SNOW TIRES & wheels any recommendations?

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Rocky49

Active member
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
39
Location
Northern Alberta, Canada
Got our 2012 I-MIEV SE in May 2014 3rd hand from Texas. Had our first snow storm yesterday September 8th. Wife was asking about snow tires and winter wheels for Mitzi the Miev. Any Canadians or Northern climate types with recommendations on tires that are available in North America or stuff that does not work well.

Thanks Rocky near Edmonton Alberta :(

ps still looking for second hand level 2 charger
 
If you want a full set of winter wheels/tires, you're going to be looking at buying another set of iMiEV wheels - Pretty expensive wheels unless you get lucky and find a set in a wrecking yard shortly after they show up there. Nothing else will properly fit the front

If you drive like we do, using 'B' mode 100% of the time, you've probably noticed you seldom touch the brakes until you're under 20 or 30 kmh and most of your braking is coming from the rear wheels, so it may be that you could safely get by with just a set of snow tires for the rear. A pair of winter wheels for the rear would be much easier to come by. You could use a pair of 15 x 5.5 Mini wheels, a pair of 14 x 5.5 Miata wheels and sizes in that range from several other cars, which would be much cheaper than buying even steel wheels from Mitsu

The very narrow front tires on the car should be good for steering in snow and so long as you're not depending on them for braking the car, the stock tires may work pretty well. You'll be impressed with the car's traction control and ABS when the snow falls

You'll need to research what snow tires are available and in what sizes for the rear. Use a tire size comparator to look for something with the same (or close) overall diameter, circumference and revolutions per mile to your stock 175/60R15 rear tires - It is important to stay pretty near that overall size because the car's computer wants to keep the revolutions per mile of the front and rear tires within a pretty close tolerance to stock. Luckily, you can use either 14 or 15 inch snow tires, so you have more sizes to choose from. Buy a pair of used wheels to fit the tires you pick

Don
 
Snow tires on the rear may be all you need, if even that. Quite a few of us (myself included) got by just fine on the stock all-season tires.

Here's a set of Dunlop Graspic winter tires (in stock sizes) for the rear:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Graspic+DS-3&partnum=76R5DS3&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

and for the front:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Graspic+DS-3&partnum=465R5DS3&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes
 
Would a 185/55 rear tire that is 6mm smaller in diameter than the stock 175/60 be okay? Or would that mess up the ABS etc.?

This is the closest size the Nokian Hakka R2's come for the rear tires.
 
As far as the ABS is concerned, it will complain if the circumference is changed. I put 175-55R15 on the rear instead of the stock 175-60R15, and the car thanked me by disabling regen, so there is a very small tolerance. There are a decent number of tire size calculators online.

I stuck with the stock tires through the winter last year and had no problems. I believe Dunlop makes winter tires in the stock i-MiEV sizes (and thankfully at a reasonable price).
 
Up here in Finland (very north Europe) we are accustomed to using studded winter tires for several months every year. Winter tires are even compulsory from December to end of February. I'm facing a bit of a dilemma with the C-Zero variant in that studded tires simply are not available in the sizes the car has. It came with Continental ContiWinterContact TS 760 winter tires, but they are what we call "central european traction tires" - unstudded and not really fit for proper winters.

Anyway. The winter hasn't really started in full blast yet, so I'll know more later, but if the TS760s turn out as bad as I'm guessing, the best option available would seem to be these Blizzaks from Bridgestone:

http://www.bridgestonetire.com/tire/blizzak-ws70

They don't have WS70s in the right sizes, but they should have WS60s, the previous gen. The WS70s faired well in the latest test. I was told Michelin didn't have X-Ice XI3 in the right size. I'd probably go for them if they did.
 
jsantala said:
Up here in Finland (very north Europe) we are accustomed to using studded winter tires for several months every year. Winter tires are even compulsory from December to end of February. I'm facing a bit of a dilemma with the C-Zero variant in that studded tires simply are not available in the sizes the car has. It came with Continental ContiWinterContact TS 760 winter tires, but they are what we call "central european traction tires" - unstudded and not really fit for proper winters.

Anyway. The winter hasn't really started in full blast yet, so I'll know more later, but if the TS760s turn out as bad as I'm guessing, the best option available would seem to be these Blizzaks from Bridgestone:

http://www.bridgestonetire.com/tire/blizzak-ws70

They don't have WS70s in the right sizes, but they should have WS60s, the previous gen. The WS70s faired well in the latest test. I was told Michelin didn't have X-Ice XI3 in the right size. I'd probably go for them if they did.

I mount Continental WinterContact TS 800. Other tire in our car's size is Vredestein SNOWTRAC 3.
Very happy with the Contis, but my "winter" is (much) softer than yours...
 
I'm a little late to the game here but...Ontario driver here. I went with Dunlop Graspic DS-3 from tirerack (front and back tires) and ended up ordering rims from my local Mitsubishi dealer. Just had the wheels put on the rims today so I'm looking forward to picking up the car in about 30 minutes.

Kris
 
Thanks for posting Kris- I'd be curious to hear if your dealer has any solution to the TPMS issue other than a twice-yearly reprogramming!
 
Kris, did you get the same size for the front as the back? If so, that would be a key thing for people to know, because the fronts tend to wear faster than the rear. I wonder how the offset works?

Post some pictures, please!
 
Ha! Found a site which now lists Continental CONTI VIKING CONTACT 6 in both 145/65 R15 and 175/55 R15 sizes:

http://www.rengas-online.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=136&cart_id=52179124.136.16147&sowigan=Wi&Breite=145&Quer=65&Felge=15&Speed=&kategorie=&tyre_for=&x_tyre_for=&m_s=3&Ang_pro_Seite=10&weiter=10&rsmFahrzeugart=ALL&Label=E-F-71-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-265326
http://www.rengas-online.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=136&cart_id=51931678.136.13967&sowigan=Wi&Breite=175&Quer=55&Felge=15&Speed=&kategorie=6&Marke=Continental&ranzahl=4&tyre_for=&x_tyre_for=&Herst=Continental&m_s=3&rsmFahrzeugart=ALL&search_tool=standard&Label=C-F-71-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-240724

It did very well in a recent local review. I'll need to get these if the TS760s turn out as bad as I fear.
 
Temporary spare tires are very plentiful in junkyards with 15 x 4 rims. Specifically, T135/70D15 fits the front perfectly and I have one as a spare tire. Other than the TPMS not working, does anyone see any downside to using these rims for mounting winter tires on the front?
 
Here is another idea.

I just put a set of Nokian WRG3s on my Prius. It was after some serious thinking about believing or not in "all year" tires. So far after the first Ontario snowfall the tires worked (steering and breaking) in snow, slush and on ice just fine. There are a bit noisier than my Ecopias, but they make you feel the road as needed for controlling the car. Nokian promises that they will not 'melt' in the summer either. Time will tell.

And I was just thinking they would work well as an all year set on our 2012 Mitzy - assuming the tire sizes are available. No need the change the tires twice a year, no problem with the TPMS either. As long as you are not planning to go skiing with Mitzy, these tires should work OK in an around town in the winter.

Living dangerously? Hope not.
 
And I was just thinking they would work well as an all year set on our 2012 Mitzy - assuming the tire sizes are available. No need the change the tires twice a year, no problem with the TPMS either. As long as you are not planning to go skiing with Mitzy, these tires should work OK in an around town in the winter.

I like the idea but I'm not able to find any listings for nokian tires that will fit the front of our car.
 
Micah said:
And I was just thinking they would work well as an all year set on our 2012 Mitzy - assuming the tire sizes are available. No need the change the tires twice a year, no problem with the TPMS either. As long as you are not planning to go skiing with Mitzy, these tires should work OK in an around town in the winter.

I like the idea but I'm not able to find any listings for nokian tires that will fit the front of our car.

I'd like to buy Nokian, since they're made right here in Finland and they always come in first or second in the tests, but I was told they don't make the right sizes.
 
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