Victory Spoke Wheels with snow tires?
- Thread starter MaineEV
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It's getting cold (29 this morning) and I know that the HanKook Summer tires will soon be hockey pucks sliding in the snow. Can I get some all season or snows for the victory spoke wheels or do I need new wheels as well. 
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
You can shop around for a second set of wheels; I found a set of Victory Spokes locally for my winter tires (which you can see in other threads in this forum). But yes, if you can’t find an extra set of wheels, you can certainly get snow tires swapped onto your existing Victory Spokes.
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
If you get real winter conditions for more than a couple of months (or nor’easters), you should consider a Nordic tire like the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 which is what I got.
Puppethead
Well-Known Member
You could get just tires and have them unmounted/remounted every season (twice a year), and all you need to do is match the size of the tires you currently have. But it might be easier in the long run to get a second set of wheels. With a second set of wheels it's just a matter of swapping them out, which is no more complicated than a tire rotation.
Any wheels of the right size will work. My first set of snow wheels was the cheapest I could at tirerack.com and I'm still using them ten years later (replaced the tires themselves a few times). in fact I ordered the complete set from them: wheels, tires, TPMS sensors. Your MINI dealer should also have packages, and I found dealer prices aren't much higher than anywhere else, so the hassle factor might be worth a few extra dollars.
As for tires, it depends on your winter conditions. If you only have some days that are snowy, and you don't stay below freezing for weeks on end, an all-season tire would probably suffice. But if you do get a set of wheels the extra safety of snow-rated tires might not be any more expensive. The upside to an all-season is you don't have to worry about warm conditions, but you don't get the winter traction a snow-rated tire would have.
Puppethead
Well-Known Member
Depends on the tire, but the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3s I have cause almost no range loss. I drive more than 80 miles a day year-round and the range I lose in the winter is almost entirely due to using the heater. You should have no worries on your drive even in the harshest conditions.
Rexsio
Well-Known Member
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pictsidhe
Well-Known Member
I'm another Nokian fanboy. For Maine, I'd seriously consider WR-G4s all year if I was on a budget.
Down in NC, they are my 'winters'. Warm wet grip is down a notch on the summer Hankooks, though.
They are better than any all season on snow/ice, though not as good as the best real winter tyres. Similar in summer dry weather to all seasons. Only warm and wet is a notch down on good all seasons, but not cheapos. Life is pretty good. I've only just put them on my '23 SE, but I've done a lot of miles on them with my R53. I'm not seeing a noticeable range reduction on mine.
A popular Mini all season tyre is the Conti extremecontact DWS, though I don't know if they come in 16”. I suspect they are better in summer, worse in snow than the Nokians.
For budget, pick a 'winter' tyre and put them on your existing rims, then maybe remount the Hankooks on new wheels for the summer?
Down in NC, they are my 'winters'. Warm wet grip is down a notch on the summer Hankooks, though.
They are better than any all season on snow/ice, though not as good as the best real winter tyres. Similar in summer dry weather to all seasons. Only warm and wet is a notch down on good all seasons, but not cheapos. Life is pretty good. I've only just put them on my '23 SE, but I've done a lot of miles on them with my R53. I'm not seeing a noticeable range reduction on mine.
A popular Mini all season tyre is the Conti extremecontact DWS, though I don't know if they come in 16”. I suspect they are better in summer, worse in snow than the Nokians.
For budget, pick a 'winter' tyre and put them on your existing rims, then maybe remount the Hankooks on new wheels for the summer?
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Rexsio
Well-Known Member
Summer performance tires are a best for summer .All season tires is a compromise between winter and summer if you drive them all year around if you not at extreme condition.All weather tires are the tires which can do good in winter conditions but not to extreme snow conditions.Than you need only winter tires for extreme snow conditions .I did this only bc young kids should learn about a basic tires ABC .
Living in MD tires are generally all about compromise. Something good in all conditions…I said good not great. We have the Conti DWS 06+ on both our Mini SE and out VW GTI. Good enough for ripping around in the summer on a backroad, really good in the wet and can get you to and from wherever safely in the winter.
Downside is def cost me some range. Not and exact number but think it cost me 10 ish miles versus the Goodyear summers tires we had when new.
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Downside is def cost me some range. Not and exact number but think it cost me 10 ish miles versus the Goodyear summers tires we had when new.
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
chrunck
Well-Known Member
In my experience, the Conti DWS is only good for one winter, maybe two if you're lucky. The S wears off so fast.
For anyone not familiar, the S wears off first, after which you shouldn't use them in snow. Next is the W for wet.
Brawndo
Member
Really, really depends on your situation.
For my area, we only get maybe 3-4 deep snow mornings per year which are cleared to slushy messes at worst by commute home time. The rest is light snows which amount to regular slushy /wet roads, and the rest is dry, salt caked roads. The newer category of all weather tires is a good fit for my situation, but of course I bought full snows for my SE because I don't listen to my own advice. I forgot how bad full snows are in the dry and wet. I'll be really happy on 3-4 mornings though.
For my area, we only get maybe 3-4 deep snow mornings per year which are cleared to slushy messes at worst by commute home time. The rest is light snows which amount to regular slushy /wet roads, and the rest is dry, salt caked roads. The newer category of all weather tires is a good fit for my situation, but of course I bought full snows for my SE because I don't listen to my own advice. I forgot how bad full snows are in the dry and wet. I'll be really happy on 3-4 mornings though.
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
That’s the difference between a top-rated full winter tire like Nokian Hakkapeliitta or Michelin X-ice Snow and a lesser tire, or a so-called ice tire like Blizzak. Great winter tires fare only marginally worse in grip and handling on bare roads in mild conditions than a top-rated all season tire, but are so much better (and safer) in all winter conditions than even the best all-season tires — including on dry or bare roads at temperatures below 40°F. Ice tires are great… on ice. They are usually so-so on pretty much every other surface. And if your roads get cleared promptly or your temperatures aren’t often below freezing, they wear out very quickly, and you end up having paid extra for what become all season tires within a very short time.
sacharama
Active Member
It's true that you can dismount summer tires and mount winter tires in winter and vice versa in spring so you don't have to buy another set of wheels. But the cost of mounting and dismounting tires with balancing will be a lot more than just removing the summer wheels/tires from the vehicle and putting the winter wheels/tires back in the vehicle. In my area it runs about $60 to $80 to swap wheels with tires already mounted and about $160 to $220 to mount and balance 4 tires.
So if you add up all the extra cost of mounting and balancing in a few years, it would probably be more than the cost of a set of wheels.
Also, someone can swap wheels themselves with a floor jack and torque wrench whereas mounting and balancing would have to be done with the equipment that most likely you don't have access to.
Something to think about...
sacharama
Active Member
+1
If you search blizzak tread life you will find numerous reports of exceptional low tread life (as little as 13000 miles as some had reported).
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
I’ve gotten six winters (already) and ~35k miles out of Nokian R3s on the Crapolla, with admittedly relatively low mileage during the pandemic, but I kept them on fairly late this past spring. They still have around 4/32 left so this will be their last winter — and they won’t get much use other than on the worst days, when I really won't care to take the MINI out. I tried Blizzaks on a couple of cars in the past, one set didn’t last 12,000 miles and the other barely made it to 15,000 miles. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Quiet Mini
Well-Known Member
I really like the Blizzaks I installed on the Victory spokes I bought second hand.
sacharama
Active Member
I got Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5. Really like the look and tread design. Have already tried them out on ice with no problem at all, but waiting for the first snow. I think this is going to be a fun winter.
Just picked up my Hakka R5 too, can't wait to try them out soon!
You can see the tiny "Arctic crystal spike" on the surface.
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SameGuy
Well-Known Member
I find them to be a little more squirmy on dry pavement than the R3, but a LOT less noisy, and on ice and cold snow, so far they are much, much more confidence-inspiring. It doesn’t hurt that the MINI has perhaps the best ESC of any front-drive car I’ve driven, and that includes current Japanese and Korean cars; it’s almost uncanny, especially considering the “engine braking” of high regen and one-pedal driving.