Daverino Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 I'm considering dedicated snows for my Outback XT-- while reading the owners' manual I noticed on page 8-16 that Subaru recommends downsizing the tire from 225 width to 215 for snows. My question is this: is this really necessary? Tire Rack has packages for the Outback XT with 225 width tires. Anyone with an Outback XT that's getting 215 snows? I'm confused. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ih8vtec13 Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 Go with the 215's because they will give you better grip in snow. the wider the tire the more you displace weight, the thinner the tire the more concentrated the weight, with thinner tires the car will sink into the snow more and and get to the pavement easier. good example is a pair of snow shoes, with out them you sink into the snow but when you wear them you can walk on the snow easier. cars get little traction in the snow so you want them to make contact with pavement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeLoo Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 [quote name='ih8vtec13']Go with the 215's because they will give you better grip in snow. the wider the tire the more you displace weight, the thinner the tire the more concentrated the weight, with thinner tires the car will sink into the snow more and and get to the pavement easier. good example is a pair of snow shoes, with out them you sink into the snow but when you wear them you can walk on the snow easier. cars get little traction in the snow so you want them to make contact with pavement.[/QUOTE]I'm not sure I fully understand your analogy. But the general rule is that you'd want a narrower tire for winter (to reduce the "loss of traction" factor generated from a wider tire on snowy pavement). I'm going from the LGT's OEM 215/45/17 tire to a 205/50/17 winter tire. That's a 1 cm difference in terms of tire width, not really a big deal, but I still preferred the narrower avenue for me as lots of guys did on this forum as well. Hopefully others can shed additional light on why narrow is better for a winter tire. 2005 Legacy GT Wagon Ltd 5EAT Garnet Red 1999 GTI VR6 Black - sold but not forgotten... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtguy Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 TeeLoo, it's just more weight over a smaller contact patch. The 205 will bear more weight over its contact patch than a 215 or 225. This, mind you, doesn't get into the vagaries of narrow and wide tires. Tire design and construction is of more value than width. The difference between 215 and 205 or 225 isn't that significant. Now, going from 225 to 185 would be a significant difference. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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