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Hey everyone,
I am looking for some help on getting a winter set of tires and rims; if anyone had done this with this car or can provide guidance it will be much appreciated.
I want to swap out my all seasons with winter tires. We receive a considerable amount of snow, I am in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and I find them essential. Rather than mount tires on the staggered set of rims, I am looking to have a square set, i.e same sizes in the front and back, of 19" rims. I believe that having taller tires will soften the ride, it gets bumpy on the roads with all the snow and the road gets a lot of potholes, and having narrower and square tires will improve snow handling. Please let me know if my understanding of this is incorrect.
The car currently comes with
Wheels:
Front: 20-inch AMG® twin 10-spoke - 9.5J X 20 H2 ET 32 (SKU: 254-400-01-00)
Rear: 20-inch AMG® twin 10-spoke - 10J X 20 H2 ET 24 (SKU: 254-400-02-00)
Tires: Summer high-performance
Front: 265/450R20 front
Rear: 295/40R20 rear
I would like to know
Can I put 19" rims instead of the stock 20"
What width of the rims should I use? (I am thinking 8J)
What should my tire size be? (235/50 R19 on 8J?)
Do I need to worry about rim offset so that they fit and line up with the fender like the current 20" rims?
Can I use OEM rims and if so which?
Any help is much appreciated!
Last edited by kshan; Jan 2, 2025 at 09:41 PM.
Reason: Updating title
I would stick with 20" for a much better selection, price and availability of snow tires. Staying with your front tire size/profile and wheel width on all 4 corners will keep your speedo/odo true, and allow for rotating. Try to keep the same offset so that you have neither interference nor road debris being spit onto your paint. Buy a good quality set of wheels but nothing that's going to be expensive to replace if you slide into a curb and ding one. Do some research on what you think will work, and then talk to a reputable tire/wheel dealer. Discount Tire will usually price match any online advertised price you find for wheels and tires, and sometimes runs promos on wheel/tire packages. You'll never regret mounting a good set of snow tires when you find yourself driving through the Colorado Rockies in winter.
Thank you for the input, that's helpful. Based on what I seeing on willtheyfit.com, there is less than 1% difference in speedo. I changed the offset to ensure they line up somewhat to the same position as they are now, let me know if that is incorrect. I did find decent tire options for the 19" - Michelin X-Ice Snow and Bridgestone Blizzak both having a speed rating of H (130mph). With the 20" tires though both Michelin and Bridgestone have tires with speed rating of V (149mph), so there is that.
Front Wheels -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Wheels
Front Wheels -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Wheels
Another option would be to keep my existing rims and just use square 265/45 R20 tires on all of them. Then I can do the Michelin - Pilot Alpin 5 with speed rating of V on all of of them. But they are much broader and less tall than the 235's.
Front and Rear 20" stock rims but 265/45 square winter tires
The regular GLC300 come with 235 tires, perhaps they are too narrow, even for the winter for the GLC43 AMG? I don't know how to pick an appropriate width.
A second set of wheels makes life much simpler. Flipping tires on one set of wheels twice a year takes time, means you have to schedule an appt. and you usually have to pay for mounting and balancing. A second set of wheels with snow tires makes changing over a 40 minute job in your own driveway at your convenience. There are tire storage services in some venues that will do this for you in addition to delivery/pickup if you lack storage space. Tire width is a tossup -- wider means a bit more traction on snowpack, but a bit more rolling resistance when driving through deep snow. I have 235 Blizzaks on my Jeep and they provide plenty of traction to push a snowplow, no chains, in all conditions. Snow tire design has come a long way in the past couple decades and snow rated tires make an incredible difference in winter driving, even on a AWD/4WD.
Second set square set up makes sense... Alpines are UHP linear tires eg you cannot rotate them from left to right... I got my Michelin Alpines from Costco and they balance the tires each time they swap them... The tires at Costco come with free balancing.. It is a pain to carry them and wait for the tire service line, but I wouldn't do it myself esp for AMG car without balancing...
Originally Posted by streborx
A second set of wheels makes life much simpler. Flipping tires on one set of wheels twice a year takes time, means you have to schedule an appt. and you usually have to pay for mounting and balancing. A second set of wheels with snow tires makes changing over a 40 minute job in your own driveway at your convenience. There are tire storage services in some venues that will do this for you in addition to delivery/pickup if you lack storage space. Tire width is a tossup -- wider means a bit more traction on snowpack, but a bit more rolling resistance when driving through deep snow. I have 235 Blizzaks on my Jeep and they provide plenty of traction to push a snowplow, no chains, in all conditions. Snow tire design has come a long way in the past couple decades and snow rated tires make an incredible difference in winter driving, even on a AWD/4WD.
Anyone know if these Mercedes 19" rims 8J x 19 H2 ET 32.5 (A2544010400 - Fitment) from the GLC300 will clear the GLC43 AMG brakes? When I look it up on the MB parts site, it does come up under the GLC43.
I am thinking of using these with 235/55 R19 Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2's 105H
I also plan to use spacers, if that factors into the answer
- 10mm front
- 20mm back
An update for anyone who's looking to do this in the future. I have installed these rims and they clear the calipers on the 2024 GLC43 X254. The wheels are now 19mm / 33mm (front/back) tucked in because of the narrower wheels and tires. I might leave them as is, because it seems to work well with all the slush and snow it throws up, or I might use spacers and bring them out a bit - especially the back. I'll post pictures later in case anyone wants to know how it will turn out.
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2024 GLC43 - Square winter tires and rims, how?
