 Poster: A snowHead
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Well, big day today in the Flatlands. Son helping me take the Nokians off the Octavia, since at Easter we are flying, unusually, to make the best of the time which we have available. May do it by train next year to reduce carbon hoof print. So this year the tyres are coming off now, rather than mid-April. They were used 'in anger' once this season, on the autoroute from Calais, then from St Quentin the following morning, when there was slush and ice on the road. So a few less days of real use than last year. Not too much corrosion occurring on the steel rims - they are VAG standard rims, with the thin matt black finish, but when we bought them new they had three coats of thick black enamel brushed on. Unlike the standard finish, the enamel has lasted well, and was worth the Saturday morning spent putting it on. Wear this year has been minimal - all tyres measure between 6.5 and 7.0mm, which is about 0,5 mm less than when they went on, at the start of December, and they've done two full trips to the Alps this year, and mileage in between in the UK. Procedure is remove; wash thoroughly (rims and tyres); then dry in the boiler room; wipe rims with oily rag to leave a bit on the surface; then covers on and onto tyre tree in the corner of the workshop. Sad to do it, signals another season drawing to a close; but hey, a few more days in yet.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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valais2, are you talking to yourself again? 
But good to see another Skoda fan. Octavia: great car.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I leave my nokians on all year now can't be bothered swapping them.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Jonpim, of course I am ... someone has to keep me on the rails.
But seriously I had some queries elsewhere about where I kept my winters, since they felt that they did not have room to store 4 wheels. The tree means that they can be kept in quite a small cupboard if need be. For a while I had them in the corner of the study when I lived in an apartment for a bit.
And for years we have had VW - starting with Beetles in the 70's and the weird but potent 411LE Variant - then Diesel Golfs - then Touran with Jetta alongside - and then over to Skoda, where I think the build quality is better than many VWs. Mind you, the Touran is about to have driven the same distance as a one-way trip to the Moon.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Tis a saying about not casting clouts till May is out...
We've had a lot of sleety slush stuff up here in the Midlands hilly lands of late, wouldn't take my winters off (albeit that I run all years anyway) for the UK, certainly.
And, yes, another Skoda (Fabia) 
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@francium., that's one reason why I mentioned the extent of tyre wear, Nokian recommend removing them when the temp gets above 10 deg c since the performance drops off and wear increases. I left Pirelli Snow Controls on until June one year and the wear rate was terrible in the warm months. How many miles do yours last when you leave them on all year?
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@valais2, I agree with @Grizzler, - it was 2.5 deg when I left home this morning, so I'll leave mine on for at least another month. Last year, the cold temperatures lasted so long into the summer that I decided there was little point removing them when I would be putting them back on in early October anyway. They've been on the car continually since Autumn 2015, and for one winter prior to that. There's still a fair amount of tread on them. I don't know the exact mileage., but probably in the region of 25K.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I run them year round and get about 48 months out of the fronts and little wear on the rears.
I do drive very carefully when it's hot though!
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@Chamcham, here in East Anglia the temps are creeping up - enough for me to think, it's warm enough to spend a couple of hours in a tee shirt removing the winters and putting on the summers.
That's impressive mileage - like Drammeister I tiptoe round motorway corners when I have the winters on and the temps are going up - not driving slowly, but being as easy on the tyres as I can, such as not engaging heavy braking on long sweeping turns. Drams' 48 months is also impressive.
and on temps ... I guess another thing was that it was 14 deg c in the Valais at 800m over half term - bonkers.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Still only early March here  Snow on the way into work today. Far too early to take the winter tyres off.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Remember that winter tyres are also generally more resistant to aquaplaning as well, especially of you'd gone to a narrower tyre than your summers. Since March-April is usually pretty wet in the UK, it may be worth keeping them on until both dryer and warmer weather arrives. I used to swap as soon as it was consistently above, say 10°C but I now leave it longer. If you have a performance car, then you may well see a big advantage to running your winters through the very wet weather and often standing water that arrives over the next couple of months. On our little Peugeot 206 we now leave the Vredestein winters on all year, and see very little additional wear in the summer, but this is only a local run-around, so the tyres never get really hot or stressed.
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@valais2 I kept them on last summer and they wore 2mm in 13000 miles so I can live with that, the majority is motorway miles though.
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You know it makes sense.
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@LaForet, ...yes, extremely important point which I emphasise to friends who say 'winter tyres in Cambridgeshire???' - up to 30 pc better stopping distance in wet and cold conditions over Summers, reducing distance by around 5 metres when stopping from 60 mph in cold and wet. Note this is at 5 deg c, which indeed can persist in upland and Northern areas in the UK for some time yet.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Forgive me for mentioning it, but that 'tyre tree' looks like a solution in search of a problem. The manufacturers all seem to say that tyres can happliy be stored in a horizontal stack, just as long as you keep the bottom one off the ground. A pallet or just a bit if wood is fine for this. This solution would take up even less space than the 'tree'.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@foxtrotzulu, indeed up to a point. Mine is on casters and actually that's quite a help in our bike-crowded boilerroom-workshop, and that means I can wheel them around when I need to get access to something. And I was told by a tyre technician not to stack them more than two high vertically - although I would guess the side forces on the walls is a lot more than the pressure of three tyres above. But we did have an odd tyre failure on some Pirellis, which went all out of shape after being stacked four high.
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