Hello! we know about winter tyres...

A snowHead

advise please!

Volvo XC90 that has done 46k miles and gone through one set of winter and one set of summer tyres.

Currently got the winter tyres on, as the summers were shot last autumn, with about 2mm left on them.

The ones on there at the moment are 235/65R17 (108H) Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme XL

So do I buy winters now and summers in spring, or just run winters 365 days a year?

any current recommendations for a tyre? strangely enough the most snow use they get is driving up places like Yad Moss for a slide, and then we go to Austria in April, but roads are usually clear by then and any falling snow quickly melts or gets ploughed...

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andy, which tyre do you use?

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Conti Winter Contact (iirc). With M+S and mountain+snowflake symbols on them. Bought them to go to the 5th Birthday Bash, and left them on year round. Just passed TüV last month, so within German tread depth limits still (which is deeper than UK limit), and got no advisory on them.

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kitenski,
You could consider a quality 4 season tyre

e.g. the first two in this list
http://www.testberichte.de/a/autoreifen/magazin/auto-bild-39-2013/380902.html

Neither will perform as good as a top quality summer tyre in the dry or a winter tyre on snow / ice but they will perform better than many cheaper summer / winter tyres.

If you were doing a season in the mountains I'd say go winter tyres. If you had a sports car I'd say go for proper summer tyres - but for what you have described "4-season" tyres should do the trick. Saves the hassle of storge, second set of wheels and paying to get them swapped over twice a year.

After all it is free

We have Conti Winter Contact on the Disco - have lasted two years and done approx 20K. Admittedly they fell below the snow tread depth earlier in year, but have been fine for summer use.

Thanks for link DB, will ahve a look at that for replacement, but may just go for same thing as they have performed well

I've just stuck the Hancook 4 season tyres on my Skoda as well so will be interested to see how these perform

cheers DB, getting prices for both those, thinking one tyre all year really is the way forward, less swopping and more space in the garage !!

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kitenski, I think that I'll end up getting 20 - 25k miles out of my all season tyres.

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I've just reserved a set of the Goodyear Vectors that DB linked to.....so if I get 20-25k out of them that will do me fine, no changeover cost and more garage space for the turbo trainer !!

snow reports

so great to see the winter tyres thread back again!! It surely indicates that winter and the snow is on its way!!! The yokohamas I put on their for last season are still going strong with little apparent wear but then again they havent really covered a lot of miles. 11 weeks to go now, not that i'm counting ...

I ran the Hankook Icebears (225 45 17) on Mercedes 200K C Class estate for 2 years without switching winter/summer. Total of 25k on the front, 20k on the back, not an issue with out of season, and wonderful in snow/ice in the Yorkshire Dales.

Will replace all round this winter.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

kitenski, mrs S has been running a set of Vector 4's for 6 months. So far ride 8/10, grip in heavy rain 8/10, grip in hot weather 8/10, grip in frosty roads 9/10, grip on snow ?/?(dunno yet), mpg 9/10, wear 9/10 (so far)

They replaced a set of brill Michelin Alpins which did get a bit sticky in hot weather. Aplins ride 8/10, grip heavy rain 7/10, grip hot weather 6/10 (sticky), grip frosty roads 9/10, grip snow 10/10, mpg 8/10, wear 10/10. (still got them in the garage!)

Also got a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks on my Verso. ride 9/10, grip heavy rain 10/10, grip hot weather 7/10 (but sticky), grip frosty roads 9/10, grip snow 9/10, mpg 7/10, wear 8/10

My experience is that a lot of high speed motorway stuff in very warm/hot weather on the pure cold weather tyres is not too clever. So far the 4 seasons are looking like a very good compromise for UK

Thats my Saturday morning anorak moment over
Embarassed

A snowHead

mooney058, brand new 5 years ago, although i guess they could have sat on the shelf a while. will change them this year probably.

most thing that people refer to as "winter" tyres are "all season M+S", and are perfectly fine all year, and for long distance autobahn cruising.

I've got at least 50,000km from those, but the pirelli p6000's before had to be changed twice at 22000km to pass TüV, and the speed and load rating identical to the "summer" tyres and exactly in line with what's written on the vehicle reg. document.

A snowHead

Autobahn driving is different from driving on the Alpine roads, espesialy in snow storm conditions. M+S are ok for high milage, roads covered in snow/ice/black ice require proper winter tyres. It happened several times on Alpine roads to me to get stuck behind cars without properly equiped cars .... Its beyond me why people risk their own lifes and put others at risk trying to save few hundreds. If it is that bad, dont drive to the Alps Evil or Very Mad

stay safe and warm at home Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

mooney058, well the answer to your question, is that if you live in southern half uk, holland etc, the. M&s tyres are not worth the money for most people.

I drove to alps for 10 years before I even knew winter tyres existed as they were unheard of in uk

Don't get me wrong, I'm a convert, but most people can't see the point, they're not a legal requirement in France and majority of people get. Up the mountains

I'm also intrigued as to what you classify a winter tyre?

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mooney058, as I said, I'm a convert, have them on both cars, but I can understand why people don't. Not worth it for one trip a year in many peoples view

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mooney058, driving to the Alps over Easter for the past 4 years, never seen snow on the road, anything overnight is cleared and/or melts as the tarmac is a lot warmer by that time of the year.

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And yes I know they're better less than 7c etc but in the uk at least most people hadn't heard of them, was only after poor winter 2 years ago people started stocking them. Then of course last winter was stupidly mild

Three years ago an enquiry at a big tyre place was met with blank stares

After all it is free

I've got M & S tyres on my L200, last time it snowed, I got past several stranded vehicles on a hill, however, on the way down it was another story, pretty much as slippery as summer tyres, leading me to believe it was only the 4WD that helped uphill, and that M & S tyres aren't really a whole lot better than summer tyres in snowy conditions!

Just been idly pricing up a new set of tyres for Disco

F*ck me they're expensive Shocked

- would sum it up

Certainly seem to have gone up a good £50-£100 per tyre

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Boris, what size tyres does the Disco take?? I've been pricing up 235/65R17 for the XC90, coming in at £150 upwards....although I think a mate in the cycling club can beat those prices!

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If you know what tyres (exact size, correct load and speed indexes) I would then check prices on here - http://www.mytyres.co.uk/ I used this websites Belgian version (it is German based as I understand it), their prices were very good so far and everytime I purchased tyres I confirmed that I get new tyres, not older than 12 months from their production date - it was the case for all the tyres I ordered so far in the last 5 years for both of my cars (and one of my brother).

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kitenski, 255/55 R19

mooney058, They're around £190 on there - I am sure that they were £110 last time - I may of course be wrong Laughing

Boris,
Boris, I hear you, mine are 245/50/19 front and 275/45/19 rear (summer set-up). It is also for this reason I went for a separate wheel/tyre set for winter and I went for 245/50/18 - cheaper than 19 inch summer set-up and both my winter and summer set-ups will last longer - so while an 'investment' at the begining, in the medium term it will cost+/- the same (except the second set of wheels only). On the plus side, I store my winter tyres at my place and I can change them whenever I like - no need to book time with the garage and pay money for this service (and yes, my wheels are balanced, if I feel something is out of ordinary, I take it to the tyre shop to check, but if the wheels were in balance before I took them off, nothing happened in between when they were stored).

I wonder why people ask about winter tyres - I assume it is logical to wear winter shoes in winter and not sandals or sneakers - although it always amazed me of how many inapropriatly dressed youngster were on London streets during Xmas shoping weeks when I was visiting (most of the time style over 'substance' -- but hey, I am old and grumpy 'old-typish' person) ... the car weights roughly 1500 kg, traveling even at 50-60 km/h there is a lot of energy u need to control, you need your tyres to be able to perform when you push on the breakes. Some 15 years ago (while living at that time more to the North and East) my amateur auto sport club weekends involved lots of controled skiding practicing either on frozen lakes or big empty parking lots - not all winter tyres are equal, if I paraphrase Orwel - some are more 'winters' than others. snowHead

You know it makes sense.

Borris,
I think i've got the same vehicle as you a D4 LR? I run vredestein wintrac 4 xtreme's all year round, I have used them in some quite nasty conditions and never had any problems. my experience of them is they wear really well, dry handling very good, wet weather excellent, snow ice etc as good as it gets and they are very quiet in normal driving conditions. Fuel consumption the same as before.(click on tyres have these @ 165 at the moment I think).

As far as using winter tyres, its a personal choice I suppose. But from my own experience driving from the Hook to Munich on our first family diy ski trip; It was cold and sunny to Munich, got up the next morning bloody blizzard all the way to resort (Rauris if you're interested!) me i'm never driving in those conditions again without the proper tyres! fast foward a few years, we went just before Christmas on a last minute one (val cenis) absolutly dumped down didn't even give it a second thought driving around. I do have chains as well but they're still unused at the moment! Oh well, thats my first post done at last. Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Just to let you all know that I found out today that Phill from The Tyremen of Hull who posted as Tyremen and started this thread has sadly passed away this year.

I don't know what happened but dealt with him last autumn and he was a pleasure to deal with. I emailed him in late June this year to check about winter tyre availability before I decided on my new car and then again three weeks ago to order for the new car. When, rather strangely - given how prompt he had been before, I didn't hear back, I followed up and someone else from the company replied with the sad news.

The business is obviously still going and I heard from Chris if anyone wants to contact them directly.

A snowHead

robboj,
Thanks for letting us know. Real shame, from his posts he came over as really nice and helpful. Sad

A snowHead

+1

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

How sad

Rest In Peace.

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Crikey - Rest in Peace.

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For anyone thinking/talking about running winter tyres all year, I've done some experiments. Comparing Michelin summer/winter tyres and Avon summer/winter tyres over four years with roughly 30k miles per year - with those miles doing the same journeys. We've had some bad winters and hot summers over the time.

All the chat about increased wear and whatnot is urban myth. Braking/handling/etc are all the same; and given our climate, on wet summer days the winter tyres do have their uses.

The only noticeable difference is a marked drop in fuel economy (about 0.5l/100km). The more aggressive tread pattern translates into an increased rolling resistance.

So... if you're a low mileage driver, say 10-15k/year then the increased cost of two sets of tyres/changing them/whatever will make it cheaper just to run with winter tyres.

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pam w, I am fairly sure he was in his thirties Sad

but I never actually met him.

After all it is free

Just carried out a quick search. Looks like he did a lot of charity work and wasn't that old.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Businesses-urged-join-karting-race-day-children-s/story-18595838-detail/story.html

I met him and I would say he was in his thirties.

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very helpful and nice guy. RIP.

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Hello! we know about winter tyres...

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