Winter Tyres - Opinions from folk who have used them...

seriousrikk

seriousrikk

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OK, so it's time to replace the rather poor tyres the dealer put on my car when I bought a year ago it with something I trust more.

Now with the winter approaching I keep casting glances at the winter tyre options - but I genuinely can't decide right now if they are worth it.

I drive a moderatly powerful rear wheel drive vehicle - In last years snow while driving was more difficult I never actually had any real issues and only had one worrying slidey moment.

So does anyone use them? If so how much benefit have you seen over all weather tyres?
 
I've driven over 3/4 of a million miles in the last 16 years and never had winter tyres.

Just take more time, leave a better gap and remember 1st gear isn't always the best in snow and ice.

Just get some good Dunlop, Pirrelli's or Firestones. :D
 
i've spent a few winter days in latvia in proper snow, and you can drive winter tyres in the snow at almost the same speed as normal tyres in the summer! but you do lose a lot of grip in the dry.
 
For few weeks worth of snow we get winter tyres are not worth the money (in rubber or fuel), just make sure your standard tyres are good quality with good treads and drive to the road conditions.
 
Buy a set of snow chains from Halfords ......... keep 'em in the boot. It's law in Alpine countries even if you have 4wd
 
couple of bags of sand in the boot is a good idea , plus lowering the tyre pressures a bit will help , just have a portable compressor to pump them up when you need to , starting off in second rather than first helps as well :thumbs:
 
We have a large number of customers who have used snow tyres and swear by them. Although I haven't heard a bad thing about them everyone I have spoken to and every review I have read has shown good they really are in cold conditions.

Yes it's extra money for a couple of potential weeks a year but if you can do it, you'ld be surprised how many 4x4's we sell from people concerned about the snow, surely it's cheaper to buy the right sized car and buy a set of old alloys with some snow tyres on lol.
 
david1701 said:
we dont have a winter :p
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wimps.......:lol:
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I use Grabber At2 50/50 tyres all year round, never been stuck even through last winters snow. OK on the road as well, though I do drive a cumbersome slow 4x4.
 
Here's a few links with information:

- Winter tyre buying guide
- Reasons to consider winter tyres

To summarise, if you do a lot of miles in freezing conditions, or will have to use your car in the snow then a winter tyre is a good idea. If you can work from home in the snow a winter tyre is less advantageous, but it still has improved grip in freezing condition.

Modern winter tyres offer extremely close levels of grip to summer tyres in dry conditions these days.
 
I'm in the Highlands and used to have winter tyres when I had a Merc and they certainly helped in poor conditions. Didn't bother when I went back to front wheel drive, but this past winter I was able to keep going with my skinny base-model tyres when all around with wide low profile tyres were spinning helplessly.
 
Peter B said:
I'm in the Highlands and used to have winter tyres when I had a Merc and they certainly helped in poor conditions. Didn't bother when I went back to front wheel drive, but this past winter I was able to keep going with my skinny base-model tyres when all around with wide low profile tyres were spinning helplessly.
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and that's why the original Land Rovers had thin tyres - to cut down through the mud

as i drive around and see all the stupid Audi/Freelanders/et al on their fat tyre/wide mags ...where will they be at the first snow-fall ..? in the garage..!!!
 
I have BMW530d auto and its completly useless in the snow, with big old sports tyres it normally moves about a foot from the garage in the snow then gets left till it thaws, this is mostly because I have a discovery as a works vehicle and she abuses a mitsi shogun (thanks to the horse).
Some guys on the bimmer forum swear by a set of winter tyres, also saves the alloys from all that salt, i think basically just a narrow more normal pattern tyre is just fine, I think vredestein make some good cross over tyres.
 
Thanks for your comments everyone.

FITP - that link makes for very interesting reading indeed!

It's on my mind a bit more at the moment because I am in need of new tyres now - but I will be putting a new set of wheels on in the spring (which will need new tyres again). Hence why I'm considering the winter tyre option... I know we don't get much snow but reading up on it winter tyres are reported to be more use even when the temperature drops below ~7 degrees - which is generally a few months.

Hmm decisions. If anyone can recommend some standard tyres that are particularly good in the cold/wet I would be interested too.
 
Winter tyres are brilliant. I too have a "moderately" powerful rear wheel drive car and I fitted winter tyres last year. Amazing! I was able top get about easily and safely when 4x4s with summer tyres were struggling....until you have tried them you don't know what you are missing.

Try Vredestein Quatracs or Nokian WR2....both supposed to be all-season tyres.

Chains are a pain in the neck, snow socks will get you home and thats about it....lowering tyre pressure will have little effect with summer tyres.

Camskill (www.camskill.co.uk) or mytyres good place to look for all-season or full winter tyres. I have Quatracs on once car and Nokain on other...very similar performance in snow and good in summer as well.
 
We have a few vehicles, one of which is a Road Rally car. In last winters snow the best drive was the Nissan Micra with it's skinny but quality tyres.

In this country we don't have winter, or at least not that requires winter tyres. remember they use more fuel and need changing for spring onwards.

As others say above it is the condition of your tyres and the width that matters in snow; ice is another condition and we are really talking about driving skills, not the tools.
 
Do it: it makes sense - those who say it's unneccessary are deluding themselves because they've been lucky so far (and that's probably why most people never bother - it's an English thing).
I admit that I never bothered til I got to Germany because all-season tyres are usually OK unless it snows in the UK. But Summer or all-season tyres will get you killed in the Winter eventually...at some point you will be on an off-camber bend in the wet and hit the wrong kind of leaves or ice and wonder why you're suddenly upside down and going backwards into a ditch...(saw lots of upside-down cars on a road to work near Ascot one winter morning a few years back when there was a hard night-frost after a day of rain).

Tough titty if you've got the kids in the back seat...

Over here it's the Law - you have to have them on by the end of October.
Last winter I couldn't drive as I still had my all-season tyres on when the first snowfall arrived: couldn't even get the car out of the drive the traction was so appalling.

£300...is your life worth £300... are the lives of your kids?
 
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TinaC said:
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ice is another condition and we are really talking about driving skills, not the tools.
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As you say, no tyre, winter or summer, is going to be of assistance on ice.....

Last winter, where I live (10 miles outside of M25), the council did not clear or grit the local roads...lots of people got stuck and were unable to get home as a result...I, however, was able to keep going in my rear wheel drive fitted with winter tyres and got home safely and withoug problems, apart from others sliding around on summer tyres! (winter tyres on my car are 225/17/45 so it goes to show that, providing you have the right type of tyre, you don't necessarily need skinny wheels)

Fit winter tyres for safety, if nothing else.

Well said Arkady....agree with all you say...
 
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driving with winter tyres on a day when its not freezing or snowing is going to give you much less grip than normal tyres. You'll have a harder less sticky tyre and not as much contact with the tarmac. So you wont have as much grip and youre braking distances will be longer 99% of the year when its not snowing.

apart from last year we dont get a proper winter, so keep your normal tyres and dont go out in the snow on the few days it snows.
 
I'm hunting down a set of cheap steel wheels at the moment to be shod with some winter boots! Yes we don't get 'proper' winters here, but we do get a bit of snow and a decent period of cold weather. I'm a firm believer in having summer tyres and winter tyres something suited to the conditions. These are may fair weather footware:

R888%20fun.jpg


and I tried them in the snow last year, not fun at all!
 
Fortunately I don't have a back seat, so no danger of kids being there when I end up in a ditch.

My solution to the winter tyres question is not to use my car when it snows. I use my £1000, 23 year old van instead. It has van tyres on it. 185R14, full height, not even 70 profile, and plenty of weight (almost 2t unladen) so the sidewalls can flex if I need to let them down for traction. Not that I ever have done.

It will pull away from a standstill on a steep snow covered hill (that the police were in the process of closing as "impassable" at the time) without spinning the wheels, indeed I've never even needed to use the diff locks. The policewoman that told me I'd not get to the top was gobsmacked, I could see her face in my rear view mirror :naughty:

Good luck on getting four tyres for my car for £300. 225/40ZR18 front and 265/35ZR18 rear. Never mind a set of wheels at £500/corner, according to the main dealer when I asked.
 
You could always invest in a pair of snow socks for your car.
http://www.activeoutdoors.info/activeoutdoors/Article91.html
Years ago when I played outdoor 5-a-side football on a wet slippery ball court, we always wore a pair of football socks over our trainers and grip was brilliant. So in a similar vein using something similar on your tyres should work. There are some on ebay made by Goodyear, around £48.00.
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_...nkw=tyre+snow+socks&_sacat=See-All-Categories
I tried to get some last year but due to the snow fall we'd had they were in scarce supply and I couldn't get any in my tyre size.
 
Gary said:
so, basically you need to buy winter tyres or you will die. There's your answer.
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If you drive in 'winter conditions' then yes...eventually you will die with the wrong tyres...or kill someone else when they try to avoid you when you go out of control.

Obviously if it's +10C in mid-December then no...
 
I agree with Rob. Last year was awful on normal tyres and I saw and narrowly avoided serious accidents several times. This year we have a little boy and I ask myself if I want to take that risk.
 
Puggie, I disagree. I ran R888s on an Elise last winter and thought they were great fun. But like a rally car on gravel... :help:
 
I've gone the whole hog and bought steel rims and new tyres this Winter. They'll go on at the end of this month and come off in April. Garages here will store and check your Winter tyres for a small fee, so they're ready to go come October.
It's already snowing here on and off above 800-1000m and the town I live in is at 500m.

While they're on, the alloys will be refurbed, as ten consecutive Winters have reduced them to scabby horridness.
 
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I got a set of winter tyres last year and they are quite simply fantastic. My rwd auto barge was hopeless in snow and figured it was only a matter of time before we slid off the road/got properly stuck/hit something so I bit the bullet.

Would I recommend them? Wholeheartedly yes.

The grip they find on snow and ice is quite staggering; I could actually stop, steer and start when I wanted to!

Those that say "oh but I've been driving for 30 years without them, pah, real men can drive in snow on any tyres", would do well to remember that 'back in the day' tread patterns were different and these days few normal tyres have the sipes in the tread blocks that make the difference.

And for those that say "Slow down, leave more time, be careful" that's a load of bobbins too. I've driven fwd, rwd (with and without lsd) and 4wd in the snow and there are occasions where any car on summer tyres simply can't reach its destination however it's being driven, or whoever is driving it.

Watch this video of a tyre test. Now this is done on an actual ice rink, which may seem daft, but we hard compacted snow which turned to solid ice on the roads round here for weeks - the difference is staggering.

ETA: another misconception with winter tyres is that they are snow tyres. They're not. They are good in snow, but they provide more grip than normal tyres on any surface when the temp is below 7 degrees as the compound stays soft unlike summer tyres which go very hard. Here endeth the lesson :)
 
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onomatopoeia said:
Fortunately I don't have a back seat, so no danger of kids being there when I end up in a ditch.

My solution to the winter tyres question is not to use my car when it snows. I use my £1000, 23 year old van instead. It has van tyres on it. 185R14, full height, not even 70 profile, and plenty of weight (almost 2t unladen) so the sidewalls can flex if I need to let them down for traction. Not that I ever have done.

It will pull away from a standstill on a steep snow covered hill (that the police were in the process of closing as "impassable" at the time) without spinning the wheels, indeed I've never even needed to use the diff locks. The policewoman that told me I'd not get to the top was gobsmacked, I could see her face in my rear view mirror :naughty:

Good luck on getting four tyres for my car for £300. 225/40ZR18 front and 265/35ZR18 rear. Never mind a set of wheels at £500/corner, according to the main dealer when I asked.
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www.camskill.co.uk have Vredestein winter tyres in those sizes for approx £135 each + fitting (approx £15 per tyre) or for similar price from mytyres.

I know because we have those size tyres on my wife's car and ran winter tyres last year and will do so again this year.

If you are well off enough to be able to afford a car with those size tyres, then you should not baulk at spending a little extra for fitting winter tyres as it makes driving so much safer in cold weather, especially when snow & slush around.

PS...like the bit about the van...good alternative!
 
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