candy_ashez02 Posted November 19, 2011 Report Share Posted November 19, 2011 I need to get winter tires ASAP and I am a first time car owner, my mom knows squat about cars because we never owned one. Can someone please tell me the steps on how to go about doing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramfrank Posted November 19, 2011 Report Share Posted November 19, 2011 You have a couple of choices; You can buy tiires that are the same size as the all-season ones that came on your car - the Journey comes with one of three sizes, 16", 17" ans 19" - those 19" come on the R/T and the 16" only on the base SE - likely yours are 17" unless you have the R/T. The diameter is part of the tire size specification and can be read on the sidewall of the tires installed on your vehicle. If you have 17:" wheels, the tire size will be 225/65/17 If you 19" wheels (r/t) then the tires would be 225/55/19 You can go to Canadian tire or Costco or anywhere else, buy snow tires and have them installed on your factory wheels - but that is hard on the tire bead (rim) and costs about $60 or more twice a year. The alternative would be to also buy steel (or fancy) wheels that fit the car and install a set of winter tires on those and just have the entire tire/wheel assembly swapped out each spring and fall - I pay my local guy $20 per change, saving me $80 or more per year plus taxes (he takes cash) for switching. Note that winter tires are very soft. Install them as late as possible in the fall and get them off as early as possible in the spring if you drive many miles and/or plan to keep the vehiocle and want to stretch the life - also store the tires not being used indoors, out of the sun. If you buy wheels, you can get them in any size that works with the vehicle . . . the 16" is the least expensive, but the wheels need to specific to the Grand Caravan (post 2007), Journey or a few other select vehicles because the clearances are very tight. You have more latitude with larger wheels - but wheels are all different so you need to get ones with the right bolt pattern and offset - the store should be able to advise you on that. The tires for the 16" inch wheels are 225/70/16. What I did was to go on www.kijiji.ca and managed to find a local ex-Journey owner selling an almost new set of high end tires mounted on steel wheels - I paid $450 and they even came with hubcaps. You can also shop on line - tire rack will ship to anywhere. There is 1010 as well - I saw a Montreal-based seller of Maxtrek tires advertising on www.ebay.ca asking $325 for a set of 4 plus $80 to ship - not bad and the tires were actually well rated for Chinese rubber . . . . .. Note that unless you spend an extra $160 for a spare set of sensors have have them installed on your new wheels your winter wheels would not provide you with a tire pressure readout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy_ashez02 Posted November 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Ok great, my journey is the SE, and thanks I am a total girly girl with no help on what I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramfrank Posted November 21, 2011 Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Well, I'm, glad to help, but your description says you have all wheel drive and that doesn't come on an SE. So have a look at the tires that are on the vehicle and note the size. Then buy a set of whatever size you have and have them mounted, unless you plan to buy both tires and wheels, in which case you have the choice of 16, 17, 18 or even 19 inch, though as the size goes up, so does the price. I just checked Kijiji for T-Bay and just to be complete, Craigslist for Winnipeg and Northeast Minnesota to see if anyone had anything for sale and there's nothing listed that comes immediately up on a search. www.tirebuyer.com will ship a set of four snow tires to south of the border for less than $400 for the set. www.tirerack.com seems to want about $50 more. There are usually places that receive shipments for a fee (generally $5/package) located at border crossings. If you buy US made tires there'll only be sales taxes to pay crossing the border. Foreign made ones have duty added as well. Tirerack will sell pre-mounted and balanced sets of wheels and you can even have them supplied with tire pressure sensors. Of course there's always Canadian Tire . . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy_ashez02 Posted November 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2011 Hmm ok, ya I figured out my sizes or whatever now it's just a matter of finding cheap allseasons atleast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 if u have the 19 '' rims that take 225/55/19 , u can try SONNY WOT 18 . i ordered mine at fountain tire terrace bc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 SONNY does have winter tire in 225/55/19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramfrank Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Somehow I think she's already purchased her tires. That, plus she has an SE - and that comes with 16" wheels. If she has the SE Plus it will have 17" painted aluminum ones. The 19 only comes on the Crew and R/T up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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