Tire dilemma

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 11:36 pm

Like many, I am not happy with the Continentals that came with thevibe. Definitely useless in the snow.I am debating two options:1) Winter tires2) Better all-seasonsI live in the maritimes. To be honest, I don't find snow driving too bad.Driving a corolla with decent all-seasons gives me no problems. TheVibe, on the other hand, seems to get beaten by light snow.With winter tires, the selection doesn't seem to be great at the defaultR16 size. The two dealers in town won't confirm that R15s will workfine. I'm not really happy going R15 without buy-in from the guyswho service my car. Also, I only find that there are 5-10 days of reallybad weather where I'm needing snow tires. I'd rather drive defensively,stay in during bad driving, and save 800$.With all-seasons, I'm thinking that a really good pair might be allI need. However, I'm not used to driving such wide tires on such alight car. Maybe I can never get the All season traction I'm used toon previous Corolla and Tercel purchases.Thoughts welcomed. I've got to do something before the real winterweather starts to hit.

ArcsVibe · Post by **ArcsVibe** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 11:41 pm

Welcome to genvibe! Enjoy your stay. You will see that this is a great site I live in Montreal and our winters can be bad, you guys out there though can get hit with some serious storms. I would recommend a decent set of winter tires. Mine for example are Kumho's KW 11 205/55/16 that cost 530.00$ taxes in installation included. That is not that much for some peace of mind, no?They handle fantastic in snow and ice, we just got hit with 20cms of snow yesterday and the traction was amazing! Welcome once again!

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 11:58 pm

Thanks for the quick reply Arcs. Did you find a cheap set of steel rimsor do you just plan to swap winters with your all seasons each year?

ArcsVibe · Post by **ArcsVibe** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 8:24 am

Hi newvibe!I plan on keeping my rims for the winter tires and buying some new mag wheels in the summertime for my all-seasons. You can actually pick up steel wheelies for around 50$ each at Canadian Tire, or even your local Walmart sells them. You can also check out http://www.tiretrends.com for wheels and tires, they are located in Canada.Good luck with your decision!

LavaMyVibe · Post by **LavaMyVibe** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 8:19 am

I didn't worry much about 15" tires on my GT (17" stock tires). Lots of people on this board went with 15"s. As long as you have the right tire diameter & the right wheel (like steelies from a Corolla, which have to correct bolt pattern (5x100) & offset (38-42mm)), the car will ride just fine. Besides, the 205/55 R16 tires on your car match one of the most popular tire sizes; the 195/65 R15. Lots of choice in this size and it's as cheap as it gets. IMHO, save yourself a few hunder $$ and get the 15"s.

AKLGT · Post by **AKLGT** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 1:57 pm

Quote, originally posted by LavaMyVibe Â»I didn't worry much about 15" tires on my GT (17" stock tires). Lots of people on this board went with 15"s. As long as you have the right tire diameter & the right wheel (like steelies from a Corolla, which have to correct bolt pattern (5x100) & offset (38-42mm)), the car will ride just fine. Besides, the 205/55 R16 tires on your car match one of the most popular tire sizes; the 195/65 R15. Lots of choice in this size and it's as cheap as it gets. IMHO, save yourself a few hunder $$ and get the 15"s. yes! i did the same for mine and saved about $300! $450 installed with used corolla 15" alloys!

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:59 am

Nice job on the used alloys. I have gone with steel R15's. I couldn'tget anyone in Pontiac service to confirm that this is okay, so thetire installer will simply check before installing the winters on thenew rims. If this works I'll be very pleased as you sure get a lot moreselection with 195/65/R15, and I suspect I'll enjoy better traction withthe narrower tire too.Dunlop graspic DS-1's for me - good price and decent traction.

ArcsVibe · Post by **ArcsVibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 2:03 am

You will be very happy with the Dunlops, they are a very good tire

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 4:44 am

After getting the R15's installed, they were fine with the brakecalipers. However...The guy who installed the tires was not entirely happy with the innerfit. I think he is talking about the fit around the hub? There was a gap between the inner cutout of the rim and the small disc of the vibe that is supposed to sit inside this cutout. He said this would make the bolts work a bit harder and he insisted I come back for a retorque to make sure the bolts weren't loosening.Does that sound right? He said this was almost always the case withafter-market rims unless they were designed specifically for one or a few series of cars.

ArcsVibe · Post by **ArcsVibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 6:10 am

Great post Rob, very helpful

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 6:16 am

I have done some more reading on this, and it seems that hub-centric fits are not all that important except for highpeformance or for trucks that carry significant loads. Should Ireally be concerned? I'm betting a lot of vibe users here are using Canadian Tire and Discount Tire aftermarket rims thathave the same slack around the hub that I've got. Most rimsaren't even designed to be hub-centric, and don't guaranteethat the hub cut-out is centered on the rim. In fact, I worry that trying to install hub-centric spacers would causea problem, not solve one. If the rim isn't even around the hub thenyou could run into problems. The following talks about hub-centricand lug-centric rims:http://www.cjtire.com/pdfs/Wheels.pdf

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:03 am

Great info - thanks again. Based on your above post, and thefact that the hub rings in your link seem to be plastic, it would seemthat the hub is not so important for load-bearing, but for balancingpurposes. Let me know if that interpretation is wrong. I will lookinto picking these up, but want to be sure what I'm driving in theinterim is safe.

newvibe · Post by **newvibe** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 7:38 am

Well, I took the concerns here and decided to see if the originalwheel shop would get me some Corolla OEMs. Luck was on myside - a Corolla owner didn't want the steel rims they had ordered. With a straight trade I now have a great fit over the hub and amonly out re-balancing fees.As an aside, I did a lot of homework on this using genvibe and othersites. There wasn't much concern voiced over after-market steel rimsvs OEM rims. It's hard to tell how much of a legitimate concernlug-centric vs hub-centric should be. However, for the sake of 30$CDNand a bit of hassle, I don't have to worry about it. No hub-rings,easier swaps each season, maybe better life on the suspension/tires,etc.Thanks again.

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