Ian_C wrote:Its a double edge sword - WRC style skinny snow wheels are best in the snow, but on the other hand by going *too* skinny you are going to significantly decrease your grip (braking, cornering) on dry tarmac on milder winter days
To be honest in the UK I'm not sure it matters - 17s 18s 19s or 20s - you are NOT going to get stuck in the snow if you have winter rubber + quattro
I certainty agree with not going too narrow, the extra sway of the winters alone is disconcerting the first few days and makes it harder to "feel" the limit of traction, not that I'm really looking to set land speed records during the winter months. My thinking is oriented towards a few extra pounds per square inch on the tarmac when it's icy. I've always believed in the trade off between width (contact area), weight (contact pressure) and torque applied - get any of them too far wrong and things tend to go a wry. Aptly demonstrated when a little 950cc swift on its pram wheels would go places neither of my other more modern cars at the time could go.
Living in a rural area, which never sees a gritting truck and has a number of steep hills between me and the gritted roads in all directions, I want to make sure I can get home at night (going to work again in the morning... well then I don't really care! lol).
TBH if we get really bad weather this year i'll probably end up using the Jimny initially until everyone else calms down.. I've found that it was as good as the Scooby on snowy days when you could use the 4x4. No amount of ice/slush seemed to hamper the Scooby on winter tyres whilst the Jimny was somewhat lively on patchy ice when you couldn't use diff lock, but then again it is a little more "disposable" than the RS.
