Getting Ready for Winter.....

Hi Everyone:

Please don't be mad at me for bringing this subject up so soon, but for those of us who live in areas where the sun doesn't always shine getting ready for winter has become a part of daily living (and commuting)! And being in one of those areas where snow comes and makes driving hectic I wanted to get 'Pearl' ready for my wife as her work involves driving the car through whatever winter throws at us delivering mail for Canada Post to Rural Route customers.

That being said, in the past I have purchased Steel Rims and mounted Studded Winter Tires on them for easy on, easy off come Winter or Spring. With the 2010 Toyota Prius I contacted the Parts Dept. at the Dealer with the response that you will most likely have to go to 16", etc as nothing is listed for the Prius as of yet. Not wanting to do that I explored the website of US based Tire Rack (www.tirerack.com) and called in Canada Tire Trends (www.tiretrends.ca) for pricing only to find that at present they only have 15 Alloy Rims greatly ading to the cost. I did note the specs on their websites of the Alloy Rims which are:

Size - 15 x 6.5
Offset - 35mm
Back Spacing - 5.15mm
Bolt Pattern - 5 x 100mm

With those specs I called a company located in Newfoundland (www.tiremart.ca) and gave them these specs. Lo and behold they found a 'universal' Steel Rim that matched those specs for $60 CDN plus taxes. Now the tires: I came across Nokian Tyres (www.nokiantires.com) and was impressed by the Nokian Hakkapelitta 5 Studded Winter Tire and though not available here a company from New Brunswick has them and can ship them to me. Not cheap ($153 CDN plus shipping and tax) but well reported on as excellent tires.

Now comes the part where I am hoping that some of you who will have to do the same either sooner or later, that is get ready for winter, can answer a question or two based on what I stated above.

1. The specs I found listed for Alloy Rims for the 2010 Toyota Prius - did I get it correct and can they be used for Steel Rims?

2. Has anyone purchased the tires I mentioned? If so, have you been pleased with them?

3. If I do purchase this 'Winter Pkg', so to speak, instead of taking off the summer tires and putting Winter Tires on the Stock Alloy Rims should I invest in a TPMS for these? I ask only because if I don't the Low Pressure Tire Light will be on and I am not sure if this would cause any issues (not to mention being annoying) plus I have heard that it isn't cheap to buy TPMS systems.

4. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions or what they plan to do to get ready for the snow making sure their 'baby' doesn't end up getting stuck or worst in a ditch?

I will leave it at that and welcome any feedback on what I have said I am planning plus the additional questions I have asked.

Thank you in advance for reading this rather lengthy post and, more importantly, taking the time to reply!

Take care.....

 

Hi Airbalancer:

Funny that you mention that option - putting Winter Tires on the 15" Alloy's that came with it and then consider 16" or 17" next year for the summer. I too thought about that.

However, getting 16" or 17" (most likely the 17") I would end up with a set of tires that will have less than 8000km (5000 miles) on them and then trying to sell them. And inasmuch that some have already on their II, III, or IV (Base, Premium, Premium with Solar, or Tech Pkg for Canada) changed to 17" (which by the way looks fantastic) I wonder about the difference in the Prius's steering which on the V (or Touring Canada) allows for the 17" versus the 15" models.

Nevertheless, it is still an option that is viable, and I thank youi for mentioning it in reply to my OP.

Take care.....