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I had a cut in the sidewall of my Ice Bear W300s, so I went looking for a used set of snow/ice tires and found these:

Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 235/45-17 on 17x7.5" +53 Rota SDRs

(click images for gallery)



I was a bit concerned about the extra 10mm of width, and the extra height that would accompany it, but after a test drive with one tire on the front, I took the used set for a very fair price. So far they've been a very good tire in the cold, dry weather. We'll see how they go when the "real" winter arrives.





A tiny bit of rubbing when the wheels are turned and I'm going over driveways and with articulation, but otherwise not rubbing when driving straight. Plenty of strut clearance also, which is probably a result of the wheel offset.

235 seems really wide for a snow tire, I'm curious how they do in deep stuff.

They fill the wheel wells nicely.

I had no problems the last two winters, and especially last winter, with my 225s. The Ice Bears were rated a poor snow tire by Consumer Reports, while these are rated much higher.

Snow tires, AWD and an LSD = Subie Snowplow:

Nice!

I'm looking forward to using an LSD in the snow this winter.

Hell yeah. I need a rear LSD in my beater wagon. Outback ridheight would also be nice for conquering snowbanks.




Tires make all the difference, don't they?

Aye, they sure do.