Is it possible to fit tire chains on the stock 16 inch tires?

I saw something in the '07 manual indicating one should use 15 inch tires. That is MINI's recommendation. If you know this beforehand, you should probably follow MINI's recommendation.

Unfortunately, I am a dork. I ordered my factory 16s intending to use them as my winter wheels. If I bought both new summer wheels AND new winter wheels, I would have to endure hours of steely silence. (Sure, sometimes this can be a good thing, but it's unpredictable so I try to avoid it.)

So I need to figure something out. One possibility is to use the 16s in the summer and buy 15s for the winter. But that means I'm doomed to heavy wheels during the part of the year when I can best use low weight. My preference is to use my 16s in the winter if it is reasonably safe.

IF I avoid large steering angles, and IF I avoid serious bushwacking, and IF am loaded to a maximum of two people plus gear, can I put a set of high quality diamond cables around the stock 16s without thrashing my inner fenders?

Has anybody experience with this?

 

Well this is certainly not encourging!

Has anybody ever put cable chains on a MINI? It seems like it would be such a great little mountain-mobile.

 

I have cable chains for my 16" Bridge Spokes w/ factory AS. I haven't put them on, but should take a look I suppose. I did drive through snow on Friday coming back home from the Tulip festival in Mt. Vernon to Issaquah. Too bad the chains were at home in the garage :-). It wasn't enough snow to bother though.
I didn't think 15" fit on MCS anyway. I don't believe they clear the front brakes.

Greg

 

Chains are NOT recommended for the MINI.

Get a set of steel wheels and get a set of winter snow tires.

 

I use cables on my '05 S with 16" wheels and snow tires with no problems so far... our manual also says to stay away from chains but I assume the clearance is similar in the refreshed models..

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=chains+robc

My mini see's a lot of winter travel on passes and summer travel on dirt logging roads in the summer here in the northwest, it's great fun and has held up so far.

That being said, 15" wheels are ideal in the winter because they can bite down into the snow instead of floating on top and sliding around.

 

Thanks, Robc. Great link. Nice post. Thank you for all the great information. My reason for needing chains is apparently the same as yours. Except US2 over Stevens Pass isn't quite as challenging as the Mt. Baker road.

Has it gotten easier to get the chains mounted with practice? Do you still recommend your Dunlop Winter Sports? (I agree with your use of RF tires in the mountains, by the way. You really don't want to be stuck with a flat tire.)

Do you ever feel any contact between the cables and non-rotating parts of your car, such as at extreme steering angles?

Are 15s narrower than 195? I thought my only issue vis-a-vis 16s vs. 15s was possible damage to the rims if the chains slip (because they wrap over the edge of the rim rather than ending on the sidewall.

Your advice may be wise, ScottinBend. Just not acceptable. Snow tires, yes, absolutely. All season tires just don't cut it. But they don't satisfy chain requirements. If you are thinking actual chains, then I agree completely, but not just for MINI. Cable chains are what you want for any FWD.

The Friday snow was pretty surprising, wasn't it, Greg? I live in south Everett. I got 7" of snow at my house! On April 18! Were the tulips covered in snow? Were they even up?

Thanks again, all.

P.S. Yup. No way am I turning DSC off with chains on! That's a pretty outrageous thing to put in a manual, if it's still there in the '08.

 

You can get 16" tires that will perform just as well as 15's.

I would never put chains on my car and I live in Central Oregon where it is still snowing as of tonight. My snow tires will out perform most others with chains on.

 

Good for you. Don't get caught in Washington when it's posted Chains Required.

 

We have the same req's here and I have never been told I couldn't drive my car with SNOW tires when chains are req'd. The chains req'd restriction is for the larger vehicles and trucks. 4WD trucks with snow tires never have to chain up.

 

OK. I'll tell you. You can't drive your car with snow tires when chains are required. Seriously.

My other vehicle is a 4X4 truck. I have been stopped by the WA state patrol during difficult weather and had to attest that I had chains in the truck. Otherwise, they would have turned me around. (My truck gets 17 mpg and has a ridiculous carbon footprint. Hence, MINI tire chain questions.)

Please don't promulgate an untruth regarding who is affected by chain restrictions. In Washington, all non AWD/non 4X4s are required to use chains when a chain restriction is enforced. Please note the period at the end of the sentence.

Regarding what is doable: Bend is flat. Bend has nice dry snow. Even the road to Mt. Bachelor is virtually flat. It is a piece of cake to drive in the snow where you are. You wouldn't have made it to where robc took his pictures without chains. And by the looks of it, you would have missed some outrageous deep pow.

Could you usually make it up the mountain without chains? Maybe an excellent snow driver could. Unless the state cops are turning offenders around. And unless you get stuck behind some knucklehead who only thought he/she could make it. In which case, you'd be hanging your a$$ out in slipping traffic along with the knucklehead trying to get your chains on. And nobody would know which of you was the knucklehead.

 

Seems you know a lot about not much..........have fun with your chains

 

Well, I think you are both right - sort of!

I live in northern california and I know that chains are often required driving to Tahoe (sierra nevadas, fairly high pass, lots of snow) but I was always told that snow tires were acceptable. Here is the official rule from the CA (ca.gov) web site:

There are three primary categories of chain restrictions, as shown below:
R-1: Chains are required on all vehicles except passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks under 6,000 pounds gross weight and equipped with snow tires on at least two drive wheels. Chains must be carried by vehicles using snow tires. All vehicles towing trailers must have chains on one drive axle. Trailers with brakes must have chains on at least one axle.
R-2: Chains are required on all vehicles except four-wheel-drive vehicles under 6,500 pounds gross weight and equipped with snow tires on all four wheels. Chains for one set of drive wheels must be carried by four wheel-drive vehicles using snow tires.
R-3: Chains are required on all vehicles without exception.
R-1 and R-2 are the most common conditions. A highway will often be closed before an R-3 condition is imposed.

So there is a possibility that R-3 will require chains but it looks like a rare condition; ie, if it's that bad, they may just close the highway.

I also looked at the Washington web site. There are three conditions in washington:

Traction Tires Advised
Traction Tires Required
Tire Chains Required

The last one says:

"Chains required on all vehicles - except four/all wheel drive. In extreme weather conditions, the advisory may indicate chains are required on all wheel drive vehicles."

It could be that this condition doesn't arise much, but apparently there is at least some times when chains actually are required. However I suspect that in a lot of situations (perhaps most) snow tires are sufficient.

How about a little bit of civility please! We are all posting here because we like sharing our knowledge with other mini fanatics and because we like reading what others share.

Tony

 

Going to try to answer a couple questions in one post...

Washington State Patrol started heavily enforcing chains this past year (and some the year before), especially on Snoqualmie Pass. When they throw up chains required they have officers in all three lanes, all cars get to slow down/stop. If you don't have all-wheel drive or chains you get to turn around. Doesn't matter how great your snow tires are. The other level of enforcement in Washington, traction tires required, only requires all-seasons or snow tires (anything with snowflake and mountain symbol).

I have a lot of snow driving experience having grown up in the Boston area, a place that doesn't require (in fact, frequently forbids) chains. I have to say that chains/cables excel at maintaining traction on heavily compacted snow/ice on hairpin curves while climbing a pass (Mt. Baker Highway, Crystal Mountain, US 2). They also make getting going from a stop on solid ice a lot easier.

On the DSC note- full-on chains on 15" wheels might confuse the speed sensors on the wheels and trigger or fail to trigger DSC at inappropriate times. This was never a problem on my 16" wheels with cables. I have had issues with the flat tire light triggering when driving on roads with "washboard" ice on primarily on one side of the car for an extended period of time. Speed sensor just gets confused. I can't remember if the newer mini's have air pressure sensors or still just rely on the antilock sensors to detect differing wheel spin.

With the cable chains i used there was some very minor strut tower rubbing, but it was hard rubber on steel, no damage to the rubber on the cable and only superficial scraping of the strut. No issues with tight turns. But again, i have a different year mini. Just give things a good check before you go 20 miles in them. We did find putting them on got easier after the first try.

 

Thanks all. I really appreciate the detailed information regarding making chains work.

Scott, I didn't mean to offend you. My only concern is to make sure we don't post incorrect information for somebody searching for accurate information. And to you all, I apologize if my earlier posts seemed uncivil.

Here is the information pasted from the location cited by sfomini (I happened to have it in my clipboard when I logged on):

Traction Advisory


The regs are posted elsewhere. You can find the above information by searching "WSDOT Tire Chains." There's also some information on approved traction tires at this location.

Usually the most restrictive of these states is only present when the snow is flying especially hard. But often that is when the snow is deepest and most untracked. I believe I drove in chains required conditions three to five times this winter out of about 25 trips. (My experience may overstate the actual prevalence of chains required because that condition is when I'm most likely to cut out of work to get to the mountain.)

Since WIKIMINI will be my commuter car in non-sunny conditions, I need to be able to drive during chains required if I'm going to go straight up rather than going home first to change vehicles. And that can make the difference between finding untracked snow or not.

If traffic is light and the pass is not patrolled, I may very well chance it, given the great capabilities of good tires and MINI's traction control. But if I lose momentum and get stuck, you will be entirely within your right to glare at me as you pass my A$$ stuck out in traffic while I'm struggling with my chains. Please don't honk. You may give me a heart attack.

Cheers to all.

 

That is different than what the OR req's are. Nice post.

Have you thought about the spider spikes http://www.spikes-spiders.com/

There is a local MINI owner here who swears by them. A bit pricey, but a helluva lot easier to put on.

 

I had seen some discussion of these things. It looks like they don't wrap over the inside of the tire so they should eliminate the minor strut tower rubbing issue that RobC reports (on an earlier year MINI).

I hadn't seen all the different models of spider spikes in your link. Thanks very much for that.

From what I had seen earlier, I was concerned about the spider spikes flying off the tires. I'll go poke around to see what I can learn about these. If anybody has experience, especially with respect to good/bad vs. chains with respect to mounting ease and security of mounting, I'd be thankful for your comments.

Also, I'd like to find out what WA/BC/OR/CA/ID/MT/WY etc. DOTs say about approval as traction devices.

I'll go poke around and see what I can find and then report back.

OK--After a very quick look, I don't think they'll fly off because they have a positive mount to your wheel hub. But you do need to keep a relatively ugly (IMO) hub mounted on your front wheels -- for me that would be all winter. They're very expensive - $400 for the "sport" model that will work on the relatively steep grades I drive, about $350 for the "compact" model that is not recommended for steep grades. It appears to me that the lower price model effectively just mounts temporary studs around your tires, while the higher price model wraps a chain around your tires. They're European. Maybe the folks on MINI2 might have experience with them.