A couple of questions re: snow tires and wheels:

1) Tire Rack and local tire places offer "universal fit" steel wheels for snow tires. Does anyone have any experience with these? What about offset?

2) Does anyone have any experience with Green Diamond snow tires (One of the friendly sponsors of our beloved Brickboard.com)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,

Jeff Pierce
--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a family car w/spunk), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

Tire Rack steel wheels will be fine. 15" is a better choice (185/65 or 195/65 - either will work). I'd think about looking for a cheap set of alloys instead of the steel wheels though. There's plenty of oem sets on e-bay and from places like Strandberg and they just look better in my opinion. This is what we do with our 945 - run 15' 10 spoke alloys in the winter and switch to 16" Hydra's in the summer. We used to have a V70 and we ran steel wheels with k-mart plastic hubcaps on 'em. That was only because there weren't any cheap alloys available for the V70 at the time though.

I like the looks of the Green Diamond tires the principle is a slight twist on what Bridgestone and Yokohama have been doing for years - so it's not new. We've been happy here in Vermont with Dunlop Graspic and most recently Pirelli 210 Wintersport tires. My favorite tire though was the Nokian NRW - true 4 season tire that just wouldn't quit no matter what the weather - ran them on an Acura Legend for 3 years and they never let me down.

Hope that helps.

Paul

Some experience I just had with greendiamond.
I went from 225/50/16 Toya's to 205/55/16 greendiamond's on aftermarket wheels and it took 5 guys 1.25 hours to mount. I don't know why, neither did greendiamond.
Still it was 30 flat rate.
He let me know though.

Were they having trouble getting the things to balance out?

The Tire Rack wheels fit my 940/740 cars nicely.

My car ('93 945T) has 16" wheels. Can I go with 15" snow tires/wheels. Will they clear the brakes?

Thanks,

Jeff Pierce
--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a family car w/spunk), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

yes, if the owner didn't get alloy wheels when buying the car new it would have had 15" steel wheels on it.
--
My Volvo Page

I've just ordered a set of green diamonds (my first snow tires). Do you guys recommend having them mounted to a seperate set of wheels, or can I just change them on and off of my existing wheels every 6 months?

There are a few reasons I am going with a second set of wheels for snows:

1) Traction: Wide tires are not as good in the snow, so if I get a more narrow wheel, I can run 185s or 195s instead of 205s.

2) To save money: I have 16" Volvo alloys on my brick. And 205/55-16 are ruitinely 50% more expensive than the same tire in a 195/65-15.

3) To save more money: Around here, it costs $12.50 per tire for mount and balance. ($12.50 x 4 = $50) Do that twice a year, and the $40 steel wheels from Tire Rack pay for themselves in less than 2 years.

Plus, for me it's more convienient to do it myself. I can switch all 4 in less than 30 minutes. I'd spend 90 minutes at the shop. (and I just don't like other people working on my car)

Jeff Pierce

--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a family car w/spunk), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

I would suggest getting a second set of rims (it's just easier that way), i recommend 15 inch wheels preferrably so you can run narrower snows for better traction.
--
DEWFPO 1995 964 138,500 / 1998 S90 062,000

I think that Discount Tire Direct has steel wheels for $39. The picture depicts a very close relative of the originals. Maybe the same.
--
1992 940 wagon, very low miles
as well as others.