Here at Winter Tyre Reviews, we are going to discuss wheels and tyres for the BMW X5 from 2007 onwards to get the most out of your X5 during the winter months. Click here for the range.
You may be asking why you would need winter equipment on a 4 wheel drive, and its a great question to ask. The X5 is a fantastic car but comes with summer tyres and wider rear wheels as standard. They make the car look great from a rear view and are great during the warm weather but don’t perform to the best in colder conditions. We think there is a number of reasons for this:
- This type of vehicle is often used to drive to ski resorts, and in most of these countries, the use of winter tyres is an essential safety requirement or required by law in certain regions.
- The X5 is a vehicle that is very popular for school runs and day to day ferrying of your most valuable cargo, your family, so you want to ensure that your journey is as safe as it can possibly be.
- BMW very often use much wider wheels and tyres on the rear. They look great, but provide too much road coverage and then perform poorly in ice, slush and snow.
So, with our Winter Tyre Experts, Tyremen, we are going to look at the best wheel and tyre options available on the market to give your X5 the best winter performance and safety that you expect from BMW cars.
Winter tyres on the X5 gives them improved handling in some of the most challenging winter conditions. The following advice is general and can be easily used for most makes of 4 wheel drive, but is geared towards the BMW X5 and there are some subtle changes dependant on year and model.
From 2007 onwards, the BMW X5 start at 18″ wheels as standard, our partner, Tyremen, will shortly be stocking Vredestein, Bridgestone and Yokohama in standard tyres and Continental in runflat. By far the best seller for Tyremen is the Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme and is a fantastic winter tyre that can handle some quite tough conditions.
The Vredestein can be used all year round, it is sensibly priced and returns impressive mileage . We have seen many owners move away from the runflat option for this tyre, however, if you are going to do this, make sure you invest in a puncture repair kit, Continental offer three different options, and ensure that you road side assistance is up to date.
For the X5 that is fitted with wheels 19″ these vehicles can easily drop down to the 18″ wheel. Tyremen import some alloy wheels from Alutec based in Germany which are ideal for the X5 and, as you would expect from a German company, engineered well. They come with a 5 year guarantee, are styled like a BMW wheel so it won’t look out of place. Tyremen offer the Alutec Design E, fitted with either a standard or runflat winter tyre.
The only issue you will have with reducing wheel size is the appearance of the X5. For the 19″ wheel, you will most likely have 255/50R19 to the front and 285/45R19 to the rear. By replacing with the 18″ package, you will have a narrower tyre placement which is much more effective in winter. However, it won’t fill the rear wheel arches and you don’t want the look of your X5 to change, so we recommend the 18″ ‘staggered offset’ wheels to the rear. They fill the arches out well and you’d never know they were slightly smaller wheels.
So, now we’ve looked at 18″ wheels, your car has the 19″ or 20″ option on them. Worried that the 18″ option, even with the staggered offset, will be too small? Not a problem, there is a 19″ wheel, again with offset for the rear. This again, is another BMW styled wheel which will give you the same width front and rear. You can then use the 255/50R19 tyre which is a sensible size for winter. These can come with ‘split offsets’ which means the rear wheels are made in such a way that they sit further out than the fronts.
Has your X5 the 20″ wheel option? Then most likely you will have 275/40R20 (available in a winter tyre) to the front and 315/35R20 to the rear, the rears are next to impossible to find as a winter tyre, so you will need to come down to the 19″ option.
This will fill out the rear arches so you would never know you had a narrower wheel fitted. Below is an image from a Tyremen customer, showing how well the narrower smaller wheels fit and maintain the integrity of the X5 look.
Hopefully, we’ve given you enough information to make an informed choice for the winter wheels/wheels and tyres option. If you want to know anything else, why not get in touch with the friendly team at Tyremen.
Call: 08456 807808
Thanks, the Winter Tyre Reviews Team
