Is upgrade to 16" tires and wheels worth it?

[MrCreosote]

I currently have snow tires on mine and was thinking of getting another set of wheels for summer tires.

I was even thinking of finding 3 other spare tires that had not been used (!)

Any experience/opinions?
Regards,
Tom

[wiswind]

You can do some amount of research on the tirerack website.
Doing much in changes like that gets expensive in a hurry.....although you are thinking of getting another set of wheels anyhow, which reduces the cost of the project.

I am not big on the spare tire idea.......unless they are pretty new, as older tires will not hold up very well....putting you in the market for replacements sooner than you might be wanting to be......which would eat up any savings you got in a hurry.

[MrCreosote]

What years did Windstar have 16" optional wheels? It would be nice to find one that someone is parting out.

[phil-l]

One place I've specifically heard good things about the Windstar 15" to 16" upgrade: For those towing trailers with Windstars, the 16" option offers less side-to-side sidewall flex, which translates into more stability when towing.

That said, I've looked at 16" wheels and tires for my Windstar - but haven't been able to justify the expense. I tow both a 2500 pound popup camper and a utility trailer with my '00 Windstar; 15" wheels and tires have worked fine.

[MrCreosote]

Yeah, the 16 is more money and all I'm trying to do is SAVE money! haha

I'm still intrigued with the full size spare. My spare is a brand new tire. So I'm still thinking about scrounging 3 more spares.

I have had some experience with very old tires and it seems that they get hard. And hard wears good. It is crappy for traction but I'm not drag racing.

My only concern with spares is that I have heard that OE tires can sometimes yield 10k mileage on some cars. So there exists a really crappy OE tire which I would expect to see in full size spares. But then, when you have a full size spare, you're supposed to rotate it in with the other tires. Yeah. Sure. I wonder how many people did that!

Thanks
Tom

[KC79]

i had the same thought of 2 sets of tires. i have really nice 16" rims and just put new tires on @ $100 each (mid grade). mine is a 01 se sport. i pretty sure most of the se sport had 16". if you go to a salvage yard you can get a set of rims w/ tires. steel rims run about $50 and alloy $100 each. but w/ 2 sets of tires you end up w/ a set sitting in the way getting old and not using them. you really don't need "windstar" rims as long as they are the same size & stud pattern. be careful about putting a set on w/ a differant overall size than you have now, i would assume that a change will still mess with you speedometer like the older cars. i did that on a ranger and it was a real pain having it read slower than what i was going