new to SUVs, tire recommendations? (2001 4x4)

[pathymr2]

Hi all, I recently purchased a 2001 pathfinder 4x4 in preparation for a move out to Colorado. My current tires (rear in particular) are pretty much useless for everything except dry pavement so I am in the market for new tires, and I have a few questions. I'd like the ability to do some mild trails, so I'm thinking some A/Ts would be a good place to go. The car will see a fair amount of highway time so I'm a bit concerned about tire noise, and I it seems like I've narrowed my tire choices down to two. The Geolander A/Ts and the Kumho Road Venture SAT...the Kumho's have great ratings on tirerack but fairly limited number of reviewers, so I'm not sure how much worth to put into them. General consensus seems to be that they are quiet and good in the snow which is attractive to me. However, they don't make it in stock size, but instead 255/70/16. Would a slightly larger size a) significantly reduce my gas milage and b) would a full size spare no longer fit and c) if it doesn't fit, is having a full size spare an absolute must?

Also while I'm at it, the stock rims are not pretty, are there any inexpensive rims that look better? I have the stock 01 LE's 6 spoke that has the center cap that covers the lugnuts.

Thanks! I also apologize if some of these have been answered already, I did try the search function but couldn't find these specific answers

[miamiheat3332]

I see your looking for inexpensive rims, my idea for you is this. Since maybe your stock rims look s***, get snow tires and mount them on your stock rims and use them for winter ( i have pirelli ice & snow on my stock 16;s and i drive most of the winter in 2wd thats how good they are, in rain i take curves in the road like its dry out, tire spin in rain/wet conditions is non existant, maybe for half a second until the grip catches )

Then get another set of inexpensive rims with an all season or A/T tire and use that set for spring/summer/fall.

Im currently running 20x9 Rims with Hankook Ventus RH07 Rubber for spring/summer/fall, then i throw on my stockers with the pirelli's when the first snow comes or when they start salting the roads.

A slightly larger tire size wont affect you much, my pirellis on my stock rims are almost as big as the 20s with the tire. Only thing it will change is your speedo will read 2-3mph more than your actually going, and you can tell by gps if you have one. so it shows 60mph your actually going 57-58, good ticket deterrent if you know what i mean.

The spare with the tire it has now wouldnt matter if lets say your rims with the bigger sized tire got a flat, if its in the back though, id advise to put the spare in the front, and then one of the other bigger sized tire ones to the rear, because thats your main driveline axle and its usually not advised to have different tire sizes running on your rear axle as it causes issues, mostly though this is for like AWD vehicles.

And lastly i used to have the Geolander A/Ts good tire at first, got a little crappy half way through, not the worst, but definetly not the best.

[jpedderson]

A second set of rims and keep the stock for snows. I had a great set of Bridgestone Blizzaks that I loved when I was in Wisconsin. Great tire, spent all winter just about in 2WD. Man those things had grip!

My summer tires and now year round tires here in Houston are General Grabber UHP's from Tire Rack for like $109 ea. I kept the same stock size so I didn't have to mess with my spare.