hgmobile

I want to get an early start on this. I will need them by November so I thought to start the research now. Are there any recomendations for 16" or 17" Allroad wheels and snow tires. I am mostly concerned about driving on the hard packed snow/ice we get on the side streets in Manitoba in the winter. Your help greatly appreciated

HPH

...for what you describe, would be stock-sized (on 17" wheels, either a second set or your regular ones) Michelin Pilot Alpins. They're very well siped and have soft rubber that works well on hard-pack and ice.

If Bridgestone made H-rated (or higher) Blizzaks in our size, they'd also be a good candidate. HPH

ar2002

For winter use I prefer a taller aspect ratio to resist rim damage: 215/60R-16 Mickelin Arctic Alpins mounted on 16x6.5 AT Atalia wheels. This was a popular choice on the board last winter and gives you about the same diameter as stock tires/wheels. I paid $135 per wheel and $98 per tire (US) at Discount Tire Co.

For a more aggressive tread, but with more noise & poorer dry-road handling, many people go with the Blizzacks.

SEA-Robert

Took delivery of my 6-spd allroad just two weeks ago, but have had experience with hard packed/refrozen snow and ice in the Cascades in my 90Q20V. All season tires work well enough in new snow to render a false sense of security when the lugs won't sink into refrozen white stuff. Blizzak MZ-02 tires do feel like walking on scrub brushes, but let me drive past spun-out SUVs with complete security. To cope with annoying dry pavement handling, I've just become very expeditious at switching tires between jaunts to the hills. Also, the MZ-02 does not work that well on deep slush or soft snow, but the optimization for ice works best for my NW environment. The trade-offs for Manitoba may be different.

BTW, when shopping for the allroad (still during snow season), saw 3 of them in Univeristy Audi's body shop lot - all with stuffed front ends and all with high performance tires. ESP keeps 'em going straight, anyhow!

grat

um, why?

I run blizzaks on 16"s (link below on install, look, etc) september to may and I'm often in and out of hard pack, dry pavement, glare ice, soft snow, whatever all winter long. While they are a LOT softer because of the sidewall on dry pavement (you are going to loose probably 20% of the cornering power) the first time someone spins in front of you and you stop to let them bounce off of something you'll realize that a) the road was slick b) you weren't going too fast for the conditions in you car c) how in the hell can you go fast enough to use an H rated tire in this stuff?

if you really have winters where you live, don't worry about the H rating, and you will get better use out of your allroad in the slick (fun) stuff.
shod with blizzaks. this car can go anywhere you want in up to a foot of snow. (had 16" of wet stuff that it wouldn't push though so far it is the only thing that stopped it... (shrug) I stayed home. bummer

another reason to ditch the stock wheels for the winter is that the inside surface of the wheel is pretty much flat and collects snow (both stock and dual spokes do this), when you stop for a while and it freezes it will put the tires out of balance until you get it off (which is um, unpleasant at 10deg F). The ATs have more of a crown to them and I had no problem with snow build up last winter. Also wax the inside surface of the wheels before you put them on, it will help reduce what sticks to them (this works in the summer too).

I would also HIGHLY recommend the mud flaps. The sides of the car, because of the undercut curve of the sidepanels, get real ugly without them. The front of the rear flares take a real beating as well. there are pics in a past post of my '01, pre-mudflaps that were sand blasted from the front tires. (will have to search for that posting don't have a link saved).

If you're worried about over spinning the tires, set he high speed warning on your trip computer and slow down when it goes off.

fj..<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/allroad/msgs/15702.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/allroad/msgs/15702.phtml</a</li></ul>

grat

I can't find my original post (it is out there somewhere) but the picture is still around.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/15907/rrear_flare.jpg">

This is what they looked like after about 4 months of winter driving.

fj..