Dr. No

Hi Gang

My long awaited Obsidian Black ML 63 is due to arrive on 8/20. I will have a few months before snowflakes fall here in Madison, WI to enjoy the "summer rubber" on the truck...based upon you lucky 2007 owners' experiences, will I need to switch over to dedicated snowtires and if so, what brand do you recommend to get me through the winter? We do get the occasional snow dump of 4-6" here and I do need to get to the Hospital for work, so when it snows, I still gotta go!

Thanks for all your help.

D.

Jo

Hey Dr. No,
I am in the same boat. I have been thinking about getting a set of snow tires as well. I was looking at some Scorpion Ice & Snow to put on the stock rims. I had a GC SRT-8 last winter and I put a set of 255-45-20 Scorpion Ice and Snow on the stock rims. It did work but I was not a fan at all of the 4wheel system in the Jeep. It was very rough when the traction control kicked in. It felt like it was being pulled at all 4 corners. So I am hoping the ML will be much better. My only concern is that the tires will be too wide as this is not a good thing for traction in the snow. One thing I may do is get a second set of rims and then put some snow tires on them. When I took my Jeep to Goodyear I learned that they charge more to mount run flats, a whooping $100 per tire.

Hopefully we can get some info from other members that have had their ML in the snow/winter.

A-Train

https://mbworld.org/forums/ml55-amg-ml63-amg-w163-w164/171106-winter-tires-wheels-discussion.html

Turned out to be excellent throughout the New England winter last year...

Jo

Here is what A-Train Said

" recently mounted a set of 275/40/20 Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow on the stock rims. Beforehand, I debated going with an all-season tire to keep as much sport / performance as possible. But I then did a mental reality check of how tough winters can be in the Northeast, so I decided on this true winter tire (at least, as true a winter tire that 275/40/20 can be...).

The car has not yet had an opportunity to be driven in snow. The car has gone about 200 miles so far with the winter tires on, primarily just normal day-to-day driving. Steering response and feel is not quite as sharp as with the stock tires, as is to be expected. Feels like about 10% of the response / sharpness is gone, so it still feels quite good. Road noise seems the same."

I think I will be ordering these from the Tirerack.com pretty quick as they only make a limited number.

escapement

Dr. No,
I have dedicated snow tires for my 2007 ML63, and the vehicle handles nicely in winter. I don't know the brand (I think either Dunlop or Continental) since they are in storage. I would not drive it with summer tires in the winter, because stopping and steering ability can be considerably reduced. Even with AWD, traction can be a problem with summers. It's my understanding that summer rubber compounds do not perform well in the cold.

I would ask the guys at Zimbrick for their recommendation. That's what I did, and I'm very pleased with the results. The handling of my winter tires is not that far off from the summers.

Good luck, and I know you will enjoy your ML63. I have 16,000 miles on mine, and have had no problems. The engine is magnificent and the quality level is miles ahead of the previous generation ML55.

Dr. No

Thanks all for the followup!

Tomorrow is the big day for the ML63 pickup...can't wait

I will see what the dealer recommends for my 500HP snowplow with 20" wheels...I should be safe until November with the summer "racing" rubber, then I will have to swap 'em out for sure.

Here's some pics from yesterday at the dealership.


Have a great week!

D.

escapement

Congrats on getting your ML tomorrow! It's always a good day when you get a new car.

Regarding snow tires, I would not wait to order them until you need them. I recommend you get them now and store them. They can be hard to find nearer winter.

My snows are 20" and I have them put on the same wheel set as the summers. They are an identical size to the summers. I don't follow the common wisdom of putting on narrower snow tires to give better grip. I've never noticed much of a difference in the snow when I did, and the dry handling suffers with narrower tires.

skatsuba

so what is best tyres?

sezer1986

my oppinion is if you want to drive the ml very much then it's better to put the snowtires on. In germany you get a bill of 40€ if you don't have snowtires on in winter so that it's a must be in germany in winter.

Eye_Candy

I ran Nokian Hakka 5 SUVs on my stock 20 inch rims thru last year's Canadian winter and was pleased. The problem with all the tire choices IMHO is that the ML 63 demands very wide tires and you end up floating a little no matter what you run.

Dr. No

Thanks guys for all the opinions..looks like I'm going to try the Pirelli Scorpions with some dedicated 20" winter alloy wheels on my AMG "snowplow"...if I can wrestle the truck away from my wife... I got it on Monday, she hopped in it Tuesday and drove it outta town for the week...sigh...should have ordered two of 'em I guess!

We LOVE the ML 63..

If any of you are "lurking" out there wondering on whether to get one, it's a no-brainer...most awesome SUV out there currently! Order yours now!

D.

mortenmol

can't remember what my dad got for his, but he uses the 19" for snow and the 20" for summer and the tires are rated at 250+ meaning you can drive top speed on snowtires

Bernie (OOParts

Somewhat off-topic, but what was the build date for your ML, Dr. No?

Dr. No

Hi!

It was built July 24th... I "strongly urged" the dealer to expedite delivery and got it on August 13th...what makes it even more fun is that my brother checked out my ML 63, noticed they also had received a silver 63 and is now the proud owner of that ML! The salesman could not believe his good fortune to have hooked up with 2 fanatics!

D.

Bernie (OOParts

Woot! Just got our ML63 yesterday... it's everything we imagined and more! Except for one small detail... it looks liks MB deleted the rear door lock overide switch (you know, the one to keep kids from opening the rear doors). Unless they forgot to put ours in...

Dr. No, does your 2008 have the rear door switch?

Here's a picture from the 2007 online manual...

It looks like there's a little rectangular hole where that switch is supposed to be, but it's empty.

Jo

Here is what my dealership recommended.

20" winter wheels with 295/40/Zr20 Scorpion Ice and Snow.

They want $4400 for the set up.
I think I will just buy the rubber and stick it on the stock rims.

Trodas

Hi Guys,


I just readed my ML63 in and i have pirelli snow tires that i had put on last year, i was going to put them on ebay, but if you would be interested please let me know, the snow tires have about 6500 miles on them.

smackjack

I know that I'm bucking the trend in a big way, but this very day I'm replacing my stock Continentals with Pirelli Scorpion Zero Asymmetricals in 305/45-20. They are some badass-looking tires on the ML63. Can't wait!

kokanee

No typo?
305/45 will have a much greater OD than stock. Your ML will have large spedo error and possible be very slow off the line. You could get away with 305/40 I think but still will have above errors. If you lower it they will likely rub as well. I kept the stock rims for winter and have a set of Scorpion Ice and snow in the 295/40 R20 on order.

Jo

The narrower the tires the better the traction on ice & snow

kokanee

I had 265/50 R20 on the FX45. The Blizzack's made it like driving a freakin snow plow. Unbeliveable in snow and sheet ice. The FX was lighter than the ML so the 295's shouldn't create a problem so long as they are true snow tires and not M+S. 305 are really wide and will look good but are they available in a 35 or 40 series instead of 45 series?
A 305/45 will have a circumference of 96.8 inches vs 92.0 inches for stock resulting in a spedo error of 5.2% low. A 305/35 would be like lowering the gear ratio and result in a 3.0% high reading on the spedo. (60mph indicated would really be 58.2 mph)
Actually a 305/40 is only off by 1.1% Acceleration would be different but how much in the real world would be interesting to see.

Jo

K, Kokanee-easy on the math now
Thanks for the calculations. Does anyone know if Bridge stone makes any blizzaks close to the Scorpion Ice & Snow size of 295's?

I have a set of 255/45/20's Scorpion Ice & Snow in the garage but I was not too fond of them when I had them on the GC SRT-8

kokanee

I wish I could take credit!
http://miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html
Very handy site on my fav list.
I've been told its only Dunlop or Pirelli from my local dealers (in 20's). I shold have them on by mid October so I can let you know. Had the Scorps on a QX4 in 03 or so and they were decent. (preferred the Blizzak)

smackjack

No typo. Got the tires installed yesterday, and they look awesome and feel terrific. No rubbing issues of any kind so far. Frankly, these tires look like they should have been on the vehicle from day one.

Obviously, these are not snow tires, and I didn't go this route for winter performance. My primary motivations were (1) to get away from the stock Continentals, (2) to get a bit more rubber between my wheels and the road (I actually go off-road a bit), and (3) appearance, plain and simple. The vehicle drives a bit less like a sports car and a bit more like a locomotive now, but that's fine with me. I have a C55 as my second car, and that one will get me my "boy-racer" kicks.

I also understand that the speedo will have a marginal error, but that doesn't concern me in the least. Most speedos have a 2-4% error right from the factory, so that's no big deal. My dealership and I did a lot of research before making this move, and I'm confident that I will not have any problems. I'll report back if there are issues or problems.

smackjack

I couldn't find any 305/40's, but there are a couple of 305/35's out there (get ready for some big-time sticker shock). As a practical matter, my choices were 295/45's or 305/45's and I opted to go wider as well as taller. The 305/45's look really really good, fellas, and the vehicle definitely has taken on a more "trucky" feel, which is exactly what I had in mind. Time will tell on the handling issues, and I'll report back. Frankly, what I'm most concerned about is balancing, which becomes a bigger issue as you go bigger with the tires, but until I take it out on a long high-speed road trip, I won't really know whether balancing will be a problem.