[pbonsalb]

I think for the first time ever, I am going to have 3 sets of street wheels for a car. I have 20” Summers and 19” Snows now, but bought a set of Titan7 TS5 wheels to replace my heavy stock 20” summer wheels. I am leaning towards swapping the Summer tires onto the new wheels and buying Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 for the stock 20” wheels. Reviews of that tire are fantastic and it should be great in later winter/early spring and late fall/early winter. Snows give up a lot of performance but they are best for serious snow and we get some of that here in NH where I live. We have a Cayenne that I put snow wheels on in late fall so I will be OK if there is an unexpected heavy snow and I have to go somewhere before I have time to swap wheels on the M5 and I don’t feel like the Pilot Sport All Seasons would be good enough.

There is a dearth of 20” snows in 275/285 or even 265/275 so it seems best to stick with the 19s for snows. Even with 19s, sizes are limited. I have 265 square on 19x9.5 now but may go to 275 square when I replace them.

[AGS]

Your post is an explanation of what you're thinking of doing without a specific question, but I'll assume you're bouncing the idea off the forum for feedback.

To me, it seems to me to be a case of "the law of diminishing returns". I swap from summers to winters when the temps are consistently sub 40 degrees. I personally feel like the winters I use have pretty reasonable performance (Perrelli ScottoZero 3s), so for me I'm not sure "the juice is worth the squeeze" in going to a three-set rotation. I would never buy a third set of wheels for this purpose, but since you have them anyway then that lowers the bar for your strategy. How much will a set of all-season tires cost? Whatever it is, it'll stretch the life of your summers and winters, so it's not a 100% incremental cost, and if after the first year you abandon the strategy you can likely sell the all-seasons and recoup 50%-75% of the cost. The the last aspect is moving from 2 tire swaps a year to 4. If you're doing it yourself in the garage, that's 2 more swaps at 45 minutes each or 1.5 hours out of your life each year which isn't that bad. If you're paying someone to do the changes that's a larger time commitment and more dollars out of pocket which may make the strategy less appealing.

So at the end of it all, since you have the wheels already and assuming you do the swaps yourself, how much does 25%-50% of the cost of the all-season tires matter to you?

[pbonsalb]

That is pretty much what I am thinking. Plus my snows are 265/40 on 19x9.5 and handling and traction really are diminished. I looked for 285/35/20 and 275/35/20 staggered snows or even 275/35 and 265/35 staggered to put on the stock 20s but did not find anything that looked good at a reasonable price.

Yes, I change my wheels myself … on about 8 cars (mine, friends, family).

[AGS]

Yeah, my snows are a four-square setup with 285/35R20. Got lucky and picked them up when Tire Rack had them on sale for something like $130 each. They handle pretty well for snows.

[irablumberg]

I will just put in a thumbs up for the Pirelli PZero Snow tires. BMW carries them in the stock 275 & 285 20" size for our M5s. I used a set all last winter and the performance on cold dry roads was quite good. We only got a very light dusting of snow this last season which was no problem for these tires. I have no idea how they would do in real snow, but I believe they would be more than adequate.

While I never pushed my car to its limits with the snow tires, I will say they felt every bit as firm as the summer tires. That is the sidewalls were quite stiff and I did not experience any greater amount of body roll, lean, etc.

You might consider using these for winter to save yourself an extra set of wheel swaps versus 3 sets of tires.

Note that I also have these mounted on the stock heavy 706 wheels. When swapping my wheels, my back can really tell the difference between the summer tires on my Dinan wheels and my winter tires on the stock 706 wheels ;-).

[pbonsalb]

That was my first thought but staggered 275/285 snows in 20” are hard to find right now. Maybe winter stock is not out yet? Tire Rack has the Pirelli at about $450 each. I don’t love the Pirelli snows — I have a set on my 21 Cayenne S and they are only OK rather than great. I am pretty sure those are a different model, so maybe the ones for the M5 are better.

I do see Vredstein in 275/35/20 for around $275 each and I could run a square set on my stock 20s. But if I am really unimpressed with the dry traction I get from my current 265 snows on my 19x9.5, I doubt the 275s will make me happy though they would be on bigger staggered wheels and the width and lower profile would firm them up. Of course, snow traction goes down when you go wider and lower profile.

Maybe I will wait a couple of months to see if 20” snow tire availability improves. I don’t have to do anything but this pretty much worthless set of stock 20” wheels that I will have once my new wheels arrive in a week or 2 got me thinking about how I could put them to use.

[irablumberg]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

That was my first thought but staggered 275/285 snows in 20” are hard to find right now. Maybe winter stock is not out yet? Tire Rack has the Pirelli at about $450 each. I don’t love the Pirelli snows — I have a set on my 21 Cayenne S and they are only OK rather than great. I am pretty sure those bare a different model, so maybe the ones for the M5 are better.

I do see Vredstein in 275/35/20 for around $275 each and I could run a square set on my stock 20s. But if I am really unimpressed with the dry traction I get from my current 265 snows on my 19x9.5, I doubt the 275s will make me happy though they would be on bigger staggered wheels and the width and lower profile would firm them up. Of course, snow traction goes down when you go wider and lower profile.

Maybe I will wait a couple of months to see if 20” snow tire availability improves. I don’t have to do anything but this pretty much worthless set of stock 20” wheels that I will have once my new wheels arrive in a week or 2 got me thinking about how I could put them to use.

Just to clarify, for some reason, the only place that I could find the Pirelli snow tires in stock size for the M5 was at a BMW dealer. No one else (Tire Rack, Discount Tire, etc.) ever carried or offered the tires in this size. BMW may have some sort of exclusive deal with Pirelli on these tires. In any case, my dealer gave me a decent price that was competitive with Tire Rack pricing on similar high end snow tires.

[Pimpsy]

Originally Posted by AGS

Yeah, my snows are a four-square setup with 285/35R20. Got lucky and picked them up when Tire Rack had them on sale for something like $130 each. They handle pretty well for snows.

I got the very same set and price and put them on a set of stock 20" M5 base rims I picked up in the forum. My dealership stores them at no cost, and I swap sets twice a year.

Going into year four, I can say that this system has worked really well for me.

[Used2be]

I’m using the Michelin Alpin PA4 in 265/40-19 front and 285/40-19 rear for winter and early cold weather before the snow. That’s on the stock BMW 19” rim that I ordered with the car. I admit I haven’t driven them in deep snow, so don’t know how they perform there, but I’ve been happy with the handling on cold asphalt and light snow. They’re the Porsche spec, I don’t know if that makes a difference.