cheap 18" rims for winter tyres

[zebedee]

Anyone got any ideas where would be a good place to look for these, possibly secondhand? Otherwise I am looking at £30 a corner for swapping the tyres back over again if I keep the same rims.

cheers

[Watchman]

zebedee said:

Anyone got any ideas where would be a good place to look for these, possibly secondhand? Otherwise I am looking at £30 a corner for swapping the tyres back over again if I keep the same rims.

cheers

£30/corner? You need to change your tyre place. Mine does it for £40 all-in and they're a national chain.

Regarding your Q... you have heard of Ebay, no?

[MysteryLemon]

Agreed. £30 per corner to change a tyre (without supplying a new one) is daylight robbery. £10 + VAT is about the norm. I wouldn't pay more.

[zebedee]

Watchman said:

£30/corner? You need to change your tyre place. Mine does it for £40 all-in and they're a national chain.

Regarding your Q... you have heard of Ebay, no?

I have but I don't want to end up with some out of true / dinged / incorrect sized rims and never really use ebay so not sure what sort of company to trust. £20 plus VAT they said, which might be steep but their tyre prices are pretty good to be fair.

[kpb]

Ouch. I'd be taking my tyres and rims in the car to a national chain tyre fitter and having a word with the lads in the bays just before closing time. £20 for all 4 corners/5 mins work is a nice contribution to their Xmas fund.

[big_boz]

zebedee said:

I don't want to end up with some out of true / dinged / incorrect sized rims and never really use ebay so not sure what sort of company to trust.

Buy from a seller with good feedback and high rating and you should be fine.

Regards incorrect size, you will need to buy the specific size for your car anyway so if you get the wrong size it will be because you have ordered the wrong size.

Bought plenty of wheels off fleabay over the years and never had a problem. If you are unsure, post them on here and i m sure you will get plenty of responses if they look dodgy.

[zebedee]

big_boz said:

Buy from a seller with good feedback and high rating and you should be fine.

Regards incorrect size, you will need to buy the specific size for your car anyway so if you get the wrong size it will be because you have ordered the wrong size.

Bought plenty of wheels off fleabay over the years and never had a problem. If you are unsure, post them on here and i m sure you will get plenty of responses if they look dodgy.

I've just searched 16" wheel on ebay and very few of them give the width of the wheel and there are also very few sets of 4 for sale. Garage is offering me 4 16" Hankook winter tyres on 16" steel wheels and locknuts (as it needs different locknuts than alloys) for £632, as opposed to 4 18" Hankooks for £111. So it would be around £190 more expensive all in to go for the 16", which is a lot of swaps if I can get them done for £10. Plus steel rims will look gash, so I might just plump for the easy job of swapping to the 18" ones and put the summer tyres away until spring.

[big_boz]

searching for just the diameter is not going to do you any good, what car are they going on?

[TA14]

zebedee said:

£20 plus VAT they said, which might be steep but their tyre prices are pretty good to be fair.

MysteryLemon said:

daylight robbery. £10 + VAT is about the norm.

Interesting to see the number of people on this thread that think that the OP is being ripped off then suggest a price which is about the same, or in your case the same. You are aware that £10 + VAT to change the tyre and then the same again to change back to a summer tyre is £24 per corner aren't you?

[kambites]

Last time I had tyres swapped, my local tyre place did it for free; or rather for "put a couple of quid in the tips jar".

They did it properly too - set the tyre pressures to those specified in the hand-book and torqued the wheels to the right figure with a manual torque-wrench.

[zebedee]

big_boz said:

searching for just the diameter is not going to do you any good, what car are they going on?

Yes but my point is that most people don't list the width of the wheel anyway so there is no way you could buy them with any confidence that it will be the right one for the tyres that I have the quote on. Seems to me a bit like advertising a light bulb and only saying what wattage it is but not what type of fitting. I do wonder how stuff gets sold off ebay a lot of the time.

[Chicane-UK]

What car is it to go on? My Octavia VRS runs 18" wheels normally but have searched on Skoda forums and found people happily running on 16" steels with 205/55/16's no problem - steels and tyres at 16" work out a HELL of a lot cheaper than just 18" tyre replacements!

[TA14]

zebedee said:

big_boz said:

searching for just the diameter is not going to do you any good, what car are they going on?

Yes but my point is that most people don't list the width of the wheel anyway so there is no way you could buy them with any confidence that it will be the right one for the tyres that I have the quote on. Seems to me a bit like advertising a light bulb and only saying what wattage it is but not what type of fitting. I do wonder how stuff gets sold off ebay a lot of the time.

So what car is it for? You usually get dia and width advertised. Offset, stud spacing and centrebore you have to check by asking the seller. The PH adverts are usually OK.

[big_boz]

zebedee said:

Yes but my point is that most people don't list the width of the wheel anyway so there is no way you could buy them with any confidence that it will be the right one for the tyres that I have the quote on. Seems to me a bit like advertising a light bulb and only saying what wattage it is but not what type of fitting. I do wonder how stuff gets sold off ebay a lot of the time.

If you go via the menus on e-bay it will let you submit the wheel spec's so diameter, width, offsett, etc..... This means you will only get the size you search for. Chances are if you are looking at some that have no detail listed, these are more than likely the sellers you should be avoiding.

If it is for the purpose of winter boots, width and diameter are semi-irrelevant unless you want exactly the same size wheels. If you are putting on Winters for added safety, IMO you should probably go down at least one size so 17 or 16" anyway. In this case the chances are the wheels will be thinner anyway.

[zebedee]

Chicane-UK said:

What car is it to go on? My Octavia VRS runs 18" wheels normally but have searched on Skoda forums and found people happily running on 16" steels with 205/55/16's no problem - steels and tyres at 16" work out a HELL of a lot cheaper than just 18" tyre replacements!

I have given all the figures in my previous post, there is a £43 per corner difference between winter and summer tyres and lots of the steels on ebay are more than £43...

[TA14]

big_boz said:

If you are putting on Winters for added safety, IMO you should probably go down at least one size so 17 or 16" anyway. In this case the chances are the wheels will be thinner anyway.

What car is it for?

A quick read of the manual will give you the spec for the 18" tyres and wheels. The manual will usually have alternative fitments of wheels and tyres. What does it say?

[zebedee]

big_boz said:

If it is for the purpose of winter boots, width and diameter are semi-irrelevant unless you want exactly the same size wheels.

But if the wheels are smaller unless the tyre is taller by the same amount then the speedo will be out and ride and handling could be up the spout couldn't it?

[TA14]

zebedee said:

big_boz said:

If it is for the purpose of winter boots, width and diameter are semi-irrelevant unless you want exactly the same size wheels.

But if the wheels are smaller unless the tyre is taller by the same amount then the speedo will be out and ride and handling could be up the spout couldn't it?

The opposite is usually true for various reasons. By and large 16" wheels with tyres of the same external dia as the 18" tyres will perform better in adverse conditions than the 18" wheels but there are quite a few caveats eg will they fit over your brakes?

[4key]

I always just look on ebay and find someone within driving distance to buy from, or http://www.wheel-wes.com/classifieds/ if theres anything that takes my fancy on there.

swear filter doesnt like wh ores

[big_boz]

zebedee said:

But if the wheels are smaller unless the tyre is taller by the same amount then the speedo will be out and ride and handling could be up the spout couldn't it?

Yes, the idea would be to get taller tyres to keep the rolling diameter the same. There are many websites that can do you the comparison and show you any difference in the speedo.