Snow Tires & LEAF - impacts of different wheels/tire size

[cgaydos]

Hi - I did a search of topics and got 26 pages mentioning snow tires, but none I found quite answered this question - if there is an existing answer please just let me know.

As a matter of course, living at a high elevation in Colorado, we have always bought snow tires for our cars in winter. We didn't for the LEAFs this past year, however.

By accident, sorting through a relative's estate, I've ended up with a set of almost-new alloy wheels with 205/60R16 92R snow tires. Turns out that this is almost identical to the 205/55R16's required for the LEAF (the 92R for load index and speed rating far exceed what the LEAF requires).

I asked our local tire shop and they said that the LEAF would handle these fine, and in fact their computer suggests an identical 205/60R16 for *snow tires* for the LEAF. I've noticed before that what tire shops recommend for cars, especially for snow tires, sometimes differ slightly than what the manufacturer recommends so this news wasn't a surprise.

Are there any things I should be concerned about before using these wheels/tires on the LEAF? I assume we'll see reduced range as these are not low-resistance, but the stock tires are - but anything else?

 

[DaveEV]

Should have no issues running those tires. Speedo will read a bit lower than actual speed, though.

 

[cgaydos]

Should have no issues running those tires. Speedo will read a bit lower than actual speed, though.

Thanks - interestingly I've noticed that the speedometer on both our LEAFs tend to overstate the actual speed, at least as compared to what external speed monitors show. If the LEAF shows 70, for example, external monitors will show 67-68. So will this tend to counter-balance and, as a result, the speedometer will show close to the actual speed?

 

[KJD]

I do not think you will have any problems with that size snow tire. It is very close to the stock tire size.

When I switched over to Big O Arctic Claw snow tires I did notice a 10% to 15% reduction in range. My commute is very short so it was worth it to have the extra traction from the snow tires. As they say YMMV ( Your Mileage May Vary )

 

[Shaka]

As with the prior replies to your OP, I too have installed snow tires on my wife's leaf for the winter months. We are located in the snow belt in Cleveland, Ohio right off the lake effect of Lake Erie. We get a good snow fall and I've always had snow tires on my ICE cars in the past. Seemed logical to do the same here. Although I did not skew from the OE tire size, your size sounds fine. I've run similar variation tires on other cars and been fine. You may notice an ever so slight variation at 60+mph speedo vs actual, but not enough to even matter.

Also, as noted above, you will most likely see a reduction in efficiency. I'd agree about 10-15% is what we saw. By the time the weather warmed up here I put on different wheels/tires and then the warmer weather also brought better efficiency, so it is virtually impossible to know what that true difference would be. Never the less the added benefit and traction of snow tires in heavy snow areas hopefully will outweigh your range needs. For us our commute round-trip to work (my wife/I carpool) meant we could run the snow tires without worry of range changes.

Good luck !!

 

[cgaydos]

Thanks for the replies, everyone - based on this I will store the tires/wheels for the winter and use them on a LEAF.

 

[kubel]

The difference in speed will be minimal (.28MPH faster at an indicated 55MPH). I don't believe the LEAF speedometer is accurate anyway since it always indicates a faster-than-real speed, so if anything, you'll be making it more accurate by running slightly taller 205/60R16 tires.

This past winter, I ran 235/55R17 snow tires on my LEAF on police duty 17x7.5 steel wheels. The results were not good. The wider tire made snow performance mediocre, and the increased weight and rolling resistance made for significant range reduction.

The biggest issue you may have is with the hub bore size and bolt pattern on the wheels. I ran all winter with my wheels lug-centric since the center bore of Crown Vic wheels are significantly larger than the LEAF wheels. Some people say that's a bad idea since it puts the shearing force at a 90 angle to the lug studs, which may not be designed to take that kind of load and abuse that a wheel mounted hub-centric would. I had no issues.

So check your new wheels for a 5x114.3" bolt pattern, then check the hub bore diameter, it should be 66.1mm.

 

[cgaydos]

The biggest issue you may have is with the hub bore size and bolt pattern on the wheels. I ran all winter with my wheels lug-centric since the center bore of Crown Vic wheels are significantly larger than the LEAF wheels. Some people say that's a bad idea since it puts the shearing force at a 90 angle to the lug studs, which may not be designed to take that kind of load and abuse that a wheel mounted hub-centric would. I had no issues.

So check your new wheels for a 5x114.3" bolt pattern, then check the hub bore diameter, it should be 66.1mm.

Thanks - these aftermarket wheels actually have 10 holes for bolts - I'm told that is so that it will be "universal" and fit any (or almost any) car. Are you familiar with those kind of wheels?

 

[Shaka]

Thanks - these aftermarket wheels actually have 10 holes for bolts - I'm told that is so that it will be "universal" and fit any (or almost any) car. Are you familiar with those kind of wheels?

Most dual-drilled wheels that would fit our 5x114,3 cars are also 5x100 which fits cars such as some Dodge, Volkswagen, etc. There is a possibility the dual-drilled 10-hole wheels you have are not correct -- but chances are pretty decent if it has two bolt patterns on it that at least one of them is 5x114,3 for our cars. I've seen dual-drilled wheels for VW/Audi where they are 5x100 & 5x112 which the latter is for Audi, so that is possible, but unless you measure or test fit you will not know.

As for hub centric rings, as long as the bore of the wheels is greater than the car hub, you're safe. But I always suggest the rings to help make sure bolting them on goes easier. As the prior posting said, you probably will have no issues not using rings, but they do help make installation more a breeze. Places like eBay, Amazon, or 1010tires.com are good places to score hub centric rings.

 

[cgaydos]

Thanks - these aftermarket wheels actually have 10 holes for bolts - I'm told that is so that it will be "universal" and fit any (or almost any) car. Are you familiar with those kind of wheels?

Most dual-drilled wheels that would fit our 5x114,3 cars are also 5x100 which fits cars such as some Dodge, Volkswagen, etc. There is a possibility the dual-drilled 10-hole wheels you have are not correct -- but chances are pretty decent if it has two bolt patterns on it that at least one of them is 5x114,3 for our cars. I've seen dual-drilled wheels for VW/Audi where they are 5x100 & 5x112 which the latter is for Audi, so that is possible, but unless you measure or test fit you will not know.

As for hub centric rings, as long as the bore of the wheels is greater than the car hub, you're safe. But I always suggest the rings to help make sure bolting them on goes easier. As the prior posting said, you probably will have no issues not using rings, but they do help make installation more a breeze. Places like eBay, Amazon, or 1010tires.com are good places to score hub centric rings.

Thanks! As it turns out these tires came with matching lug nuts and hub-centric rings.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I just saw a set of 225/50 R16 snows for sale at a very good price, so I found a very helpful calculator at http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=205-55r16-225-50r16 and it tells me that in all aspects except width, the tires are virtually the same as mine. The width is about .8" greater than the OEM tires. Is this enough extra width to cause 'floating' or other adverse conditions? What about range?

 

[Goodtohave]

225 is way too wide for snow.....from a 205.

If anything go narrower.

 

[LeftieBiker]

225 is way too wide for snow.....from a 205.

If anything go narrower.

For driving through deep snow, I agree. But we get little actual accumulating snow these days - it's more ice we have to worry about.