Potholes, damage, tires, and rims on the 2018’s

[Pilot1226]

Final stages of gathering intel on Legacy vs Outback. I am leaning towards the Legacy right now.

 

In my 2009 Legacy (2.5 Limited) I had some issues with potholes, ending up with at least one bubbled sidewall, eventually a bent rim, and later down the road a flat tire.

 

So I’m looking primarily at the Legacy 3.6, which has 225/50 R18’s on it. I noticed the 2.5 base and Premium models have 225/55 R17’s, and the 17’s have a bigger sidewall.

 

Considering NJ roads are a mess in the winter and early Spring thanks to the freezing temperatures and the snow and road salt, I’m concerned about the potential damage from potholes.

 

Am I blowing this out of proportion? Are the 18’s a little more resilient than what I’m thinking?

 

The Outbacks have 225/60 R18’s and the Premiums have 225/65 R17’s

 

For reference my 09 had 205/50 R17’s.

 

Thanks.

[Perscitus]

Looks like the 2018 Legacy 3.6R ends up with ~4.4" of sidewall (albeit the stock tires leave a lot to be desired so >4" doesn't mean much) vs. 5.3" sidewall for the 2018 3.6R.

 

Do you really need 5" of sidewall with these cars' suspension setup and Garden State's pi** poor tarmac? Not really.

 

Would you benefit from >4.3"? Yup. Should be plenty even for the semi-soft OE wheels and soft side walls.

 

>4.3" sidewall pairs well with Tri-State and New England roads, including inner cities and city-highway/parkways.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=225-50r18-225-60r18

[Pilot1226]

So in your opinion is that it really shouldn’t make a big difference, then, since it’s larger than 4”?

[coppertone]

I’ve already lost a tire thanks to how great NJ roads are on my new car lol. Oh well at least since it’s fwd, I only need to replace one.

 

 

Audi love for life

[MrCobbs]

I just had 3 tires replaced this Tuesday from sidewall bubbles. It is bad here in NJ.

 

Luckily I have the road hazard plan so it was only $63 for 3 new tires.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pilot1226]

Do you think the difference in aspect ratio compared to a larger sidewall tire would’ve prevented this?

 

And what did you do with the tires? Did you shave them down to the depth of the fourth one? Got to worry about the circumference too

[capttris]

Potholes/bad roads are another reason that I have a winter wheel/tire set, and I downsized a wheel size to 1) have more sidewall to absorb potholes and 2) the wheels and winter tires were cheaper! Win-win.

I have a set of Imprezza wheels, so they are cheap, look decent, not delicate, and easy to replace if I had to. (used on ebay/craigslist)

[Pilot1226]

Oh, you put Impreza wheels on your winters? That was clever. What are you doing about TPMS? Did you find programmable sensors and clone your default sensors, or do you bring it to the shop and ask them to program it every time? (How much does that cost?)

[MrCobbs]

Do you think the difference in aspect ratio compared to a larger sidewall tire would’ve prevented this?

 

And what did you do with the tires? Did you shave them down to the depth of the fourth one? Got to worry about the circumference too

 

I definitely think a larger sidewall would have prevented this. Next winter I may got to 17's and snow tires.

 

Since this is a new vehicle I barely went down by 1/32" on all of the tires so It wasn't necessary to replace that 4th one.

[Pilot1226]

That's fortunate. I'm sure road hazard wouldn't have covered it in a situation where you had to replace a perfectly good tire...

 

I'm going to check out the Outback forums and see if they have any feedback also. Seems like if you can get yourself down to a 17, that would be an ideal situation even if you ran all-seasons all year.

 

The main reason I haven't put winters on is because of the TPMS issues when you change rims.

[Yoda_One]

Just buy another set and clone them.

 

Laughing at oneself and with others is good for the Soul![emoji2]

[Pilot1226]

Just buy another set and clone them.

 

Unfamiliar with that process. Are you saying to do it myself? I attempted to do something with a tool on my 09 Legacy that was called the TPMS QuickSet Tool, but it wouldn't:

1. Pull the TPMS Sensor ID's so I can put them into the software
   
2. Wake up the new TPMS Sensors from factory "Deep Sleep"
   
3. Allow me to put more than 2 or 3 sets of TPMS ID's in there, making the useful life of the tool limited to one car and a few sets of sensors
   

 

If the OEM sensors were programmable or cloneable, that would absolutely be an option. I'd probably go this route with a 17" tire with winters and then keep the 18's for the summer.

[capttris]

Pilot1226,

 

I bought a set of OEM Subaru TPMS for the Winter Imprezza wheels.

I worked out a deal with my local Mavis, that every time I do the summer/winter swap, they have to re-flash each wheel TPMS while plugged into the OBDII.

For $25, they are done faster than I can even clean the set of wheels coming off and put them away.