I have been thinking (that is dangerous, so watch out) about removing my OEM tires from my FEH and putting on a more road friendly tire. Rims and all, just replace and place the originals back on in the winter time to deal with the NJ snow.

It may be too late to do this for this season, but I thought I would start a thread out here to see if anyone has replaced the tires on the FEH yet due to road hazard issues or just personal preference.

Any thoughts?

 

There are a lot of things you should consider about getting third party rims. First, if you change the width of the tire, you are going to increase rolling resistance because the footprint of the tire against the road is much wider than the factory size. I don't think you want to do that. You are pretty much guaranteed an MPG drop that will be very significant.

If this were a Prius I would be mentioning that the wheel that Toyota designed for the Prius is very aerodynamic, especially with the plastic rim cover on. When you start to dink with the wheels on the Prius you usually see a fuel economy drop of pretty significant proportions. The Escape hybrid wheels are pretty much factory stock, so changing the factory wheels for something third party shouldn't be an issue.

I'm kind of conservative, however if I went to summer rubber and wheels, I would use he same size tire, wheel and rim just to keep things consistent.

 

Good thoughts.

I probably would order the rims from Ford, pay the premium, and find the best LRR tires I could find that were closest to the origina tires. The rims don't look like anything too special, so I shouldn't have to pay more than and arm for them.

 

Just be aware that the factory rims are specific to the hybrid. I'm not sure why other than just to be different. That may affect the price on trying to get another set. Also, be careful in assuming the OEM tires are going be good to put back on in the winter. My experience with the Contritrac's has been pretty poor and just last weekend I had all 4 of them spinning on a wet road trying to pull out of a driveway. I plan to put the Yokohama Geolanders on mine which I pulled off my wife's 03 Escape before we traded it in. I'll just have to wait and see how much of a hit to milage that causes.

 

Price quoted for a rim and tire (for a full size spare) was on the order of $450 according to one owner.

 

I purchased my 05 FEH in December of 2004, and we went through a winter season with the OEM tires. This past winter was above average in snow and extreme (low) in temperature (we live in western NJ). The tires (and the vehicle) performed commendably. So I would OK putting them back on. If we were a bit more snowy and we off roaded more (we do need to rescue stuff off of a farm occasionally) I would definitely consider your suggestion of changing the tires. I can see why that is necessary.