winter tyres advice required

A snowHead

achilles, As the boss Spyderman says, best have 2 sets but most don't and if you don't Winter tyres are better than Summer tyres.. Cool

. I can get Winters for mine cheaper than Summer tyres. I think people just think Winters are more expensive and only look to buy them when it gets cold. I knew I would need to change mine over in August but bought them in April when they were £50 per tyre cheaper than they are now.

A snowHead

thefatcontroller,

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

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Bear in mind the drop off in performance for a winter tyre though reduced tread depth is substantially higher than for a summer tyre, so basically you shouldn't wear a winter tyre down as low as a summer one.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Spyderman, Above 5mm is supposed to be the limit for effectiveness in snow?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Bode Swiller, Tyres have a 6 year best before life and a 2 year shelf life if stored correctly. The date stamp is on the sidewall, don't buy an old tyre to start with if your annual mileage is low.

After all it is free

Freebee time Very Happy

??

If anyone wants and can pick up in about 10 days time a set of 2 x vredestien icetrac and 2 x sommer winter studded tyres (the tiny studs) to fit a mazda 626 (cant remember the sizes as im not at home at the moment). We used to run on these 3 months a year through the winter on the 2WD estate never had any problems at all even on compacted ice.

the vredestien have done one winter and the Sommers have done 2, they are almost fill depth tread and are on rims, but the rims are badly rusted as they have been stored outside (car change) so I would not reccomend using the rims.

I will happily send some piccies is anyone is interested but it would be a shame to take these to the skip if they are of any use to anyone.

Like i said it would have to be pick up only but free to a good, loving, caring home (for google maps its NE48 1AQ)

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I've currently got winter tyres on the front, summer on the rear of my car. It doesn't get used very much (we have another vehicle) and once the rear tyres need replacing I'll just put winter tyres on and run them year-round.

FWIW, the car feels "odd" in this configuration. Even on dry roads in summer conditions, there is a twitchy feel from the back end. Basically, as mentioned above, the extra grip on the front is leading to over-steer. Even when trying (in a safe location!) I haven't managed to get the back end to actually slide at all, but it would do it at the drop of a hat in winter.

That said, this is exactly the same situation as all those people using chains find themselves in once they put them on - loads of grip on the front, feck-all on the rear.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

thefatcontroller, understood - thanks.

snow reports

With all this excitement, Ive just gone and bought a set of 4 Vredestein SNOWTRAC 3 on steel rims for £400 from mytyres

As stevomcd says with winter tyres on the front and standard summer tyres on the rear the back end could be all over the place - esp. when descending a steep road during wintery conditions (a bit like riding a shopping trolley with brakes only on the front). You may not feel this in the UK as winter temps don't compare to the alps where roads are often frozen for months as the temperature of the tyre and road greatly affects traction.

My understanding of the current law relating to winter tyres here in Austria is ......
To be deemed suitable for driving in winter conditions the car needs to have 4 good winter tyres, tyres should be the same make and model on each axle. (e.g. Vredesteins on the front Goodyears on the rear.) If your car doesn't meet these requirements you could be fined and / or legally stopped from continuing your journey during winter conditions. There could also be implications regarding insurance i.e. you may automaticaly be liable for a crash you didn't cause or your insurance may not pay out the full amount.

You know it makes sense.

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

pam w, www.mytyres.co.uk pretty much have all types available all year, very handy if you get a puncture.

A snowHead

Dont forget in country's where winter tyres are compulsory (Germany this winter) . You will need 5 tyres , 4 plus 1 spare !!

A snowHead

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

Put a snowchain on it...

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Another vote for mytyres, prices seem competitive, plus they deliver quickly, and you can talk to someone if you need to.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Spyderman, I've got to be a bit of an anorak "

You'll need to Register first of course.

Dypcdiver, you'll make him feel a bit of a t1t

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Crikey that profanity filter is a bit puritanical... typed in t i t and it gave me booby. Can we have t i t reinstated as an everyday word please, not exactly going to make the vicar's wife faint now is it?

After all it is free

Hmm, I suspect what he meant was a silicone rubber compound - not a slippery polish or bits of sand Toofy Grin

Bode Swiller, would you consider Blue or Bearded?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

or even Yellow, Great or Coal.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

A good friend of mine who is a retired headmaster in Belfast was showing his grand daughter how to use a computer when he spotted a little bird in the garden and said that Google could help identify it. So he typed in "great t1ts" and was treated to 70 plus pages of porn in Shocked

front of his 9 year old grand daughter. Laughing

snow reports

Yoda, It is Silica, but I suspect it is a bit more technical than just lobbing a hand full of sand in the rubber compound tub. Little Angel

You know it makes sense.

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

Dypcdiver, well I defer of course to your knowledge if it is superior, but I was under the impression that it was the retention of flexibility at low temperatures conferred by the presence of silicone rubber in the matrix that was the key here, plus of course the sipe pattern in the tread.

However, these people http://www.greendiamondtire.com/concept.html claim to use "silicium carbide" (which I think is a mineral comprised of silicon carbide and silica) but they're not your average winter tyre manufacturers.

A snowHead

BergenBergen, don't want to start another debate but tell your insurance company

A snowHead

Boris, Yes I probably will closer to the date , but I have followed advice from the manufacturers handbook with respect to fitting snow tyres and snow chains vs rim sizes so in my mind its the car manufacturers recommendation . debate !!!!

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

Boris, are you saying that because he's changed rims, or is it because of the tyres as well?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

The problem is that the insurer can claim that it deviates from the standard (as purchased) spec. That's how they get out of paying up if someone has upgraded from say, steel to alloy wheels even if the alloys are OEM units.

In this case, the justification is that the car is more attractive to thieves or "twocers" but I know someone who had their insurance cover withdrawn on the grounds of non-disclosure when their car was a write-off, even though the upgraded alloys had played no contributory part in the accident.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

jtr, first time Ive heard of 'twocers' had to look it up on interweb. The fitment of snowtyres must apply to a very small proportion of UK cars so probably hasnt come up on the radar of most insurance companies and their call centre operatives. With more winters like last, that i can now buy tyres and rims from mytyres and I have a mail from BMW offering the same, leads me to suspect that as it becomes more prevalent then insuarnce companies will acknowledge it. But as you say and I quite agree the thieving gits will do anything to aviod paying a claim

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks for all this advice folks, I THINK the consensus is that my idea is ill advised and I must therefore either wedge up for 4 new winter tyres and use them all year or get 2 standard tyres and use my chains as and when necessary in resort. As almost all my driving is on tarmac at home I will probably do the latter

After all it is free

loatie, But...

You may have to put them on/take them off several times over what might be a few km due to changing road conditions. You'll have to drive slower with them anyway, with an impatient line of winter tyre equipped motorists behind you even on snow (so what? you say), and it would be worse with you driving on tarmac at 30kph. Yes they are great on snow but their qualities change when driving on tarmac, plus I think it may be illegal to drive with snow chains on tarmac in some places. Cheap ones can be easily damaged and it is not nice having loose lengths of snow chain flailing around inside your wheel arch. They never provide enough spare links and once one has broken the next weakest one is waiting to snap, and so on. They are not really a general driving tool, more when conditions prevail. But hey-ho!, you pays your money.

Just one thing though, if you go that way, practice fitting them in the dark, when it's snowing, hands are freezing at the side of a busy road. Make sure you have a shovel, torch and something to kneel on (use a car mat), mechanics gloves are useful too or you will trash your nice new ski gloves. Carry spare links (buy more, yes lots) and a waterproof coat. Make sure the chains will fit inside your wheel arches too so they do not interfere with suspension, brakes and bodywork (check by turning steering wheel lock-lock). If you are rear wheel drive make sure you can get your hands around the rear wheel arches especially when the car is loaded with kit and passenger (dark, cold, snowing) as rear wheel arches are cut lower as the wheel does not need to turn inside it.

Yes, all learnt through experience, hope it helps.

Quality and use of snow chains is probably as debateable as the use of winter tyres.

Basil, I think loatie's done it before... wink

If you have decent chains, and know how to put them on (and off, which is often worse) they're not too bad. And you can drive on them on a dry road for a while, up to about 30 mph though it doesn't do either the tyres or the chains much good. Just looking around, I suspect that the majority of French visitors in our resort don't have winter tyres - they chain up swiftly when necessary; it's quite common to see the majority of the vehicles on the road in chains. The cheap and nasty ones are nasty though.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

winter tyres advice required

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste