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Narrow snow wheels

You have a lot of choices open to you. Narrow is better then wide in a snow tire, but... within limits. The stock 200 steel wheel is 5.5 x 14, which is getting wide for a 175-width tire, and there are no 175 tires with the load rating of the stock 185/70-14 tires. If you stay with 14" wheels, good choices are 185/70-14, 195/70-14 and 195/75-14. If you can find 15" steelies from the 700 or 900 series, 195/70-15 or 195/75-15 work well.

Don't get too wrapped around the axle with "narrow for snow." There really isn't a lot of difference between an 75 and 70 series tire for the same section width. Clearly, you don't want the ultra-wide 40- and 50-series tires, but an aspect ratio of 65 or higher is fine, as long as you don't disregard load rating and you size the tire appropriately for the width of the rim you're using.

I drove 240s (2 245s and a 244) in snowy NW Connecticut for 15 years using 195/75-15 snows on steel wheels and IMO that was a fine match. Realistically, the amount of time that you actually drive on snow is small; you want to be prepared to handle it, but not at the expense of giving up performance on cleared roads.
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New Narrow snow wheels
posted by  bcary242  on Thu Oct 22 18:08 CST 2009 >


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