Hi All, I’m very excited to be putting an order for a new Defender in Ontario Canada shortly. I am moving there and not used to dealing with Snow and snow/winter tires so would appreciate some advice.

I am looking at the dynamic X and would like the black 22 inch wheels. When it comes to winter tires can I simply swap the tires for winter/snow or would I need to buy smaller wheels?

Do the garages store your wheels or do you have to store yourself?

Thanks in advanced!

 

You don't want to be mounting/dismounting tires from the wheels every 6 months. You'll want a second set of wheels just for practicality.

And many will choose a less expensive steel wheel for winter duty over alloys.

On size that depends what's available in the size your want, but I'd venture a guess you'll do better with a smaller wheel like a 20" or 18" (if you can fit an 18"). I haven't paid too much attention but I seem to remember that some 18's may fit without serious modification.

 

Do yourself a favor and get a set of 20" wheels to mount winter tires on.

 

Get a set of used 20" Defender wheels like these: https://landroverforums.com/forum/market/109380

Winter will trash your shiny black wheels. You also want taller tire sidewalls to deal with winter potholes.

Then a set 5 Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires in size 275-55-20. https://www.nokiantires.com/snow-win...liitta-r3-suv/

 

A big second thumbs up on the Nokians. Personally, I did the two sets of rims on the range Rover for a couple of years. Then after a while and the second set of Hakka's I just used them year round. They actually work really well off road. Just one note of caution, ensure you get the Nokians made in Finland (the corporate home). They had a plant in Russia which had production issues that led to premature dry rot. They seemed to have worked that out now, but then again, buy the Finns, do you really want to give Vlad any support. So when you order them specify the origin. I have only had two failures with Nokians off road (I spend a lot of time off road, I'm a geologist). Fist was working around a recent volcanic feature, SP Crater, I sliced up one on volcanic glass. The other, the oddest flat yet, was I drove over a live 30-06 cartridge. It embedded itself in the tread and actually sealed up quite well. By the morning, I noticed I had a flat. So I swapped it out and returned to Twin Falls to get a replacement. The guy doing the dismount came into the office; "you have to see this!" Lucky, I suppose, it did not go off, since it was primer side out.

 

Thanks for the response. Could I not just ge the Nokian in a 22” and swap out for normal tires or will they not fit because of the sidewall?

 

Personally I think running ugly winter wheels for 6 months of the year is a drag and its no big deal to change them out. Wheels make a car, why run half its life with ugly wheels! Just keep em clean. Some shops will store tires for you for a small fee or just put a tire storage rack in your garage. On my wife's SUV we run 22" Bridgestone Blizzak which are a winter rated tire with a really good tread pattern, everyone around here with large SUV's runs these. Our 3rd set so far, fantastic in the snow, ice, wet conditions especially when driving through the mountains. Then in spring we swap them out, no biggie.

If anyone says you need to run smaller diameter tires in winter its bs, running 20's or 22's with good winter tread pattern is just fine.

On my Defender (when it arrives...) I will likely run BFG KO2's with the snowflake year round or the Pirelli Scorpion the same. I've had Nokians in the past, fantastic snow tire.

https://www.bfgoodrich.ca/en/auto/tires/all-terrain-t-a-ko2#sizes

SCORPION™ ALL TERRAIN PLUS 275/55R20

https://www.pirelli.com/tires/en-us/...lus/275_55-r20

 

I run the KO2 all year on two of my vehicles. Nice tires on and off road, but not really close in snow/ice performance to the Blizzaks that I use on my Defender and WRX.

 

thanks for your reply. What wheels are you getting on the Defender?


Will the BFG’s fit 20 or 22”?

 

Agreed. KO2 decent all around but Blizzaks or similar perform much better in winter.