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Winter wheels?... 17" or 16"? any advise. Which is better and why?

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Old 09-20-2002, 05:11 AM
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Winter wheels?... 17" or 16"? any advise. Which is better and why?
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Old 09-20-2002, 05:17 AM
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Depends on your locale and needs...17" not as effective but looks much, much better
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Old 09-20-2002, 05:24 AM
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Located in the snow belt of Wisconsin!...
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Old 09-20-2002, 05:36 AM
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Default Smaller contact patch is better but not always necessary. If you get a lot of snow, you should
run 16s with 215/55-16s. If not that bad, I would go with 225/45-17s.

-st
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Old 09-20-2002, 05:44 AM
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I am going to be using the stock 15" rims, man that is going to be weird at first
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Old 09-20-2002, 06:00 AM
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Default As I understand it, the size of the contact patch is the same for both. A 16" and 17" tire are both
the same height but a 16" tire is usually narrower. What you want for deep snow is a contact patch which is long an narrow. Also, if your driving on a packed down snow surface a narrower tire will not tramline as bad as a wider tire (ie if your driving in ruts a wide tire sucks).
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Old 09-20-2002, 06:07 AM
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Default I think I'm missing your point, the tires I cite are a 225 vs. a 215 which do not have the same
contact patch.

-st
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Old 09-20-2002, 06:12 AM
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I am using 235/45/17, the tire guy said it doesnt really matter when the wheel is 17"...large wheel.
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Old 09-20-2002, 06:23 AM
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Default Marlin asked for an explanation to why. I though your note suggested the size (erea) of the contact
patch was different for the the different size tires. Its my understanding that the size of the contact patch doesn't change. What changes is the dimension of the contact patch. A narrower tire (narower & longer conact patch) is better for snow.
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Old 09-20-2002, 06:30 AM
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Default I live in Toronto and surprisingly we do not get that much snow.
I have Pirrelli Snowsport 210's mounted on Audi steel wheels that I used last winter...they were great but I hated the look for 5 months. I've just put Ronal R38's on my Conti 17's and I'm mounting 17" snows on my stock sport rims. With quattro I'll be just fine.
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