Winter Tyre Size 225/50 17 or 245/45 17

[Persuader]

Hi.

I have purchased some used 17x8 ET43 A8 Wheels to use as winters on my A6.
I have three questions and I would love to hear your views.

1. Should I get 225/50 17 tyres or 245/45 17 tyres. People say the narrower the better. Is using 245 tyres a total disadvantage or are there any advantages?

2. Are Nankangs really that bad. Reports say that braking in the wet isn't great but I'm assuming they will still be better than a non premium summer tyre? Set of Nankangs in 225/50 17 is circular £350 whereas Dunlops are over £600.

3. Anybody used Cooper Weathermaster as they a good price for 245/45 17?.

Oh and 4. Is a 225 tyre ok on a 8" width rim.

Thanks in advance.

[neilos100]

Hello,

I purchased a set of used alloys from a B7 A4, again ET 43 but IIRC 7.5J. I have bought a set of used Conti TS790 winter tyres to go on them. Definitely go for the narrower tyres; wider tyres tend to act as a ski does whereas the narrower tyres actually cut down through the snow a bit more......hence why rallye drivers use REALLY skinny tyres.....
As to the other questions:

2. Get the best tyres you can......Nankang is a brand I would never buy...I'd rather get a second hand set of something decent....ebay always has loads of stuff...for around £200ish you should get a decent set of four with 5mm on them.

3.Never used them but get 225's...will be cheaper and more efficient anyway.

4. Pretty sure any 17'' tyre will fit any 17'' rim...or so I have been reliably informed by a local tyre fitter....no, not a Kwikfit one either!

Neil

[shabazmo]

225 or 235 is correct. 245 is borderring on the max width for 8 inch wheels, and 215 on the minimum

[Persuader]

225 or 235 is correct. 245 is borderring on the max width for 8 inch wheels, and 215 on the minimum

But Audi standard fitment on 225/50 17 is 7.5", 245/40 18 is 8.0" and 255/35 19 is 8.5".

[shabazmo]

But Audi standard fitment on 225/50 17 is 7.5", 245/40 18 is 8.0" and 255/35 19 is 8.5".

You are quite correct but my statement still stands. My reference is the web site below. My A7 has 255/45/18 on 8.5" wheels and I might change these to 235/50/18 at some stage in the future. In the meantime I have just bought 255/45/18 michelin alpin snow tyres which are very wide. I will see how I get on with these, but am sure that the 235s will have better traction

http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/equivalency-tables-advice.html

[Persuader]

Sorted.
Managed to get a set of the newly launched Dunlop SP Wintersport 4D 225/50 17 Tyres really cheap.

Thanks everyone.

[sparkythecat]

Sorted.
Managed to get a set of the newly launched Dunlop SP Wintersport 4D 225/50 17 Tyres really cheap.


How cheap?

National Tyres quoted me £150 each for their predecessors, the Dunlop SP Wintersport 3D.
For the same money, I nbought a set of Pirelli Winter 240 Sottozeros from Pneus Online

[Persuader]

How cheap?

National Tyres quoted me £150 each for their predecessors, the Dunlop SP Wintersport 3D.
For the same money, I nbought a set of Pirelli Winter 240 Sottozeros from Pneus Online

Paid £320 for all 4 tyres off of a chap who purchased them for his Volvo V70 but he then decided to change it for a XC70 after only doing 200 miles on the winter tyres so he put summers back on before part exchanging it.

[neilos100]

You got an absolute bargain there! Well done.....I'm only "slightly" jealous......... :beerchug:

Neil

[bennettp23]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I have a similar question.

On my a6 2009 2.0TDI I have the audi 8 inch alloys with the original 245/40/18 tyres. I want to get some winter tyres and reading this I'm thinking I may like some 225's. I have done a tyre tool thingy and I think that I can do 225/45/18, but this does not seem to be a common size, can anyone comment if they think my maths is correct?

Thanks

Paul.

[joshA6]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I have a similar question.

On my a6 2009 2.0TDI I have the audi 8 inch alloys with the original 245/40/18 tyres. I want to get some winter tyres and reading this I'm thinking I may like some 225's. I have done a tyre tool thingy and I think that I can do 225/45/18, but this does not seem to be a common size, can anyone comment if they think my maths is correct?

Thanks

Paul.

I don;t know what you are trying to achieve. Putting winter tyres on your standard rims? What you gonna do when summer comes around? change them over again?

If the answer is yes, why not just get winter tyres in the same size as your summer tyres as these are the right size for the car and the rim.

I have a set of summer rims (8.5 X 19") and a set of winter rims (7.5 X 17"). The summer rims run 255/35/19 tyres and the winters run 225/50/17 with Dunlop Sport 3d winter tyres. These wheel/tyre sizes are manufacturers spec.

If you don't have any winter rims yet, you may be better off buying a package set of winter wheels. I have seen some alloy winter rims for £240 when purchased with the tyres. Try mytyres

[joshA6]

Hi.

I have purchased some used 17x8 ET43 A8 Wheels to use as winters on my A6.
I have three questions and I would love to hear your views.

1. Should I get 225/50 17 tyres or 245/45 17 tyres. People say the narrower the better. Is using 245 tyres a total disadvantage or are there any advantages?-I have 225/50/17 on my winter rims with Dunlop Winter Sport 3d tyres. Cannot be faulted and the ride quality is miles better than the summer 19" (but don't look as nice!)

2. Are Nankangs really that bad. Reports say that braking in the wet isn't great but I'm assuming they will still be better than a non premium summer tyre? Set of Nankangs in 225/50 17 is circular £350 whereas Dunlops are over £600. - In winter tyres, I would go for the best you can afford as they are needed all that much more, hence my use of premium dunlops in winter. I use Falkens in the summer which are cheap and only a little bit better than Nankangs, but I feel that in mainly dry weather, there is no point paying £200 a corner for 19"s, especially when you can burst them at the first sign of a high kerb or pothole!

3. Anybody used Cooper Weathermaster as they a good price for 245/45 17?.

Oh and 4. Is a 225 tyre ok on a 8" width rim. - 225 on an 8" rim is a little stretched. I thought my standard Audi 17" wheels were a 7.5. If that's the case, you ,may need to go wider, but thats more tyre contact on the ground which you could regret when it really snows. Personally, the profile on 225/50/17 are so much, they are likely NOT to be a problem on 8" rims. you are only talking 12mm wider after all.

Thanks in advance.k

[bennettp23]

I don;t know what you are trying to achieve. Putting winter tyres on your standard rims? What you gonna do when summer comes around? change them over again?

If the answer is yes, why not just get winter tyres in the same size as your summer tyres as these are the right size for the car and the rim.

I have a set of summer rims (8.5 X 19") and a set of winter rims (7.5 X 17"). The summer rims run 255/35/19 tyres and the winters run 225/50/17 with Dunlop Sport 3d winter tyres. These wheel/tyre sizes are manufacturers spec.

If you don't have any winter rims yet, you may be better off buying a package set of winter wheels. I have seen some alloy winter rims for £240 when purchased with the tyres. Try mytyres

It will cost me 40 quid to change all 4 tyres so I do not see it as an issue. Reading around it appears the thinner the tyre the better for winter tyres in snow, hence the wondering about 225's, which I think will be fine on 8 inch rims looking at the web and your other post.

[joshA6]

I would agree with you with respect to the 8 inch rims.

Personally, if you can stretch to 2 sets of rims, you will be better off for it. It's the initial outlay that's a lot to be fair. I bought a set of 19"s with tyres when my original 17" tyres all needed changing. I then kept the standard 17" rims for winter tyres and bought the tyres 6 months later to make up the winter set.

The way I see it, the wear should get shared by both sets, so they should in theory last twice as long. Also, the 17" wheels are far cheaper than the 19s as you would expect.

[Persuader]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I have a similar question.

On my a6 2009 2.0TDI I have the audi 8 inch alloys with the original 245/40/18 tyres. I want to get some winter tyres and reading this I'm thinking I may like some 225's. I have done a tyre tool thingy and I think that I can do 225/45/18, but this does not seem to be a common size, can anyone comment if they think my maths is correct?

Thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul

From my research I discovered that some tyre manufactuers actually recommend 8" rims for their tyres which gave me the confidence to get the 225's for the 17" winter wheels i purchased so 225's are really not a problem with an 8" rim.

In regard to your idea of 225/45 18 tyres there is no problem with that either as your maths is correct. There are plenty tyres available of this size on mytyres.co.uk in this size.

Personally though I agree with the other poster that a seperate set of rims is a better idea as you could then get 17" rims (even better in the snow) and the tyres will be a cheaper in this size.

Also, if you want to stick with your existing rims there is an argument to sticking with with 245/40 18 tyres as this is the size approved by manufactuer. Personally wouldn't bother me though,

Cheers