TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

Skip to the middle to get to the things that you don't find everywhere else. Yes, there are a zillion posts about this.  None of them were actually complete, IMHO, so here we go.  For this example I will use: •  Donor:  2011 Ford Flex •  Recepient:  2016-2021 (4th Gen) Lexus RX350 Why?  The used Ford wheels were 1/4 the cost of new Lexus wheels. Bolt pattern :  Should be obvious.  Both cars use 5x114.3.   Bore / centerbore :  Ford is 63.4mm,  Lexus is 60.1mm.  As the Lexus shaft is smaller than the Ford wheel hole size, I need hubcentric rings / centering rings that convert 63.4mm to 60.1mm . Note that these rings are entirely intended to center the wheel during the mounting process, and do not bear any load once the wheels are torqued down.  So they can be plastic or a lightweight metal such as aluminum, no problem. Diameter :  Both cars use 20" wheels.  Important since too-small wheels will not clear the ...

Problem:  As above.  Although the Costco fitment guide states that the Saturn C-Wheels (model CW081495) will fit a 2004-2012 RX330 and related models, they do NOT fit on the rear.  The Costco guide is terrible because it does not list wheel offset nor wheel width, and in this case they do not work.  I realized this going in but somewhat naively figured they knew what they were doing. Width is not much of an issue because most tires will fit a wide range of wheel widths.  For example, the stock 235/55R18s of the RX330 will fit wheels from 6.5" to 8".   As the typical wheel width these days is 7" to 8", with 7.5" being quite popular, this is OK.  (To figure out the range of wheel sizes for your tires, try this handy calculator .) Offset can be a real problem.  Too much offset and the tires will hit stuff on the car.  Still, you do tend to have a fairly wide range to worth with.  So it seemed low risk. Unfortunately, in this case...

So two years ago, my car got stuck in a snowdrift.  In my defense (and that of my car), more than half the city got stuck that day. Ironically, by 1:00 pm it had gotten so warm out that ALL the snow had melted.  If I'd known, I would have walked home and come back 3 hours later to drive the car away. (It also made those people who took a "snow day" and stayed home from work look a bit silly.) My car is equipped with the best snow tires money can buy, and had 100 lbs of sand in the rear, but they were no match for this snow.  It was heavy, wet, and deep.  The RWD just could not do it. Now, I hate being stuck.  Possibly more than some people, it is a recurring nightmare for me.  I used to own an AWD sports sedan that would not get stuck, period.  In bad weather, I could literally wait for a couple of 4x4s to lay ruts in the medians and follow right along.  I loved that about that car, and the RWD of my current vehicle is the only thing I dis...