John Comiez

Windguy, good suggestions. One thing I didn't check is what wheels are offered for the Gen 1 TC. tirerack.com does offer a very wide selection of wheels for the Gen1 TC. It lists the size as 16" x 6.5" with a 5-108 stud spacing. The wheels that it offers have offsets ranging from 40 mm to 50 mm. So the Gen1 wheel looks identical in size to the Gen2 wheel. The question is whether they are rated to the same weight capacity so I checked the GVWR specs off of the ford website and it says the Gen1 GVWR is 5005 lbs and the Gen2 GVWR is 5280 lbs. So, the GEN2 is a heavier vehicle but only by 280 lbs. 280 lbs pounds doesn't seem like that big of a difference especially since it is split over 4 tires. I plan to call tirerack on Monday and see if I can get an answer why they offer wheels for a Gen1 but not Gen2 since the wheels appear to be identical in size and the vehicles are rated to **almost** the same weight. Right now I'm leaning towards buying a nice aftermarket alloy set off of tirerack and then having a local shop put on gen2 compatible TPMS and winter tires. The second option is to buy a set of used wheels. I found OEM gen2 16" alloy wheels at originalwheels.com for about $225 a tire including shipping. This would guarantee a compatible tire albeit at twice the price per wheel versus aftermarket.

Hi all, Sorry if this is against the rules but I just posted a wheel question in the wheel/tire forum but thought it would also be good to posted it in the 2014 Transit Connect forum as well as it is specific to the 2014. Here was the post: Picked up my 2014 Transit Connect Wagon a couple of weeks ago and now I'm looking to get a winter wheel/tire package for the long Michigan winters. Surprisingly I'm having trouble finding a place that will sell me wheels. I tried both tirerack.com and belle tire which is a local store I have used successfully in the past. Both places said that they don't have any wheels that will fit the 2014 Transit Connect. I've done some research and I think the 2014 Transit Connect and the 2014 Focus use the same size wheels: 16" x 6.5" 50 mm offset/5.75" Backspacing 5 x 108" stud pattern same center bore (wrote down the number but can't find the sheet). So in terms of packaging and clearance I think I could buy any 16" wheel that fits on a 2014 Focus. So I'm confused as to why both tirerack and belle tire say they don't have a wheel that fits my car. The TC is in their system since it will bring up tires that are compatible, just not any wheels. Has anyone bought any aftermarket wheels for their 2014 Transit Connect? Right now the only place that will confirm a compatible wheel/tire/TPMS is the dealership which will sell me a set of crappy and heavy OEM steel wheels + Michelin Ice-Xi3 + the Ford TPMS system for $1800. If I pick a nice set of what I think are compatible alloy wheels on tirerack.com along with the Michelins and a TPMS system it comes out to $1150. I'm having trouble spending $650 more to get a pair of steel wheels instead of a nice pair of much ligher alloy wheels. I'm hesitant to buy a focus set on the chance that somehow my info on the wheel size is wrong. Another consideration is that the Transit Connect is a much heavier vehicle compared to the Focus (at least 1000 lbs heavier). Wheels must have a weight rating so maybe its possible that none of these two stores actually have an alloy wheel that can handle the much heavier vehicle. Anyone have any history or info in on any of this? Thanks. John Quote MultiQuote Edit

Picked up my 2014 Transit Connect Wagon a couple of weeks ago and now I'm looking to get a winter wheel/tire package for the long Michigan winters. Surprisingly I'm having trouble finding a place that will sell me wheels. I tried both tirerack.com and belle tire which is a local store I have used successfully in the past. Both places said that they don't have any wheels that will fit the 2014 Transit Connect. I've done some research and I think the 2014 Transit Connect and the 2014 Focus use the same size wheels: 16" x 6.5" 50 mm offset/5.75" Backspacing 5 x 108" stud pattern same center bore (wrote down the number but can't find the sheet). So in terms of packaging and clearance I think I could buy any 16" wheel that fits on a 2014 Focus. So I'm confused as to why both tirerack and belle tire say they don't have a wheel that fits my car. The TC is in their system since it will bring up tires that are compatible, just not any wheels. Has anyone bought any aftermarket wheels for their 2014 Transit Connect? Right now the only place that will confirm a compatible wheel/tire/TPMS is the dealership which will sell me a set of crappy and heavy OEM steel wheels + Michelin Ice-Xi3 + the Ford TPMS system for $1800. If I pick a nice set of what I think are compatible alloy wheels on tirerack.com along with the Michelins and a TPMS system it comes out to $1150. I'm having trouble spending $650 more to get a pair of steel wheels instead of a nice pair of much ligher alloy wheels. I'm hesitant to buy a focus set on the chance that somehow my info on the wheel size is wrong. Another consideration is that the Transit Connect is a much heavier vehicle compared to the Focus (at least 1000 lbs heavier). Wheels must have a weight rating so maybe its possible that none of these two stores actually have an alloy wheel that can handle the much heavier vehicle. Anyone have any history or info in on any of this? Thanks. John