Anyone used Snow socks

A snowHead

Only want experiences if you've actually used snow socks .sorry dont want the thread getting clogged up with a Chains vs Socks debate
Ive had them for 4 years still sealed in the packet but it looks like tomorrow I might have to use them.

Were they ok or useless ~??
Youtube reviewers seem to rate them as a one off ,get you out of trouble

A snowHead

@wasley, my observation is I see many of them, every year, beside the road, wrapped around car tyres in shreds, etc.

I suspect you're right, but you need to treat them gently? They actually possibly fill a gap that chains don't, i.e. icy surface, not much snow.

Good luck, the forecast is for heavy snow indeed down to valley bases overnight).

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I didn't have to use them in anger, but I did try to practice putting them on, just in case, and found it trickier than I'd expected - and I counted myself quite accomplished with chains! Just didn't have right chains for the car in question. So my suggestion would be - practice. But, with chains on my own car, I drove one horrible night for some difficult miles behind a car with socks, which seemed to be doing fine.

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I used them on my Elise which doesn't have the clearance for chains. For compacted snow, they work well. For the deep stuff, they don't have the traction of chains. They've got me out of trouble on the two or three occasions I've used them, yes, you do see many shed along the road side, chains force you to drive slowly, socks don't, so moderate the speed and remove them asap.

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I had to push a car (not mine!) that had snow socks, out of our parking at Xmas.

Once it got started it was ok, but it really struggled with initial traction. Moral of the story is: if you’re using socks, don’t stop!

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Oh great I've been waiting to post this photo of what I encountered last Monday, in fact all the way at 30kph down from Montgenvere to Briancon, and she looked like someone from the Kardashians who was driving it, all blinged up Laughing

That Merc G-Wagon is a lot of dosh and yet scrimping on decent tyres rolling eyes

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I used them on a hire car into Tignes a couple of years ago. Tricky to get on as they were very tight and were a bit twisted (may not have been supplied the correct size) but they straightened themselves up once I drove on them. Fresh snow coming down hard and they coped well... really well! Got me into the Taos car park the next day in deep snow. Something cross climates couldnt get close to a year later in better conditions.
When leaving they were ok until we hit the slush line and it was obvious they needed removing. They were difficult to get off and I wouldn't give much hope to anyone not used to manual labour (sizing again maybe). I skinned a couple of knuckles.

After all it is free

We used them on a Mini when it snowed a number of years ago. Bit of a pain to put them on when it was snowy. Much harder than the practice when it's nice and dry. They did work and got the car out of the the street that it could barely move in before but they start to wear VERY quickly as soon as you get onto a road thats started to clear up so. If you drove up a mountain or anything with them I think they would get shredded to bits

Although it's not ideal driving on a clear surface with chains, it can be done - and indeed has to be done sometimes, as putting them on and off all the time is such a pain. Yes, you have to drive slowly and yes, the juddering gets right into your teeth. It feels like you're doing some damage, but nothing terrible seems to happen!

But the suggestion that you have to take socks off, or risk shredding them, on a clear road sounds right to me.

Until I tried to put socks on, I did think they'd be easier than chains. But now I'm not so sure! If given the choice, with a rented car, I'd choose chains. But I would check they fit - heard some horror stories.

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Supplementary question: is there a situation where they would be a useful addition to full winter tyres? I ask because I noticed that my rental car only has the option of hiring socks, not chains. The rental car will come with full winters as standard, and I always thought that socks in effect aimed to convert your summer tyres to winters. And only that - not take your winter tyres further.

@Adithorp implies that all-seasons+socks would be better than all-seasons in their own.

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I used them on a Ford Smax goingbinto Andorra
Passing Toulouse, it was raining and 1'c, so I knew it was going to be a difficult journey.
The rain turned to snow at Foix and we had to pull over next to some guy that already had chains in his hands.
I had both socks on & drove away before the other guy had his chains on.
It was still 50 miles to Soldeu but we got there no problem, the socks did the job. Their limitations were obvious to me, re using on bare tarmac so I treated them accordingly.
After a couple of years I put Goodyear Vector all seasons on & never needed the socks or chains again.

snow reports

@LaForet, my experience was the opposite of @adithorp, this winter - people struggling with socks in deep snow, I was fine with crossclimates (and RWD!).

So much of it is about being delicate with the controls, I’ve seen my Norwegian mate drive a car on summer tyres, on a road where everyone else needed chains.

I have used snow socks on my car in the UK a few years ago.

I found them very easy to fit on. They greatly increased traction in a couple of inches of fresh, quite unusually (for southern UK) dry cold snow. I had 'summer' tyres on at the time, which were not gripping at all.

Although I now run Michelin CrossClimate tyres, which seems to work just as well for the changeable conditions that we often experience here - particularly this week in southern UK - I don't hesitate in recommending snow socks.

You know it makes sense.

@wasley, I've used them, quite effective too but were Michelin manufactured and pretty string grip pattern. Can't vouch for other makes, but would observe that these are close to chains for traction.

As already mentioned, careful and steady application should see them work reasonably in competence terms. Dont spin them if traction is lost though Skullie

Warning and threshold:- significant rise in gradient approaches limit, INSIDE line on hairpin bend likey to bring that, unless route is clear, wait to pass it without coming to a halt.

After trying them, I bought a set of Michelin from someone at car boot sale, unused. Still I've yet to use those Very Happy

Presumably your use is for Ste Foy trip ? Couple of steeper zig-zag on main road from Bourg to Ste Foy village that could be likely in heavy snow, then some hairpins from there up to ski station, not too severe unless it got really deep. But then you'd be stuck with others if its that bad.

Main road and last bit are regularly ploughed, but obvious risk if it hammers down continually.

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

To add, mine are the Michelin "Textile" type that look more like chains in structure and not the "Material" type that look much like ski skins to provide traction.

A snowHead

I saw those Michelin ones in use at christmas - they looked excellent, totally different from the cheap ones I'd tried. They also looked like they would take a lot of putting on, and taking off! Not all socks are created equal.

Are socks useful on full winter tyres? Well, almost every time I've had to use chains (twice because gendarmes insisted, much more often because I was losing traction and judged it wise) I had good winter tyres. If I'd not had chains I imagine that having socks would have been better than nothing.

One of the reports in the last couple of weeks - maybe from Val d'Isere, noted that the gendarmes were insisting on chains, rather than socks.

A snowHead

@Origen, yes they are quite resilient.

Probably offer very decent compromise for those vehicles that have too little clearance (and chains not advised in manual) to use generally available chains.

Traction pretty good, and those little "nodes" are metal to give some additional assistance on ice.

Wonder which type the OP has.

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I bought some of the first types. Fortunately never had to use them or even take them out of the packet but they seemed quite light and insubstantial.

But they must be ok these days as in the Aosta valley either chains or winter tyres are a legal requirement in winter. Paid for chains but instead of chains the rental car co supplied socks which felt much heavier and much more substantial (certainly rougher, like cloth chain mail) than the socks I bought many years ago.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Used autosocks recently during the snowstorm when driving from Val Disere to Samoëns . Also used it during heavy snow in Les saisies. It was excellent and easy to put on and remove (as long as you buy the right size). There was one steep ascent in Samoëns where many cars with all seasons couldn't get up (the summers didn't stand a chance) and a tractor from the hotel has to pull the cars one by one up the road and into the car park.

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@ski3 - It's interesting you say there are more 'rugged' versions of socks provided by your rental company. My view of socks was of the traditional type made from relatively light fabric, so I couldn't see how these would be any better than winter tyres. But if the agencies use what in effect are studded scks then I can see they'd be able to deal with (a) wheels with not enough gap to carry conventional chains and (b) icy surfaces that will defeat even a winter tyre.

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

December 2024, Rented car from Milan Bergamo, summer tyres with snow socks, went to Austria, bad luck as huge storm approached.
We managed to climb the pass to Swiss side without socks, then storm properly hit, getting on the socks much easier than chains. Unfortunately both socks ripped off on us just as we reached Austria side of the pass. Luckily the roads already started to be cleaned and we managed to get to the motorway and we managed to go get to the St Anton, where we stuck on first slightest uphill. 2am at night and only 2 km to the property, so we dropped the car to the side of the road and with ski bags marched 2km on the 30cm snow on the roads. Thats was one hell of the journey Smile

After all it is free

My son has just ripped some Goodyear snow socks to pieces on 10 metres of hard packed ice / snow. I think that where he went wrong is that he didn't engage traction control first.

I have only ever used them twice to get up icy slopes in our car park and worked a treat both times.

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They were out in force this morning - why is it I associate snow-socks and snow-blades together Laughing

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They were provided for us on a hire car from Central France with summer tyres, company were not used to clients going to the Alps (Breakdown replacement - long story).
Very glad of them going up snow-covered roads to Les Arcs 1950 from 1600. Did the job perfectly, easy to fit, easy to use. we were pleasantly surprised - and now have a pair in the car for our UK driving "just in case".

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Used them last year to get to the top of ValThoren. They donate job perfectly well and were much easier to fit than even the spikes-spiders I used to have on another car.

Top tip. Have a couple of bin bags to shove them in when you take them off, because they’ll be soaking wet and won’t fold neatly into the packing case until they’re dry again.

I have used them a few times, had no issues, did the job, both up and down the mountains. I have seen cheap ones shredded, and obviously take them off once on tarmac.
Gloves and a bin bag a good idea.

Mine are Autosocks.

You know it makes sense.

Used socks today on our very heavy fwd camper. We already had some traction issues on steeper parts of the main road with our all season tyres so decided to put the socks on to get up to the resort. They were super easy to fit and we made it up but it was definitely sketchy moments. If at any point we stopped that would have been it. Our last much lighter van would have been fine but this one is very heavy. Maybe chains would be a better option in this situation.

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

Thanks all for the advice and positive stories

We had to used them today to get us through the last 7km to St Foy
Although not perfect I thought they worked really well and not to hard to put on .we would have been stuck without them .
The only bit they failed on was the last 50 metre slope to our accommodation.
If we had a better run up I think we would have been ok , so pulled into a car park right beside us rather than risk damaging the socks .

A snowHead

A snowHead

Would give us issues with wet feet, sticking with Falke for now.

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

@ed48, that's some story! French friends, arriving late at night, with two small kids, couldn't get up the last hill to the apartments. They had winter tyres, and chains, and were very used to using them. But there was just too much snow and they don't plough local roads all night. They had to walk up, carrying kids. Normally only about a ten minute walk......

Encouraging stories here about socks - they clearly have their uses!

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We saw loads going up and down from La Plagne with socks on. Not sure the conditions were that testing but they made it round the hairpins as well as those with chains on from what we saw.

That said, Cross Climates didn't need either (we'd got socks and chains in the car and never felt the need to put them on).

Be interested in when people were putting them on as the road was fully covered all the way down to Aime (21km). I'm not sure how durable they'd be over that distance.

Help!!

Anyone used Snow socks

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