[turo]

Hey all, so I just recently moved here from FL, whe I've pretty much lived all of my life (so I've never lived somewhere that snows). I just recently ordered some Apex wheels for my car, and I'm wondering what to do with my oem wheels. My question: is it a bad idea to use my apex wheels during the winter (i.e., will snow/salt damage them)? I was going to sell my oem wheels to get back some $$$, but should I keep them as winter wheels instead?

I plan on getting a good set of snow tires regardless, since I have nearly zero driving experience in snow.

[toan414]

Your Apex wheels should hold up with salt and snow without any issues. Clean them once in a while. The big issue will be the summer tires. On snow or black ice, it will slide around. Cold winters will also be outside of the limitation of summer tires and the rubber can crack.

Depends on your oem wheels, but winter set up are most of the time square. And they are cheaper in 17" than 18". Even 17" winter will clear a 335i brake calipers. Since winter aren't used that much, I would do a square set up. I used to switch front/rear every season.

Our winters are weird, one year it will snow like crazy every week, another it will snow one day out of the entire season. If you drive alot especially to work or so, get winter tires. What I used to do was when there was a few inches if snow, I would go to an open parking lot, and test my limitations. Turn off dtc helps to give more torque to the rear. Drive slow and avoid the crazy va/md drivers that seems to think this is the first time they have seen snow.

I used to have the rial salerno 17" with blizzaks, because the wheels are cheap and easy to replace, and the 5 spoke made cleaning ice and such really easy.

[Eugeinus]

+1 on what Toan said. Get a good set of winter tires, and you will be all set. Even though we basically didn't have a winter last year, don't count on that being the usual. We seem to get several regular snowfalls every year. You'll be glad you have them.

Welcome to the area as well!

[turo]

Thanks for the info!

Luckily, my job allows me to work from home whenever possible (whenever I don't have to meet with a client), so I usually work from home anyways. My OEM wheels are 189s which are easy to clean and can hold narrower tires than my apex's, but at the same time I really wanted to get some $$$ back by selling them.

I think I may just get a set of winter tires for the Apex wheels and work from home as much as possible.

[tmaung]

I just hate potholes in the area and I swore I will never buy aftermarket again unless it is forged. I have had so many bent rims . Just be careful and welcome to the area! +1 on snow tires (but I didn't see any snow last year).

[alex2364]

I got away with Continental ExtremeContact DWS (all-season) when we had the terrible storm 2 years ago when everyone was stuck on the road during the evening commute for 6 hours. Just make sure you have plenty of tread (6/32" or more) and don't go out when there are more than a couple inches on the ground.

[toan414]

If you work at home that much, I think you can survive a winter up here without winter tires. That snow storm from 2 years ago was an anomaly. Just don't drive alot when there is snow on the ground, or the night after when ice is forming and you should be fine. For me, the winter tires was a necessity since I commuted alot and got stuck in snow the first winter I got my 335i. Didn't even know about turning off DTC. Going to have to buy new winter set for this year in a few months.

[cotmfk]

If you do end up getting winter tires, I would recommend keeping the 189's for those tires. If you sell the 189's, when you go to sell your car, you will need to buy 189's again. While you may get some money back by selling them, you will also pay more switching winter tires on and off your aftermarket wheels. In addition, every time you swap tires on a set of wheels, you are opening yourself up to the tire shop damaging your nice aftermarket wheels.

The other (minor) positive to keeping the stocks is that your car will have two different looks throughout the year instead of one.

[Pat@sonictuning]

+2 for dws

[cityazndan]

+3