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When will you put your "summer rims' on?

4K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  greatauror28 
#1 ·
Hey there everyone,

A question I'm asking myself lately, which I'm sure a lot of you will also start wondering as well if you put different wheels/tires on your Sorento once the winter is over, is "when should I put my summer wheels on?"

I've recently found some 20" wheels with tires for my Sorento for the upcoming summer, and of course I'm itching to put them on, but I know as soon as I do (March 17th now) it will bloody well snow, right lol??!?!

I'm thinking I might see how it goes for the next week, and come April 1st just throw them on ... I'd do it right now, but March has a way of being a real jerk before it's done ... thoughts?
 
#2 ·
I know lots of people that have already(from Edmonton) but I'll probably wait until April sometime, last weekend was +16, This morning was around -5 I think and a little dust of snow on the car, suppose to get some more snow in the next week, not much but who knows what the next month or two will be like. For the Sorento, we have the factory 18" all seasons, which suck but I dont think they will be that bad if we got a few inches or something. The car I had last year had one of the winter tires blow out around middle of march and I didnt want to bother getting a new tire for the last month or two and it was nice out so I put my summer only tires on (they were brand new tires that I was itching to try out as I just replaced the crappy all seasons), sure enough, 2 weeks later I drove to work, it was decent but they said snow was coming, When I left work, there was 10" of snow.... Had to drive pretty slow on the way home, glad it was close. I then put 3 winters on and used the 1 summer as a full size spare and got the winter tire fixed asap, drove on the winters for another 4 weeks. So I guess it depends on if you got all seasons or summer only tires? If you do get snowed on though, you just have to drive with a little more caution as you will not have the traction you are use too.
 
#3 ·
Eastern Ontario here - pretty much always switch my winters for summers on the second weekend of April - have for well over a decade. My '11 Sorento will have her winters on until then (Blizzak WS-80) - Summers are Bridgestone Dueler 422 Ecopia's. My new EX-V6 I picked up last night obviously came with the all season's on from the factory so it's "ready to go" for summer now. I won't bother with winters for her until the weekend when we change the clocks in November (likely to stick with WS-80s again this winter on the new one) - that's when I always go back to my winters. Down in the GTA you're probably good to go with your summers by April 1.
 
#6 ·
How do you like the WS80s? That is the tire I tried ordering for the Sorento but I got the Blizzak DM-V1 instead, it was middle of Nov when I finally got them mounted after a huge headache of wrong tires/wheels so I just said whatever they are blizzaks at least. From what I have read, the DM-V1 is more of a SUV/Truck tire, so it is a bit harder, which I assume means a little less traction than the WS-80 but better tread wear maybe?
Overall, they are very good tires but I am not "blown away" by them, I have always bought studded tires before so this is my first studless tire. They do have pros over studded tires though. Which is what I have on my Forte, firestone studded winterforces. besides the AWD/weight advantage, I feel the Forte handles better than the sorento in the braking and cornering. The trade off I guess is the Winterforces are very loud, they also suck on dry pavement, which is kind of expected but in very deep snow/icey roads, they perform very well, they just dont take off as fast as the AWD sorento. Now with the blizzaks, they are very quiet, handle dry roads very well, but after driving with the winterforces than going in the sorento with the blizzaks, I can notice they dont have as much grip. Have you had any other tires to compare to? I have also had 3 sets of winterforces but this is my first studded set, they were still good with no studs.

Around christmas/new years, we put on about 3000km on the Sorento with the blizzaks though the mountains. 70% of the time, the roads were dry but temps were below freezing. The other 30% was loose gravel/sand, icey patches, snow. The whole time, I felt very confident with them, even at higher speeds.

So I am not saying they are bad or anything just dont seem as good in extreme weather as studded tires. Many reviews suggested them being better than studded tires so that is why I am wondering....
 
#4 ·
Edmontonian here :) and I'm still using my Nokians winter set.

It's my 3rd winter now here in Alberta and for the past 2, I always put back my OEMs (all-seasons) around 2nd to 3rd week of April, or when the temperature isn't dipping back to +7 degrees C anymore.

Even had out-of-town drive (540 kms) with the winter set still on and all's good.
 
#7 ·
Not a lot to compare them with - when I bought the '11 Sorento (Jan '11), I bought a set of the WS-70's for it on steelies, and had them put them on right at the dealer. Kept my OEM's for mounting in the spring at the dealer and let them swap for me that first time. I ran the WS70's for the Jan 11 - Apr 11, Nov 11 - Apr 12, Nov 12 - Apr 13, and Nov 13 - Apr 14 winters -- 4 winters, 20,000km each winter - so I put 80,000km on them roughly -- they still had some tread left but all the good "grippy outer rubber" was gone so I ordered the WS80's in July of '14, got them mounted on the steelies in September, and put them on the Sorento in November. So I've only put about 13,000km on the WS80s, as compared to the 80,000 I ran in the WS70s. My impressions of both thus far:
The WS70's needed to be slightly over-inflated as compared to Kia's "door recommendation" to be a "great tire" - I ran them at 42psi for all 80,000km. They hooked up great in soft pack snow, they rarely got squirrely on ice and seemed acceptable on hard pack, and the natural tendency of the Sorento to understeer made "spin outs" something I didn't really worry about. If they were under 40psi the side walls were pretty squishy and handling and cornering got somewhat vague... but they then did absorb the winter road imperfections a little nicer. All in all - 80,000 km through crappy winter driving and I never had any incident of major loss of traction or control.
The WS80s don't seem to need as much overinflation - I ran them at 40psi this winter and they seemed to have a stiff enough sidewall to handle well. They seem to be a bit more tuned to ice and hard pack than softpack like the WS70s. When driving through sloppy softpack 6 or 8 inches deep I felt like I had to go slower to not feel like I was "floating" on the slush. The WS70s always seemed to evacuate even the most aggressive slush and soft crap. On the other hand driving on the highway with hard-pack and lots of black ice the WS80s felt like they were constantly better "hooked up" - it may have been because my old winters had gotten 80k on them and by the last year weren't as grippy, but I really felt like the rubber on the WS80s just was more "sticky" than the 70's ever were.

Both sets of tires were fine on cold dry pavement - good traction even at -30C, never slid at stop signs or anything like that even with a few "almost panic" stops as people pull out in front of you etc. I'd absolutely buy either set again - and I will likely be ordering WS80's for the '15 EX-V6 sometime this summer -- but likely not in the OEM 18" size, but in the same 17" size as is on the LX (235-65r17 instead of 230-60r18) - for winters the higher profile tires are generally a good idea as you get more rubber between the rim and the road for absorbing potholes and other crap and traction is usually moderately better.
 
#8 ·
Wonder if some more air would help them? I know when I mounted them, I put them at 38psi, owners manual said 34psi for the 17" tires and also said to add 4 psi if using winter tires. When I brought it in for a oil change, the smart dealership lowered the tire pressure to 32psi for some reason. Not sure why? even the stock 18s say 33psi. But with them at 32psi, it rode very nice, almost like a minivan, bumps were very smooth, the Sorento is the wife's car so I didnt notice for awhile and must of got used to it. I then was looking over the oil change sheet and noticed the 32psi. I pumped them back up to 38psi, didnt mention anything to the wife and after her driving it, she is like something is different with my car, it is so rough over every bump.....
 
#9 ·
I threw these new wheels on that I picked up recently, wanted to see if they were ok, but ended up getting some new (barely used) Yokohama Geolandar's for them, and now they're all balanced and good to go, but I think I'll take them off this weekend again, put the winters back on until a couple weeks from now when we're pretty much guaranteed that there won't be another snowfall again.

Can't wait for the warm weather!
 

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#11 ·
Nope, no rubbing issues or clearance from suspension parts at all, the tires that were originally on them didn't really stick out from the wheel wells at all, but were right at the edge of that, they were 245/45ZR20's. The new tires I had put on yesterday are Yokohama Geolandar H/T-S 275/45R20 so they stick out from the side of the rim lip a little (since the top of the tire is now 30mm wider - 275 vs. 245) but I like that look on the rim, and knowing that there won't be issues of the rim scraping curbs by accident, less roll over on the tires taking corners etc. plus, I think it looks kind of 'tougher' with the bigger wider tires lol.

The wheels are "Menzari" VM08 I believe, they are a 20x8.5 wheel, +38 offset, 5x114.3mm or 5x4.5" bolt pattern, the hub I believe is around 72.2 or 73mm, so hub centric rings are needed. I also had to use the 'tuner spline drive' lug nuts in the correct Kia size, I can't remember what size that is, but it's the same as the OEM lug nuts. Also have the locking nuts on the wheels as well, they are not the typical ones that Kia's usually come with, they are shallow, no cap on top, I think they are meant to go under a cap, are only about 3/4" tall or an inch at most. The front wheel spokes just barely clear the brake callipers, there is probably about 2-3mm of space between the caliber and the back side of the pokes, which originally worried me as I was mounting them on the hubs, but they clear and move freely, and I haven't had any issues yet with rubbing, scraping or the spokes coming into contact with the callipers at all, so that's good.

I had a look at the back of the OEM Kia wheels, and I think they are like +50 offset, so it would have been good to get wheels with a little more positive offset, but these were second hand, so that wasn't an option, plus, most manufacturers of aftermarket wheels only make up to a +38 or 40 offset at most, so you'll typically run into the issue of them 'sticking out' a little, especially when you go with a wider wheel like 8.5" or 9, 9.5" and 10" for sure, that 9.5 - 10" rim with the wrong sized tires would definitely be running into rubbing issues, especially on the back wheels with the control arm/suspension arm that runs between the axle going towards the front of the vehicle and the inner side of the wheel and tire. But I've seen at least one Sorento on here with 22" wheels, so if you get the correct back spacing/offset, and tire size, you could even go up to a 22" wheel if you wanted to. I stuck with 20" for mine, that's big enough for me, and I don't want a tire with a shorter sidewall than 40 or 45 series for the ride comfort etc.

In front, the top of the tire is about 1" from the bottom of the strut tower, so there's plenty of space in there, no rubbing etc, but if you went any bigger with the tire (275/50R20 or even something like a 245/60R20) and increased the over all diameter any larger than the 29.5" or so that these are, you'd definitely be at the max or beyond as to what will fit under that strut tower base.

As for the ride comfort of the 275/45R20 compared to the original 235/6018 it's pretty close, feels just as smooth, maybe a tiny bit rougher on bigger bumps etc, but not earth shatteringly worse, at least with the tread on these tires at about 70 - 80% it feels nice and smooth, to me anyways. You definitely would not want to run with a 30 series or 35 series tire on an suv like the Sorento, that's just going to give you a bumpy uncomfortable ride, better cornering maybe, but you'll probably dent the heck out of your wheels before you get the chance to go racing around the turns.

All in all, I'm happy with these wheels and tires, looks good (for my taste) and rides nice still, so these will be my all spring/summer/fall wheels for sure. After that it's back to the factory Kia 18" wheels with winter tires on them, in the OEM size of 235/60R18".
 
#12 · (Edited)
Wow those are wide. I though most guys with 20s went with a 255/45s. That is sweet that there is no issues with 275s rubbing. Comment back here in a few weeks/months and let us know how they handle.... we travel through the mountains a few times a year so I am sure those wheels/tires would help lots with cornering.


Back to the main topic, it was plus 16 C last weekend, washed the cars and now this weekend first week of spring. We got dumped on pretty good. Here's some pictures, glad I left the winter tires on.
 

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#14 ·
Wish we had some of that white gold down here in California. ::crying::

Reservoirs are only half-full (or less) and no snow pack to melt to fill them. Ski resorts in the Sierras are closing early and the Lake Tahoe economy is in the crapper from less than normal skiers this year.
 
#17 ·
No rubbing issues or anything at all, but I have run into issues with the shop that installed and balanced the wheels. At least one wheel has lost it's stick on weights at least 3 times now, and I can feel and hear slight vibrations when driving, so I'm going to have to bring the set of wheels to a more reputable shop closer to home to have them 'road force balanced' so they're closer to 100% balanced properly.

I don't think you could go any wider than a 275/45 20 though, if you had even a 10" or 10.5" wide rim with 255/45 on there you'd probably also run into clearance issues with the tires and suspension parts etc. Of course offset plays a big role in clearance issues as well. Sometimes you just have to get the wheels and tires together with the best planning and measurements as possible, then test fit them to your vehicle and see if there are any issues with clearance of the wheels and suspension, inner fender wells, in the front when turning all the way etc.

So far, mine have been great, no rubbing and they appear to clear everything just fine. I have them off at the moment, it's been a little colder here, we got snow last night, and I have to bring them to get balanced anyways so, might hold off putting them back on for a week or two, once winter has finally gone away for good.
 
#18 ·
Just put back my OEMs last thursday - Kia did it together with the Service #2 .

I so missed the shorter breaking distance and the grip of the all-seasons!

Might plasti-dip them bronze over the summer.
 
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