Snow Tires and Rims -- Achieved!

[telson]

Following advice from some great threads here and truly superb help from Barry/CruzTaker (thank you!!!), I'm pleased to report that I now have my snow tires and rims.

In case it's of interest to others, I bought the
following from The TireRack:
225/60QR16 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 (Front)
235/65QR16 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 (Rear)

With 5-spoke alloy wheels all round:
16x7.5 Bright Silver Paint Mille Miglia MM11-3

The only downside is very tight clearance between the front brakes and the wheel weights (see pic below).

The tires were $100 each and the wheels $140 each. Add $50 shipping and it came to $1000.

My sales contact was called Kurt and he was also very helpful.


I had the order shipped directly to ATI Motorsports (Wixom, MI) who installed them for only $20. These guys were amazing! They really looked after my car, were very careful about not scratching the wheels, bagged the OEM wheels for me (to keep my car clean) and said they'd be happy to do regular servicing for me. They only accept performance vehicles for servicing and the owner has a Marauder (even autocrosses it). Yep, I told him about our site here.

If you live near Novi (Metro Detroit), I'd highly recommend ATI Motorsports! Tel (248) 848-9200. I doubt that I'll be using a dealer for any servicing work again. (Though I'd use Lidio for a 4.10 just because he's one of ours :) ).

Overall, it was a highly successful process (selecting, purchasing, installing). And, to top it off, it started snowing today; what timing!

[bigslim]

I saw them in person and they look nice. Good choice!! :up:

[KilledKenny]

I went with the Sport Edition TK5.
http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/DisplayWheel.jsp?wheelMake=Spo rt+Edition&wheelModel=TK5&wheelFinish=Silver+Painted and had Tirerack mount and balance them for free and shipped to my work.
As with yours, the wheel weights make for a tight clearance. Worse thing that could happen is the weight could start fall off and make a tick sound.

[Eric91Z]

Be careful with the weight/caliper issue. I had a similiar problem with my '95 Ford F150 4x4 that I put 15x10 wheels on and the stick on weights on one wheel ended up catching the pad retaining clips, pulled one of the clips up, knocked the weights off, and the clip that was sticking up put a nice groove around the interior circumference of the wheel. Was not happy at all. Had to go back to the shop (happened leaving the shop that mounted the new wheels/tires). Had to pull that wheel, rebalance and put the weights in a different location to clear the calipers, then check the other wheels for clearance.

Don't want to worry you, just saying be careful....

[telson]

KilledKenny said:
>I went with the Sport Edition TK5
Ah, the TK5 wheels was my original choice -- could you post a pic of your Marauder with them on, please?

Yes, I meant to say that TireRack mounted and balanced the tires on the wheels for me (this was included in the price, as you know). Then ATI Motorsports put the wheels on my car.


Eric91Z said:
> the stick on weights on one wheel ended up
> catching the pad retaining clips
Ouch! Thanks for the warning!