I live in south jersey, and we usually get 2 snow storms or so each year. I only drive 12 miles to work, so I never really worry about snow. My buddy who drives a 2003 mustang says I'm crazy if I don't get snow tires.

He finally convinced me, and I started shopping around. I have 18" polished rims, and the tires are hard to find. I can get 17" rims and snow tires for about $1050.00. I did find some 18" tires only for about $650.00, but I'm thinking it might make sense to just get the 17in rims and tires to avoid the hastle of having them mounted twice a year. I'm also concerned that they will scratch up my 18's putting the tires on and off with the machine. Then theres the whole pressure sensor issue...

I'm leaning towards getting the 17's with the tires on them already, and just living with the tire pressure light on for the winter. Any adverse problems with that???

Parking the stang for the winter is not an option. Any advice?

Thanks!

 

If it only snows twice a year wouldn't it be cheaper to stay home and call in sick?
Where I live I don't go to work if the snow is much over a foot deep (same principle). Of course I get paid sick time.

 

A fresh set of 4 season tires would probably be good enough for your purposes. If your current tires are summer only or mostly worn and you don't wanna get new 4 seasons then yes winter tires are your best second choice. I got a set of steel wheels for my car, then got the cheapest set of winter tires I could find for them. No need to get anything fancy, even el-cheapo winter tires are still 200% better than 4 seasons and leave summers for dead. You don't need to worry about speed rating because who the hell goes for a personal best on winter tires anyway?

Anyways 17" steels and el-cheapo tires shouldn't run more than $600.

 

For only 2 storms a year why not buy a POS beater than runs enough to drive in and insure it only like 3 months a year?

 

It snows 2 times a year........you drive 12 miles to work.........calling in sick is not an option.......

The cheapest way to go is to get a pair of stock 17' rims and buy a pair of recap snow tires.

I would suggest as stated above to just buy a 4 wheel drive beater and drive it to work.

For a $1000 (the money your thing about spending on an excellent set of snow tires and rims) you can probably buy a pretty good rice burner or any other piece of crap to get you to work.

I just call in sick though when it snows.

 

You would be better off getting some 17" wheels. and mounting snow tires on them.
1) no damage when dismounting/mounting snows each year.
2) save money on dismounting/mounting/balancing twice a year
3) save money on 17" snows vs 18"
4) narrower tire = better snow traction

 

I've seen some pretty good deals on 17" GT take offs on ebay, and you can get 17" snow tires from tirerack at a fair price.

 

4 take off 17" bullitt rims (with new pirelli tires) - $400 shipped from ebay or for sale forums. Sell the new tires to make your money back

Then I got 4 michelin X-ice tires local for $100 each

My tires from last year are still good, and should last this year until april

 

go for the 17inch ebay tire if you can find them. We just had a pretty good snow storm a week or two back and my stock pirelli's did pretty good.

 

Man you only need two snow tires for the rear and who ever gave you that price Well maybe I should not say out of fear of being banned.

 

That's bad advice. Handling will be sacrificed to the danger point. Try an evasive maneuver at 45 mph on dry pavement and see what happens. Can you say 360!

 

having z rated tires on the front and snows on the back is extremely dangerous, I tried it and almost died

 

having z rated tires in the snow is insane

 

Now this is strange indeed as I have been doing this for over forty years and on one accession the front bumper of my pickup was pushing drifted snow. No problem in the snow or dry pavement.

 

snows only 2x a year in NJ? No way man south jersey is an hour from me and we get way mroe snow than that.

that being said ive driven my Thunderbird year round till i got the msutang with regular tires and never had a problem with snow

 

My solution came from tire rack. I got the ford racing silver 18" bullitts with blizzak lm-22's. Approx 1650 delivered mounted and ballanced to northern NJ. Not bad considering the tires cost 900 in the stock size.

I saved about 400 bucks compared to buying the factory polished bullitts all considered.

And it cost about 300 more than running facotry 17" take offs with the blizzacks. I did not want to cripple the car with 17"s as I dont like the ride or feel of the stang with 17"s. And I plan on bolting on the shelby brakes in the spring, so 17"s will not work even with a spacer.

As far as swapping tires on the factory 18"s. Not a good idea with flangeless wheels. The rims will look like crap within a couple seasons.

Best part is that my polished rims are nice and safe in the basement for the winter. And when I buy new summer tires. I dont have to buy all season tires which means alot to me.

 

Let me be one more to point out the obvious; using 2 winter tires (rear) and 2 summer tires (front) is not smart. When there's snow on the roads you won't be able to steer very well, but you arn't worse off that if you had 4 summer tires on. The problem is that when you are on bare roads (which you are 90% of the time) your front tires will have much more grip that the rears, this means your car is now very prone to oversteer. Don't do it.

Mongoose; just because you got away with it on a truck doesn't mean you can on a Mustang. Trucks have agressive tread even on their summer tires, so there isn't as much of a traction difference either way. Trucks also have much more weight over the front wheels versus the rears than an S197, that would also help you out. Bad advice for this application.

 

I did the same thing on all my cars also and continue to do it. Maybe red neck country boys are better drivers in the elements. My mustang goes into hibernation from mid NOV. until early March and I have never driven it in the snow. Dustin and you have both driven yours in the snow so you much be more enlightened than myself. I have a cat track on the snow blower and it traverces very well. Even better now that I have someone else do it

 

Guys, I live in Michigan, it snows... I use my stock 17s and the stock tires! NO PROBLEMS! I drove all last winter. NO PROBLEMS! I've never got stuck. Do I spin, sure. I was getting mad when SUVs and AWD cars around me couldn't seem to go, and I was having no problems. You can get some snow tires, but you may be wasting your money. Get some of the stock 17s and you'll be fine.

 

Stilmore; Absolutley, if you have reasonably fresh 4 season tires, they can be more than adequate for light duty snow use. After all we have TCS, a limited slip diff and almost half of our weight is over the rear wheels. However as your tires start to wear out their ability on snow will quickly disapear. Just be carefull in the first snowfall, because a summer of hard driving might have worn your 4 season tires down to just 3.