18" winter tires?

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by rumatt

Bah, get separate wheels.

There's always room. You just need to be more creative

I just added another four.

[JST]

Originally Posted by rumatt

Bah, get separate wheels.

There's always room. You just need to be more creative

I'm already going to have to do that for the first extra set.

You have blueprints available for that rack?

[Rob]

JST, check out the V board. Since the car requires 18s to fit over the brakes, they talk about how well the 18" snow tires do a lot.

If you believe the reports, 18" snow tires don't do all that well (at least compared to my experiences with 17s). But it might be the torque.

Regardless, you could at least get an idea of different manufacturers available. Whether they come in the right size, well who knows.

[BahnBaum]

Originally Posted by TBM3C

I stand corrected. ops:

I guess you didn't know. Nick M3 isn't a person. It's actually Vulcan, the evil God of Tire and Wheels who occasionally posts here.







Alex

[Theo]

Originally Posted by BahnBaum

I guess you didn't know. Nick M3 isn't a person. It's actually Vulcan, the evil God of Tire and Wheels who occasionally posts here.







Alex

[rumatt]

Storing tires is a bit of a PITA, but having to hike the wheels/tires down to the nearest tire shop and have them swapped twice a year would be much worse IMO.

No blueprints for the wheel rack. It's a totaly hack job. I *think* it's not going to dump the tires onto my car, but we'll see.

I went to home depot and picked up the following:

- 3x 2' long pieces of 2x4
- 6x 2' long pieces of chain
- 6x hooks to screw into the ceiling beams
- 6x hooks to go through the 2x4 with a washer and bolt on the bottom
- 4x L-shaped metal beams (don't know what you call them). They're about 1"x1"x4'

Then I used a bunch of wood screws to screw the metal brackets to the wood, and hung it up.

The L-beams are mounted pointing up (like this /\ ) so they're angled so the tire mostly hits a flat part, rather than a sharp edge pressing into the tire.

Ideally it would be better to have something narrower than the 2x4's (but still strong) because they take up space and get in the way of the tires. The distance between the 2x4's is also important because if it's just the wrong size for your tires, you can end up wasting space. Sometimes I have to shuffle the tires around to get them all to fit in the space available. PITA.

Here's a more recent pic. You can see the one tire leaning because it's hitting the 2x4.

<img src=http://forums.carmudgeons.com/download.php?id=122 />

[SARAFIL]

How do you solve the space issue by having the tires alone, or the tires stored on rims? They should take the same amount of storage space-- the overall space needed for storage is dictated by the tire size, whether they are on wheels or not has a minimal impact on the space that is used up.

The only problem I could see has to do with the weight if you were to make a rack similar to rumratt's-- you'd have to be careful in that case.

I'd advise just picking up a set of somewhat decent used E46 wheels; if they have some minor cosmetic damage, all the better! What are a set of used Type-44s going for these days? We've got a set that have served us on two different E46s, and despite the numerous curb/pothole encounters, they still serve the purpose and they look "right" on an E46.

[rumatt]

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

How do you solve the space issue by having the tires alone, or the tires stored on rims? They should take the same amount of storage space--

Doh! Good point.

[JST]

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

How do you solve the space issue by having the tires alone, or the tires stored on rims? They should take the same amount of storage space-- the overall space needed for storage is dictated by the tire size, whether they are on wheels or not has a minimal impact on the space that is used up.

The only problem I could see has to do with the weight if you were to make a rack similar to rumratt's-- you'd have to be careful in that case.

I'd advise just picking up a set of somewhat decent used E46 wheels; if they have some minor cosmetic damage, all the better! What are a set of used Type-44s going for these days? We've got a set that have served us on two different E46s, and despite the numerous curb/pothole encounters, they still serve the purpose and they look "right" on an E46.

My thought is that R comps are unlikely to last more than a season, so I wouldn't be storing them.

Type 44s would be ideal--they've always been my favorite E46 rim.

[Plaz]

Originally Posted by rumatt

Doh! Good point.

If they're mounted on wheels, you can't fold them.