires for around $500, maybe a little more

[White93z34]

last winter i bought a set of 15" steelies for my car, very good move on my part, i have 4 snow tires mounted up on them and i go anywhere i please with them. i personally woulden't go 14s, but there shoulden't be any problem in it.

[GOT2B GM]

16" Lumina rims with 225 60R16 Michelin Pilot Alpins are my winter shoes. They work awesome.

[94CutlassSLCoupe]

I'd get the 15" rims with the 205/70R15 size, should be easy to find these rims on the "bubble" luminas which will fit perfectly on your car. I like the "Glacier Grip II" tires personally

[19Cutlass94]

I run 215/60R16 in the winter with Al. rims. One thing I have noticed with Al. is after a while of driving in the salt and slush etc etc is that the rim starts to corrode by the bead and it leaks air....

 

BTW, I have the Graspic dsII dunlop tire.

[patgizz]

get the 14's. tires are a dime a dozen. get real snow tires too(dunno if the kumho's you're looking at are snows or all season). get 205/75/14's. they are .035" shorter than your stock ones so your speedo will be about perfect. they were the stock size on my first lumina(93 base sedan). tire rack has some for $48 US so you should be able to do around $60 cdn for each tire.

 

i put snows on the 94 for my sister on stock 16's.

[1990lumina]

get the 14's. tires are a dime a dozen. get real snow tires too(dunno if the kumho's you're looking at are snows or all season). get 205/75/14's. they are .035" shorter than your stock ones so your speedo will be about perfect. they were the stock size on my first lumina(93 base sedan). tire rack has some for $48 US so you should be able to do around $60 cdn for each tire.

 

i put snows on the 94 for my sister on stock 16's.

 

that's why I was thinking about the 14's...cheaper tires, and the rims themselves will be cheaper for me to buy then an aluminum one...i'm thinking next spring I'm going to strip what's left of the clear coat on my stock 16" and polish the aluminum......it'll work for summer but winter the salt will corrode the aluminum.....

 

anyway thanks for the advice Pat!

[1990lumina]

Here's a link on 1010tires for the KW11s:

http://1010tires.com/tire.asp?tirebrand=Kumho&tiremodel=KW11

 

Picture of tire/tread since 101tites doesn't have a picture

[THe_DeTAiL3R]

I'd get the 15" rims with the 205/70R15 size, should be easy to find these rims on the "bubble" luminas which will fit perfectly on your car. I like the "Glacier Grip II" tires personally

 

I also have 205/70/15. They are common tire as lots of minivans have this size tire too...

[Euro]

ive thought about doing winter tires and buying some cheap steelies....however my car will be stored(finally) for more than half this winter, so i wont need them

[19Cutlass94]

Must be nice! Im hoping this will be the last winter the Cutlass will see.

[THe_DeTAiL3R]

My engine runs hot in the summer (well, if i do alot of city driving), and i just got new heatercore installed= WINTER BEATER.

 

My e-brake works good too, so I'll be doing alot of drifting.

[Euro]

i can drift in the snow without an ebrake

[1990lumina]

mine works when it wants to..mechanism under the dash slips sometimes and won't hold lol...

 

Hmmm...I guess I may choose 15", dpends what's available at the yard too...

[Regal_GS_1989]

I've got 195/75/14 on the front and 205/70/14 on the back of my regal for the winter. AMAZING is the only way to describe them. Once you have driven one winter with real winter tires, you will never go back to all seasons. Mine are studded Uniroyal Rallye M + S. And BTW, the stock tire size was 215/60/16 and the speedo is exact.

[warwgn3]

Hi, I was thinking of getting 14" steels for my 93 Lumina for the winter as well. One thing I haven't seen yet, is if the 14" steels will still fit over my upgraded rear brakes. My brother saw a 92 Lumi base (3.1) with 14"s on it but we just want to know if those same wheels would fit on my Lumina with its upgraded rear brakes.

 

Thanks, LMK

[ns87]

My e-brake works good too, so I'll be doing alot of drifting.

 

i can drift in the snow without an ebrake

 

My car has you both beat. It has NO e-brake~!. Anyway, Idk how bad winters are up there 1990lumina, but personally I wouldn't spend the money. Extra wheels/tires just seem like a pain in the ass to store and stuff. But thats imho.

[1990lumina]

It's not really how bad is it up here, but rather how long does my city wait to do anything about snow removal. The thing is they always have the snow removal budget money spent elsewhere, so they let the roads go to shit...and then enough people complain and they try to clean them up a bit, but by that time there's huge ice ruts and other fun things happening that whatever they try to do doesn't work lol....

 

Storage isn't a problem since my family has a farm with several storage buildings that aren't anywhere near being full.....

[1990lumina]

I'm rethinking winter tires now....most of you have seen my post about this job I might be taking...which involves lots of highway driving. Will winter tires hold up to lots of highway driving??? I might just buy a new set of all seasonals and be done with it...but I need some opinions taking into account lots of highway mileage now..

[Pontiac6KSTEAWD]

Does your area allow studed tires? If they do, thats what I would do. A slight bit noiseier, but they will last longer than snow tires.

 

P.S. - You know your Sig pic is not working?

[1990lumina]

yeah lots of ppl have studded tires so I'm sure it's legal here. And yeah I know the sig pic isn't working...gotta change hosts

[White93z34]

well i did ALOT of highway driving on my snow tires last winter, drove all over, from Pittsburgh to Boston, then from Boston to Maryland, to Pittsburgh, then Pittsburgh to Jersy, i probably put just over 10,000 on them, and they still have at least 60% left on the fronts, my rears are perfect, i don't know how many miles are on them as i got the tires used.