What winter tires and rims do you use in the colder months?

Sorry all for what is a really dumb question but aren't there snow ties that can be put on the original wheels? I've never changed my wheels when putting snow ties on my old Prius.
I don't have my kona yet but I was thinking of the nokian all season. I'm in Pittsburgh where we get some snow but nothing crazy.


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Cara said:
Sorry all for what is a really dumb question but aren't there snow ties that can be put on the original wheels? I've never changed my wheels when putting snow ties on my old Prius.
I don't have my kona yet but I was thinking of the nokian all season. I'm in Pittsburgh where we get some snow but nothing crazy.
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You certainly could just mount just about any snow tire in the appropriate size on your current rims.
 
We just finished driving our new Kona from southern California home to Minnesota. We ordered rims and snow tires from Tire Rack delivered to California where we had them put on the car and put the original wheels in the back to bring home. Yes, they fit with some luggage crammed in too. We got the same size rims and tires as the originals, with Michelin X-Ice Xi3 tires. Wow, were we glad we did. On the drive home we hit snow in Colorado and had to wait out a closed pass for a few hours. Then in Nebraska, a snow storm with 40 mph winds caused havoc on the interstate. Vehicles in the ditch everywhere. They closed the interstate after we got through. We even took a Google suggested alternate route off the freeway at one point, plowing through some low drifts. We stopped to push one car out of a drift. At one point we turned to go back to the Interstate, but that road was blocked by a stuck truck and car. I got out to inspect and slipped on my butt on the ice on the road. I had no idea it was so icy while driving.

So my point is that the Michelin X-Ice tires were amazing! I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and have driven on plenty of snow and ice, so I have a lot of experience to draw from. I would strongly recommend the Michelin X-Ice tires.
 
Uphill Harry said:
We just finished driving our new Kona from southern California home to Minnesota. We ordered rims and snow tires from Tire Rack delivered to California where we had them put on the car and put the original wheels in the back to bring home. Yes, they fit with some luggage crammed in too. We got the same size rims and tires as the originals, with Michelin X-Ice Xi3 tires. Wow, were we glad we did. On the drive home we hit snow in Colorado and had to wait out a closed pass for a few hours. Then in Nebraska, a snow storm with 40 mph winds caused havoc on the interstate. Vehicles in the ditch everywhere. They closed the interstate after we got through. We even took a Google suggested alternate route off the freeway at one point, plowing through some low drifts. We stopped to push one car out of a drift. At one point we turned to go back to the Interstate, but that road was blocked by a stuck truck and car. I got out to inspect and slipped on my butt on the ice on the road. I had no idea it was so icy while driving.

So my point is that the Michelin X-Ice tires were amazing! I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and have driven on plenty of snow and ice, so I have a lot of experience to draw from. I would strongly recommend the Michelin X-Ice tires.
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Sounds like an adventurous way to begin with your new car.
It appears you made a wise decision having the Michelin X-Ice installed . ;)
Congratulations on your purchase and your safe drive home.
Waiting for the pictures...
 
I also highly recommend the Michelin XI3 tires! I had them put on a few weeks ago but they finally proved themselves on Monday when I drove through a 300-mile snowstorm that gave the plows a challenge to keep up with. I was amazed at the level of traction my Kona had even in 2 inches of drift snow which would have had the all season tires sliding everywhere. Well-worth the cost for peace of mind.
 
Cara said:
Sorry all for what is a really dumb question but aren't there snow ties that can be put on the original wheels? I've never changed my wheels when putting snow ties on my old Prius.
I don't have my kona yet but I was thinking of the nokian all season. I'm in Pittsburgh where we get some snow but nothing crazy.
Click to expand...

Cara, the Nokians are working well for me so far this winter in Massachusetts. I’ve been surprised how much traction they have. Of course they won’t be as good as a dedicated snow tire and wouldn’t be great in the truly epic snow driving stories in this thread. You can run the Nokians all year round, and being a low rolling resistance tire, they don’t seem to cut into range in non-winter driving. I definitely wouldn’t attempt to drive in the snow with the Nexens installed by the manufacturer.

The Kona Electric is a heavy car, so you do still need to observe reasonable cornering speeds, but that was true of all the cars I’ve driven in winter, even those with AWD.
 
Just my mini review. I have had my Bridgestone Blizzak WS 90 in copious snow conditions and icy highways the last couple of weeks. Its been relatively warm for the Canadian prairies with temps around -10 to -17C. I even had an opportunity to run down to our farm on the weekend, a 300 km round trip and includes poorly maintained snow and ice covered rural gravel roads. It was a little risky as we often can have as much 12 + inches of snow on the ground this time of the year and I am usually making the trip in our 4WD Tundra with excellent all terrain tires. It was not quite that bad with only 4 inches in our long rural driveway( I say that loosely as it more of a dirt path :) ). My backup plan involved some j hooks, tow straps and firing up our tractor for extrication, fortunately it never came to that. I probably would have been fine up the full 6 inches of Kona's ground clearance. The tires were exceptional in snow, and quite reasonable on ice. Although there was a bad ice strorm the other day that I was wishing I had studs. What I am really impressed with is that they are quietest winter tires I have experienced. No problems recommending them if you lots of snow to deal with. I'm curious how they will wear as I usually find most winter tires loose their winter performance edge in as little as 3 seasons and they are not hugely better than decent all seasons by year 4.
 
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Finally got some snowy weather to try out the new snow tires. Happy to say they performing wonderfully. Here's what I ended up with: Mich 215/55R17 X-Ice Xi3 tires on RTX 17inch steelies with Mobiletron CX-S163-4 TPMS units. All from various Amazon sellers which saved $164USD off Tire Rack. The sensors are preprogrammed so no hassles there and the set is just $88. $104 to install locally and then $39 for some hubcaps again off Amazon. All in was $1115 USD before 8% NY sales tax. Never bought new everything for winter before but I'm committed to this Kona for the long haul.
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Dag Lindquist said:
Finally got some snowy weather to try out the new snow tires. Happy to say they performing wonderfully. Here's what I ended up with: Mich 215/55R17 X-Ice Xi3 tires on RTX 17inch steelies with Mobiletron CX-S163-4 TPMS units. All from various Amazon sellers which saved $164USD off Tire Rack. The sensors are preprogrammed so no hassles there and the set is just $88. $104 to install locally and then $39 for some hubcaps again off Amazon. All in was $1115 USD before 8% NY sales tax. Never bought new everything for winter before but I'm committed to this Kona for the long haul.
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Bless you for investing in some hubcaps! Hate to see nice cars going around half-dressed just because it's winter.
 
Hi. First post. This thread was helpful to me as I was navigating options for winter rims and tires for my 2019 Kona EV Limited. I ended up purchasing a set of 16" steel rims with Blizzaks from Tire Rack. Reading through this (and the few other threads I found) on the topic of winter tires/rims, I had some concerns about going with 16" wheels due to the potential fitment issues. But there are examples stated here of several people successfully installing 16s, which were preferable to me over the 17" wheel diameter. So, I researched options, spoke with Tire Rack, and put together a package of 16" rims and tires with TPMS.

I had the Blizzaks mounted by Tire Rack and shipped to me. I installed them last night and, unfortunately, they don't fit. I thought I had been meticulous in matching offset and center bore, and the new wheels went on the hub without issue so I thought I was golden. But after tightening lug nuts and putting the car in drive: horrible grinding noise, so obviously something isn't compatible. From what I've read, it sounds like it is the Kona's brake calipers that are problematic for some 16" rims. I'm not much of a car guy and I'm hoping you all can help me understand where I went wrong and if using a wheel spacer might correct the problem.

The rims are 16X6.5 with a 67.1 center bore and 42mm offset.
Tires are 215/60R-16.

Do I need more offset? And can this be accomplished with a wheel spacer?

Thanks!
 
jsharpe2001 said:
Hi. First post. This thread was helpful to me as I was navigating options for winter rims and tires for my 2019 Kona EV Limited. I ended up purchasing a set of 16" steel rims with Blizzaks from Tire Rack. Reading through this (and the few other threads I found) on the topic of winter tires/rims, I had some concerns about going with 16" wheels due to the potential fitment issues. But there are examples stated here of several people successfully installing 16s, which were preferable to me over the 17" wheel diameter. So, I researched options, spoke with Tire Rack, and put together a package of 16" rims and tires with TPMS.

I had the Blizzaks mounted by Tire Rack and shipped to me. I installed them last night and, unfortunately, they don't fit. I thought I had been meticulous in matching offset and center bore, and the new wheels went on the hub without issue so I thought I was golden. But after tightening lug nuts and putting the car in drive: horrible grinding noise, so obviously something isn't compatible. From what I've read, it sounds like it is the Kona's brake calipers that are problematic for some 16" rims. I'm not much of a car guy and I'm hoping you all can help me understand where I went wrong and if using a wheel spacer might correct the problem.

The rims are 16X6.5 with a 67.1 center bore and 42mm offset.
Tires are 215/60R-16.

Do I need more offset? And can this be accomplished with a wheel spacer?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I actually have aluminum hub centric spacer for my after market rims,with 17" tires.Tire rack should've had a tool to adjust for the tire size reduction.
I moved from my Pirelli ICE ZERO™ FR to Kumho Wintercraft Ice Wi31 [225/45/17] for 2020,and they've already had to deal with one snow fall. Dead stop on an incline,the tires gripped,and I moved.In this location,I have immediately enter a road where it is about a 40 degree angle out of this driveway. Last winter, the Kona electric combined with my Ice Zero FR had no problem as traffic stood still due to other vehicles losing control. My winters are mounted onto the OEM rims so no adjustment required.
 
jsharpe2001 said:
Hi. First post. This thread was helpful to me as I was navigating options for winter rims and tires for my 2019 Kona EV Limited. I ended up purchasing a set of 16" steel rims with Blizzaks from Tire Rack. Reading through this (and the few other threads I found) on the topic of winter tires/rims, I had some concerns about going with 16" wheels due to the potential fitment issues. But there are examples stated here of several people successfully installing 16s, which were preferable to me over the 17" wheel diameter. So, I researched options, spoke with Tire Rack, and put together a package of 16" rims and tires with TPMS.

I had the Blizzaks mounted by Tire Rack and shipped to me. I installed them last night and, unfortunately, they don't fit. I thought I had been meticulous in matching offset and center bore, and the new wheels went on the hub without issue so I thought I was golden. But after tightening lug nuts and putting the car in drive: horrible grinding noise, so obviously something isn't compatible. From what I've read, it sounds like it is the Kona's brake calipers that are problematic for some 16" rims. I'm not much of a car guy and I'm hoping you all can help me understand where I went wrong and if using a wheel spacer might correct the problem.

The rims are 16X6.5 with a 67.1 center bore and 42mm offset.
Tires are 215/60R-16.

Do I need more offset? And can this be accomplished with a wheel spacer?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
A comment about offset first. If you were able to look down through the wheel from the top, if the mounting surface of the wheel plate is dead centre (inside to outside) you have zero offset. If the plate is closer to the outside of the wheel, which pushes the wheel inwards toward the body, that's positive offset. If the plate is nearer the inside of the wheel, pushing the wheel out, you have negative offset.
You are thinking about getting clearance by moving your wheel out further, which means LESS offset e.g reducing from 42mm to 35mm.
Your steelies probably have a closed/solid front face so you can't look through them, and getting a look from under the car is a mission, but a look is what you need, to see exactly what the problem is.
I have an open spoke design on my alternate summer tyre rims, so I'm afraid I have to tell you that the calipers, front and rear, are completely inside the wheels, so if you have rubbing on a caliper, any amount of offset change won't remedy that UNLESS the wheel inside diameter where the calipers sit increases a little toward the suspension side of the wheel. So if the inside face of the wheel is dead flat and parallel with the outside face (where the tyre sits), you are out of luck.
It is possible, if unlikely, that the problem instead is that the wheel is too close to the bodywork - you would have to eyeball that to tell. A grinding noise suggests not...
You did all the right checks first, except that going with a smaller wheel than stock cancels that unless you take the car in to a tyre shop and have them confirm before purchase. The Kona rear calipers are larger than the front ones unfortunately, and a neat fit even with some 17"s...
 
hieronymous said:
A comment about offset first. If you were able to look down through the wheel from the top, if the mounting surface of the wheel plate is dead centre (inside to outside) you have zero offset. If the plate is closer to the outside of the wheel, which pushes the wheel inwards toward the body, that's positive offset. If the plate is nearer the inside of the wheel, pushing the wheel out, you have negative offset.
You are thinking about getting clearance by moving your wheel out further, which means LESS offset e.g reducing from 42mm to 35mm.
Your steelies probably have a closed/solid front face so you can't look through them, and getting a look from under the car is a mission, but a look is what you need, to see exactly what the problem is.
I have an open spoke design on my alternate summer tyre rims, so I'm afraid I have to tell you that the calipers, front and rear, are completely inside the wheels, so if you have rubbing on a caliper, any amount of offset change won't remedy that UNLESS the wheel inside diameter where the calipers sit increases a little toward the suspension side of the wheel. So if the inside face of the wheel is dead flat and parallel with the outside face (where the tyre sits), you are out of luck.
It is possible, if unlikely, that the problem instead is that the wheel is too close to the bodywork - you would have to eyeball that to tell. A grinding noise suggests not...
You did all the right checks first, except that going with a smaller wheel than stock cancels that unless you take the car in to a tyre shop and have them confirm before purchase. The Kona rear calipers are larger than the front ones unfortunately, and a neat fit even with some 17"s...
Click to expand...
Thanks so much to both hieronymous and ehatch for the input. It sounds like sticking to the 17" rims is the only surefire way to get this right without some trial and error. So, I'll just return my 16s and exchange for 17s. I'm out a few hours of time and a $60 dismount fee, plus the spread on the cost difference b/w the 16s and 17s, which is another $80. Oh well. I'll chalk it up to learning something new. Love the car and looking forward to seeing how she handles our New England winters with a set of snow tires.
 
hieronymous said:
A comment about offset first. If you were able to look down through the wheel from the top, if the mounting surface of the wheel plate is dead centre (inside to outside) you have zero offset. If the plate is closer to the outside of the wheel, which pushes the wheel inwards toward the body, that's positive offset. If the plate is nearer the inside of the wheel, pushing the wheel out, you have negative offset.
You are thinking about getting clearance by moving your wheel out further, which means LESS offset e.g reducing from 42mm to 35mm.
Your steelies probably have a closed/solid front face so you can't look through them, and getting a look from under the car is a mission, but a look is what you need, to see exactly what the problem is.
I have an open spoke design on my alternate summer tyre rims, so I'm afraid I have to tell you that the calipers, front and rear, are completely inside the wheels, so if you have rubbing on a caliper, any amount of offset change won't remedy that UNLESS the wheel inside diameter where the calipers sit increases a little toward the suspension side of the wheel. So if the inside face of the wheel is dead flat and parallel with the outside face (where the tyre sits), you are out of luck.
It is possible, if unlikely, that the problem instead is that the wheel is too close to the bodywork - you would have to eyeball that to tell. A grinding noise suggests not...
You did all the right checks first, except that going with a smaller wheel than stock cancels that unless you take the car in to a tyre shop and have them confirm before purchase. The Kona rear calipers are larger than the front ones unfortunately, and a neat fit even with some 17"s...
Click to expand...

Yeah, you need to install it to be sure. I change my car recently and didn't want to buy need wheels and tire. So I used my old nissan wheels with 16 iches snow tire.
No problem on the front but on the rear, the small tire weight was causing the wheels to grind just a little bit. So not enough clearance just because of that. I just add a spacer on the near. Problem solved.
 
jsharpe2001 said:
Thanks so much to both hieronymous and ehatch for the input. It sounds like sticking to the 17" rims is the only surefire way to get this right without some trial and error. So, I'll just return my 16s and exchange for 17s. I'm out a few hours of time and a $60 dismount fee, plus the spread on the cost difference b/w the 16s and 17s, which is another $80. Oh well. I'll chalk it up to learning something new. Love the car and looking forward to seeing how she handles our New England winters with a set of snow tires.
Click to expand...
I recommend you make an effort to eyeball the problem first - it will add to your knowledge for any future purchase. Sounds like you had a shop do the tire swapping, so you don’t have the jacks etc for lifting, but even if you can run the car rear up onto a plank to give you enough extra height to put your head under, plus good lighting, that might be enough.
The problem alternatively may be that the 16” rim isn’t wide enough (6.5” v’s 7.0 OEM). That pushes the inside of the wheel spokes closer to the callipers, even with less offset (13mm narrower but offset of 42mm reduced from 50mm brings the wheel spokes maybe closer to the callipers if the metal is thicker). The result would be the inside of the spokes touching the outside of the calliper housing, rather than the back of the calliper housing rubbing on the inside of the wheel. If so, a spacer would fix that. Do what you can to find out - you might save some money yet!
Good luck...
 
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Sounds like you had a shop do the tire swapping, so you don’t have the jacks etc for lifting, but even if you can run the car rear up onto a plank to give you enough extra height to put your head under, plus good lighting, that might be enough.
Click to expand...
I jacked the car up and swapped the tires myself. Wheels went on without issue, or so I thought. Meaning, it wasn't apparent there was interference with the calipers (or something else) until I had lowered the car and put it in drive.
The problem alternatively may be that the 16” rim isn’t wide enough (6.5” v’s 7.0 OEM)
Click to expand...
This seems plausible. Hopefully we can get a few other people sharing examples of 16" steel rims that fit so some of the guess work can be removed for the future.
 
jsharpe2001 said:
I jacked the car up and swapped the tires myself. Wheels went on without issue, or so I thought. Meaning, it wasn't apparent there was interference with the calipers (or something else) until I had lowered the car and put it in drive.

This seems plausible. Hopefully we can get a few other people sharing examples of 16" steel rims that fit so some of the guess work can be removed for the future.
Click to expand...
If you noticed nothing putting the wheels on, that might support the idea of the back of the spokes being just too close to the front of the calliper housing, not the fit inside the wheel. If you have any enthusiasm, pulling a wheel off and looking for scrape marks might be informative...
 
I just today swapped my tires over to winter's and, man, are they ever great. Every time I change over it's immediately apparent how much better they are. I just love the solid stance as compared to the Nexens. Michelin XIce i3s on Hyundai OEM steelies.
 
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