X5 winter tire/wheel advice needed

[heidelberg72]

My son is looking for a winter tire and wheel set for his recent move to Tahoe. He's going to do at least one season in the mountains, after that, who knows.
Last year he bought a 2012 X5/E70 Diesel with the 20" wheels, low profile run flat tires. I sometimes see comments about offset, or brake interference, etc, with wheel/tire combinations, and we don't want to make a dumb and expensive mistake when buying used. I'm guessing we are going to buy wheels on ebay, tires and sensors at a shop (we have Wheelworks locally). In that case the potential error would be buying the wrong wheels.

We assumed he would have to go to a smaller wheel, 18" or 19" for winter tires.
Would either of these work? The first link is an 18" factory set, the second link is 19" aftermarket. We've seen a number of these 18" factory wheels on ebay, all priced the same, $495.

Tire recommendations? We're considering Pirelli Scorpion Winter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-X5-OEM-...MAAOSwllRdid9d


https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-BMW-X5-35...s/193196262437

[Qsilver7]

I would do some research for winter tires on a site like www.tirerack.com . They do testing (on their track and local roads around So Bend Indiana) and take feedback from user's, too. You can take the info found on their site and buy local if you wish.

[staianoa]

I have 18" winter wheels on my 2009 BMW X5 4.0i Sport. No issue with brake clearance at all. You should be fine with the stock wheels. I have bridgestone blizzak RFTs on (third row seat so no spare). It's a GREAT combo. I run circles around full sized pick-up trucks in the snow. Rolled out in about 2 feet a couple years ago and didn't even flinch. NOTE WELL: I was caught out on the stock 20" with summer tires early November in a few inches of snow (usually swap at Thanksgiving) and it was HORRIFIC even with X-drive. Good luck!

[waybomb]

Second the vote on blizzaks!