Winter setup help

[Everest]

What's up guys. I had a couple of questions, hopefully some of you have already figured it out...Im a new 4BW owner, and it will be driven 12 months of the year. I don't plan on taking the 4BW out in snow unless it's an emergency, but living in SE Michigan sometimes it can happen suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly. I'm doing my due diligence and want to make sure the car is best prepared to drive in cold weather, maybe a little dusting of snow. Does anyone have any advice or input that could help point me in the right direction? What's an ideal setup for "cold weather" driving in this? Staggered stance? Square stance? All season tires? Snow tires? Thanks guys, I appreciate any input.

 

[BadCadiWI23]

I swapped my OEM summer tires last year with Falken A/S stock sized on the OEM wheels. Love them. Ordered Apex EC-7 wheels in very close to OEM offsets and put the OEM tires on them. Once temps warm up; they will be put on for the duration of the warm weather here in WI. Happy to provide more specifics if needed.

 

[Everest]

I was planning on doing something similar, running a spring/summer/fall setup then a winter-ish setup, probably an oct-march type thing. I was hoping to find a set of OEM wheels on here and putting the winter shoes on those...With the right rubber, is there a benefit to going to a squared stance or is it better to keep staggered, for colder, possibly snowy weather?

 

[BadCadiWI23]

I didn’t drive at all during snow…once salt goes down on roads-car gets put away until rains rinse the salt off; so can’t comment on staggered or square being better in snow. Drove my 2016 CTS-V staggered in the cold as well

 

[GoldGSF]

Welcome to 4BW ownership. There's a huge thread that you can search for that heavily discussed winter/cold weather setups.

From what I recall people ran different setups with good results. Below is the most common setups. People were able to fit these fitment with factory wheels.

225/40 R18 and 245/40 R18
235/40 R18 and 245/40 R18 (My Setup)
255/35 R18 Squared
255/35 R18 and 265/35 R18

If I were to do it again. I'd just do 255/35 R18 square setup.

 

[sethsquire]

I have Michelin PS AS4's which I run year-round. 255 in front and 285 in back (275s were out of stock). Great setup and gives up very little to the summer tires in regular driving.

 

[Dirkbg]

I swapped my OEM summer tires last year with Falken A/S stock sized on the OEM wheels. Love them. Ordered Apex EC-7 wheels in very close to OEM offsets and put the OEM tires on them. Once temps warm up; they will be put on for the duration of the warm weather here in WI. Happy to provide more specifics if needed.

That's what I'm doing with the same Falken 460 AS tires. Using the OEM wheels for winter takes the staggered setup question off the table for the OP. I'm in central Ohio. I don't drive in snow either but wanted to drive in colder temps.

 

[Roadhawk]

I'm a big believer in snow tires for winter - Michigan - hell yeah. As for staggered vs squared - folks do both with good results. I'd keep factory staggered (which is what I'm doing) but what do i know....works. Michelin Alpines are fantastic even in dry and cold....have only tried them in a bit of snow (not heavy duty) and they did great.

 

[AtrociKitty]

I live in PA and use my 4BW as a daily. My workplace generally doesn't close, so even if there's a few inches of unplowed snow on the ground, I'm still getting on the road. I have separate summer and winter wheels+tires.

For the winter, I'm currently running Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 tires, 255/35R18 square setup on 18x9.5 wheels (staggered offset, +20mm front and +33mm rear). I personally don't think there's a huge difference between square or staggered winter tires, so long as you have enough rubber. Tire availability is what pushed me towards square.

As for performance, I found the Pilot Alpin tires to be excellent in below freezing conditions, very good in light powder or on mildly treated roads, and just okay on untreated roads. I've been through three sets of Michel X Ice winter tires on other cars before this, and the Alpins do a better job of retaining some sportiness at the cost of snow performance at the extremes.

Also, make sure you're familiar with the location of the traction control button before getting on the road in poor winter weather. Even in Snow/Ice Mode, the car prefers to cut throttle instead of letting you spin the tires a little, so you can end up in situations where the car will struggle to make it up something like an unplowed hill.

 

[SynisterAZ]

Northern AZ gets all 4 seasons for sure and while I try and use my 4runner for the real nasty stuff, temps alone require an UHP all season unless I only want to drive 7 mos out of the year.

I went with the Continentals on the factory wheels. Way more snow and winter driving this week than I would have liked but my truck was under the knife. Snow, slush and wintery mix, temps at or below freezing, very happy with the Conti’s and they are quieter than the PS4s as well. Think Ill just run them year round since they dont give up much to the summer tires unless you are really pushing it.

 

[shbox]

Northern AZ gets all 4 seasons for sure and while I try and use my 4runner for the real nasty stuff, temps alone require an UHP all season unless I only want to drive 7 mos out of the year.

I went with the Continentals on the factory wheels. Way more snow and winter driving this week than I would have liked but my truck was under the knife. Snow, slush and wintery mix, temps at or below freezing, very happy with the Conti’s and they are quieter than the PS4s as well. Think Ill just run them year round since they dont give up much to the summer tires unless you are really pushing it.

Which Continentals?

 

[SynisterAZ]

Which Continentals?

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