[sbrook]

OK, 2009 Forester X with 17" wheels ... what do people like as winter (snow) tires? I just had a hellish drive with the stock Geolanders, which were OK, but definitely not a snow tire.

Will the Fozzie take a smaller rim for snows (since snows seem to have greater availability in taller sizes)?

Personally, if they were available locally, I'd love to get a set of Nokian Hakkapellitas ... but Hakkas are hard to come by after Nokian was divested from Nokia. (What the "Keeper of the Carbon Black" has to do with Cell phones is beyond me ... that's what Nokia apparently means in Finnish)

 

[litman252]

Subaru Forester Owners Forum - Search Results

Some good reading there...........

ENJOY it, let us know if you still have questions. And most people stick with the stock size it seems.

Thanks,
Tony

 

[crewzer]

I'm still new to Subarus as well as to winter tires, but I'm quite happy so far with the Dunlop Wintersport 3D's. We had two snow falls last month, including 22" from the "Blizzard of 2009", and I had zero problems getting around. I also drove the car 1,200 miles on a recent "southern" holiday trip to South Carolina, and, although just a bit noisy on asphalt surfaces, the tires were otherwise great on cold (below 45 F, ~7 C) but dry roads.

My Forester's 225/55R17 OEM tires are also on 17" rims, but I went with 215/65R16 winter tires on 16" rims. This latter size is very close in overall diameter to the OEM wheels, and it's the same size that's used on the "base" '09 Forester.

More info from my adventure in full size spare tires and overall wheel sizing is contained in this thread.

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

 

[sbrook]

Well, 4 years on and I didn't get snow tires until this winter (when the Yokohama's were just about toast even for summer driving).

Put on some Hankook winter tires and they've been great. A little noisy, but not bad considering the brake noise I am enduring right now!