Tyre & wheel options for winter driving UK?

[Dale Stevens]

I'm struggling to find any winter or all season tyres for the rears 245/40 R17 (plenty available for the fronts 225/45 R17).
Has anyone purchased any winter/all seasons for this size, or will I have to be considering 16" wheels?

 

[bembo449]

you expecting some bad weather then pal ?? weve finally got a summer for the first time in years and your praying for snow

 

[Blobcat]

I'm struggling to find any winter or all season tyres for the rears 245/40 R17 (plenty available for the fronts 225/45 R17).
Has anyone purchased any winter/all seasons for this size, or will I have to be considering 16" wheels?

Check out “MyTyres” website - they being Germany based have a great selection of winter tyres at good prices

 

[JBell]

I'm struggling to find any winter or all season tyres for the rears 245/40 R17 (plenty available for the fronts 225/45 R17).
Has anyone purchased any winter/all seasons for this size, or will I have to be considering 16" wheels?

Don't think anyone makes them in 245/40 R17, been asked before, just put 225/45 R17 all round

 

[Craiglxviii]

Having driven all season tyres, and looking at what the typical winter looks like at least where I live in the country (East Mids), and thanks to @JBell for nudging me over to Roadsharks, I decided that wet weather tyres are a far superior choice for year-round use.

 

[Dale Stevens]

you expecting some bad weather then pal ?? weve finally got a summer for the first time in years and your praying for snow

This winter, yes, probably. My wife is using the CLK as a company car all year round so no point waiting for the snow to fall before researching it

 

[Dale Stevens]

Don't think anyone makes them in 245/40 R17, been asked before, just put 225/45 R17 all round

That might be what I have to do, thanks. If they are ok for this winter then can leave them on permenantly.
I assume the slight difference in wheel size between fronts 17 x 7.5j ET36 and rears 17 x 8.5j ET30 wont matter?

 

[Droverunner]

>>>nudging me over to Roadsharks, I decided that wet weather tyres are a far superior choice for year-round use.

I have to ask what you mean by Roadsharks and also wet weather tyres? Unless you mean the Uniroyal Rainsports with what they call shark skin tech?

I'm going to put a new set of something on my new to me unmerc in a week or two. I did consider Michelin Crossclimates but their extra 45% cost concentrates the mind leading to me to research and probably reverting to a standard tyre of a major brand. Those Uniroyals are on the shortlist.

Re a CLK Mrs D has commuted some 30mls daily for years on the standard over-wide AMG spec summer tyres. Always got to work even in snow and black ice. Only one hill to manage though.

 

[JBell]

>>>nudging me over to Roadsharks, I decided that wet weather tyres are a far superior choice for year-round use.

I have to ask what you mean by Roadsharks and also wet weather tyres? Unless you mean the Uniroyal Rainsports with what they call shark skin tech?

Yup, the Uniroyal Rainsport 5

 

[Craiglxviii]

>>>nudging me over to Roadsharks, I decided that wet weather tyres are a far superior choice for year-round use.

I have to ask what you mean by Roadsharks and also wet weather tyres? Unless you mean the Uniroyal Rainsports with what they call shark skin tech?

I'm going to put a new set of something on my new to me unmerc in a week or two. I did consider Michelin Crossclimates but their extra 45% cost concentrates the mind leading to me to research and probably reverting to a standard tyre of a major brand. Those Uniroyals are on the shortlist.

Re a CLK Mrs D has commuted some 30mls daily for years on the standard over-wide AMG spec summer tyres. Always got to work even in snow and black ice. Only one hill to manage though.

I’ve had Rainsport 3s on my other cars, and now RS5s on the two existing cars. All I can say against them is, the life isn’t as high as some of the harder-compound tyres, but the combined wet & dry performance is so good it more than makes up for it.

 

[Dale Stevens]

Looking at some 2nd hand wheels for sale near me, could someone clarify if they are likely to fit my 2003 CLK A209 which has front 7.5J ET36 & rears 8.5J ET30 please?

They are original 17" wheels from the sellers W209, all with 225/45 R17 winter tyres and staggered 7.5 & 8.5". Is the W209 a CLK320? They sound like they might fit mine but the seller is away from home so cant check the ET sizes just yet. Thanks.

 

[JBell]

Looking at some 2nd hand wheels for sale near me, could someone clarify if they are likely to fit my 2003 CLK A209 which has front 7.5J ET36 & rears 8.5J ET30 please?

They are original 17" wheels from the sellers W209, all with 225/45 R17 winter tyres and staggered 7.5 & 8.5". Is the W209 a CLK320? They sound like they might fit mine but the seller is away from home so cant check the ET sizes just yet. Thanks.

They will fit yours

 

[Droverunner]

Just be wary of the brand of winter tyres on this wheel set. Some winter tyres have very poor performance in dry and wet milder conditions you might experience while you are on winter wheels.

 

[Chrishazle]

Also be aware that winter tyres are effectivly useless in snow once the tread depth drops to 4mm (rather than the 1.6mm legal minimum), which is why you see so many pre-owned cheap on Ebay with 4mm tread!

 

[AnthonyUK]

I have 225/45 17 Crossclimate+ all round on that size wheel and have had for nearly 5 years.
They are less than 1" different in width and a permitted size for the wheels.

 

[Chrishazle]

How do you find 225's on the driven wheels rather than 245's? I thought about doing this on both cars, but as the rears are the driven wheels and both cars have lots of power and/or torque, I would really prefer to stay with 245's unless there's little or no difference. Despite mainly driving like Miss Daisy, I have managed to spin the rears (briefly) on both cars in the dry, mainly gravel related!

 

[Blobcat]

How do you find 225's on the driven wheels rather than 245's? I thought about doing this on both cars, but as the rears are the driven wheels and both cars have lots of power and/or torque, I would really prefer to stay with 245's unless there's little or no difference. Despite mainly driving like Miss Daisy, I have managed to spin the rears (briefly) on both cars in the dry, mainly gravel related!

I run 225’s in the summer and 205’s in the winter on the back of my 280. EfficientGrips are the summers and they grip very well indeed. Width is more about fashion than 0-60 or lap times. Your welcome to tuck in behind me sometime if you’d like…

 

[AnthonyUK]

How do you find 225's on the driven wheels rather than 245's? I thought about doing this on both cars, but as the rears are the driven wheels and both cars have lots of power and/or torque, I would really prefer to stay with 245's unless there's little or no difference. Despite mainly driving like Miss Daisy, I have managed to spin the rears (briefly) on both cars in the dry, mainly gravel related!

The car came fitted with 205/50 16 all round so was an improvement IMO.
Have you tried this calculator to check the difference?

BND TechSource - Tire Data Calculator

 

[Dale Stevens]

Thanks for all the advice. There's a set of wheels & winter tyres advertised locally for £550, but to save money I might just keep my current wheels and change the out of date tyres (one is 17 yrs old!!) to all season 225/45 17R tyres and just leave them on.

So to confirm, a set of 225/45 17R tyres will happily fit on my rear 8.5J ET30 wheels?

 

[AnthonyUK]

That is exactly the size wheel I have.
I checked a number of tyres sites before fitting e.g. - https://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/tyre-equivalence-advice.html

You may have seen the 'fashion' taking stretching types to the extreme but it seems because this is an acceptable size it isn't even included

Tyrestretch.com - Search Results

tyrestretch.com