2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali - The Search for Winter Wheels and Tires
One thing that I've learned over the years is that nothing performs better in the winter than a dedicated winter tire. Since I've always believed that tires are critical to vehicle safety, it was no question that I would be buying a set of winter rims and tires for our 2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali. Even thought the Denali has full-time AWD, winter tires would make sure that we would be able to stop as well as we could go.
The only question was the type of rims I would on the Denali. Ours came with 20" wheels. The standard Yukon comes with 17" so those were the two options that were available on TireRack.com. I looked at 17" rims at first because I figured that they would be lighter, give us the most options for tires, and allow me to install chains if I encountered anything really serious. Plus, I was sure that 17" wheels would be much cheaper than 20" ones.
The Hankook Ice Bear W300 performance winter tires I bought for our previous two vehicles (a 2006 Suburu Impreza WRX STI and a 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring) were....
...not available in light truck/SUV sizes, so after doing a little research online I decided that the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3 in 265/70-17 would be the best choice for us. I originally wanted to pick a cheap 17" rim but discovered that some weighed a whole lot more than others and not all rims accepted TPMS (tire-pressure monitoring system) sensors. That made the selection process a little more complicated because I don't like making mods that reduce performance--especially with a heavy wheel. Don't forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not all wheel styles were appealing to me.
What complicated the decision even more was that I started to think (which is a dangerous thing!) that I would get more use out of an A/T tire like the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires that I had on my 2003 Toyota Sequoia. They are rated with the mountain snowflake symbol for severe snow conditions and I know they worked well in the snow. (See Brohm Ridge Trip Report.) I thought that in addition to using them for the winter, if I wanted to explore some logging roads in the summer, the BFG A/Ts would perform way better than the all-seasons on 20" rims.
Would that mean I would run 17" rims all year long? Or would I just swap the wheels each weekend for some fun? Knowing how much I dislike extra work, I started to wonder if I would like having 17" wheels on the Denali full-time. I really do like big rims and I think it suits the Denali well. Maybe I wouldn't be doing too much off-roading anyway. I did a search on TireRack for a 20" winter tire package and found that they had some rims that looked reasonably nice on close-out at $119 each. That was a lot cheaper than even some of the 17" rims I was looking at.
Having a limited budget (cheaper is better) and realizing that I liked the look of 20" rims, I decided that off-roading was not the primary purpose of the Denali (which couldn't do real off-roading anyway without true 4x4 capabilities). I placed my order with TireRack. The only winter tire available in 275/55-20 was the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3 that I wanted so that was good. What wasn't good was that they were back-ordered and not expected to be available until the beginning of November. I canceled my order and thought maybe I would try this season without winter tires.
That didn't sit well for me so I started looking at 17" options again. The wheels I liked were much more expensive than the close-outs so I decided to make a compromise on the tires. I chose the Firestone Winterforce (studdable winter) 265/70-17 which got fairly good reviews on TireRack. They are only $85 per tire and will off-set the cost of the wheels at $182 per rim. I went back and forth between black and silver rims, but decided on ATX Thug 17x8.5 wheels that are black with a Teflon coating. That should help protect them from the winter elements. Also, with 17" rims, if I want to get the BFG's in the future, I still can without having to buy a whole new set of rims. So after a couple of weeks of hemming and hawing, I placed another order with TireRack on the weekend. These tires and wheels are in stock, so hopefully I'll be able to pick them up at the end of the week.
The only question was the type of rims I would on the Denali. Ours came with 20" wheels. The standard Yukon comes with 17" so those were the two options that were available on TireRack.com. I looked at 17" rims at first because I figured that they would be lighter, give us the most options for tires, and allow me to install chains if I encountered anything really serious. Plus, I was sure that 17" wheels would be much cheaper than 20" ones.
The Hankook Ice Bear W300 performance winter tires I bought for our previous two vehicles (a 2006 Suburu Impreza WRX STI and a 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring) were....
...not available in light truck/SUV sizes, so after doing a little research online I decided that the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3 in 265/70-17 would be the best choice for us. I originally wanted to pick a cheap 17" rim but discovered that some weighed a whole lot more than others and not all rims accepted TPMS (tire-pressure monitoring system) sensors. That made the selection process a little more complicated because I don't like making mods that reduce performance--especially with a heavy wheel. Don't forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not all wheel styles were appealing to me.
What complicated the decision even more was that I started to think (which is a dangerous thing!) that I would get more use out of an A/T tire like the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires that I had on my 2003 Toyota Sequoia. They are rated with the mountain snowflake symbol for severe snow conditions and I know they worked well in the snow. (See Brohm Ridge Trip Report.) I thought that in addition to using them for the winter, if I wanted to explore some logging roads in the summer, the BFG A/Ts would perform way better than the all-seasons on 20" rims.
Would that mean I would run 17" rims all year long? Or would I just swap the wheels each weekend for some fun? Knowing how much I dislike extra work, I started to wonder if I would like having 17" wheels on the Denali full-time. I really do like big rims and I think it suits the Denali well. Maybe I wouldn't be doing too much off-roading anyway. I did a search on TireRack for a 20" winter tire package and found that they had some rims that looked reasonably nice on close-out at $119 each. That was a lot cheaper than even some of the 17" rims I was looking at.
Having a limited budget (cheaper is better) and realizing that I liked the look of 20" rims, I decided that off-roading was not the primary purpose of the Denali (which couldn't do real off-roading anyway without true 4x4 capabilities). I placed my order with TireRack. The only winter tire available in 275/55-20 was the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3 that I wanted so that was good. What wasn't good was that they were back-ordered and not expected to be available until the beginning of November. I canceled my order and thought maybe I would try this season without winter tires.
That didn't sit well for me so I started looking at 17" options again. The wheels I liked were much more expensive than the close-outs so I decided to make a compromise on the tires. I chose the Firestone Winterforce (studdable winter) 265/70-17 which got fairly good reviews on TireRack. They are only $85 per tire and will off-set the cost of the wheels at $182 per rim. I went back and forth between black and silver rims, but decided on ATX Thug 17x8.5 wheels that are black with a Teflon coating. That should help protect them from the winter elements. Also, with 17" rims, if I want to get the BFG's in the future, I still can without having to buy a whole new set of rims. So after a couple of weeks of hemming and hawing, I placed another order with TireRack on the weekend. These tires and wheels are in stock, so hopefully I'll be able to pick them up at the end of the week.
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