 Poster: A snowHead
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We need to get snow tyres for our trusty car. A friend used these people when he did his season, but I was wondering if anyone else had any recommendations.
Is it better to hold off and buy, instead, in France?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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PhillipStanton, don't know about France but in Switzerland there is a large local market since everybody switches to winter tyres. You can also get complete wheelsets 2nd hand from ebay or www.ricardo.ch e.g. I just got 4 alloy rims andwinter tyres with a reasonable tread for 200CHF.
Mind you 4 tyres/wheels take up quite a lot of space if you want to bring them back to the UK.
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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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PhillipStanton, Search here under winter tyres etc and there are several threds which include places to buy 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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PhillipStanton, Yeah, buy in France, there's a great place in Sallanches, behind McDo. 
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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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Thanks guys.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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PhillipStanton, Given that you will be spending time over here , you may find it worthwhile to just buy them here and then have your summer tyres stored. Zippy do it and Kwikfit. Obviously they charge each time you change them but I only change once a year and it's peanuts ...
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| Quote: |
Yeah, buy in France, there's a great place in Sallanches, behind McDo
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I bought snow tyres there four years ago, and the guy assured me I need only buy them for the front (driving) wheels. He also said we should not exceed 50 mph on them, or they would quickly wear, so we decided to leave them in France and change them. Having had major problems getting them changed (snow everywhere, so had to leave it till the last minute) garages all too busy pulling people out of snowdrifts for loadsadosh, three separate garages refused point blank. So we put them on rims so we could change them ourselves, but it was another chore. We have since learnt more about them, and have a new car, and following recommendations on Natives and some other websites we now have four snow tyres (Michelin, which took a lot of tracking down in the UK but which seem excellent). The local garage in Hampshire changes them for us, and when not in use the tyres hang up on the garage wall. They are speed-rated to 95 mph, so we drive back and forth to the Alps on them. My research (including some excellent threads on Snowheads) suggested that winter tyres are a good thing in cold wet wintry weather generally, not just in snow, so we will leave them on the car all winter - we spend most of the winter in the Alps anyway. I feel much happier with the current arrangement - I did a 180 degree skid in the old car, despite driving incredibly slowly and gently, in high gear, round a very gentle bend - I just lost the rear and don't think that would have happened with snow tyres on the back too. We have chains too - though we only needed them on top of the snow tyres once last year, with extremely slushy snow on a hill, in late April.
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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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PhillipStanton, ....Agenterre, has a point if you spend a bit of time there and go regularly as your location suggests. It may also be worth considering buying a spare set of rims. I am kitting out a Landrover Discovery with winter tyres & rims. The rims I discovered by accident at a Land Rover main dealers. I wasn't fussy about what they looked like, but these were brand new alloys for £40 +VAT. Their 'stock' came from changing rims on new vehicles, to meet customers orders.
A tyre retailer at Bourg St. Maurice who sold me the winter tyres, will put them on the new rims, remove & store the 'Summer' tyres at no extra cost. He charges a nominal 30 euro to reverse the process in April and store the winter tyres. It may be worth considering for Morzine.
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Thanks Agenterre and BernardC - that's very good idea and not something I'd thought of.
We have an extremely 15 year old classy * Peugeot 205 diesel - so should be able to get rims for a song.
* with no rust and only 60,000 miles on the clock - barely run in!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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PhillipStanton, "....the car which turned Peugeot's fortunes around......", over 5million made if memory serves me correct and I bet it will last another 15 years easy!
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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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pam w, If you are storing them by ' hanging' on garage wall I hope you are rotating them as over time they will loose shape! Best stored singly cool dry place flat and then turned over every couple of months. IMHO
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PhillipStanton, A fellow  recommended Feltham Tyre Centre - http://www.felthamtyre.co.uk/. He got his from here last year and seeing as you are based in London this may be worth a try? I have spoken to them and they seem very helpful.
Unfortunately we are having to get ours imported from Austria as no UK dealer can get hold of the size and dimension we need!
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You know it makes sense.
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Mouth, glad they were helpful!
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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After years of seeing '15 year old classy * Peugeot 205 diesels' and many others pass me on snow covered roads, I bought some snow tyres last year and could not believe the difference. The chains stayed in the boot. I bought another set of rims off ebay to make life easy. If anyone is thinking of getting some and lives near a Costco, my Michelin Alpin's (they insist you have them on all four wheels) came from Costco Watford who orderd them in, took 3 days. Although you have to be a member about £30 p.a. I doubt if you will find these tyres any cheaper (includes fitting) elsewhere and lots of their other stuff is good value too.
A friend who lives in Aberdeen has just been into his branch and was told to wait until October as they are going to do a promotion this year. Of course they have more chance of snow up there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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gsb, thanks for the tip. I bought a set last season, but a change of car means a new set before I drive to the Alps next. Anyone interested in a nearly new set of 17 inch high quality winter tyres?
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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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boredsurfin, thanks for the tip, I shall do that.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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If you have alloy wheels then snow chains and curb knocks etc won't do them any good in the winter. It's better to go for the thinnest tyre possibe for your car so a different wheel size might be better anyway - best to get a second set of cheaper steel wheels.
PS Does "Winter Tyres" and "Snow tyres" mean the same thing to everyone here?
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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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| DB wrote: |
| PS Does "Winter Tyres" and "Snow tyres" mean the same thing to everyone here? |
I always thought winter and snow tyres were different beasts for different jobs but it seems the distinction is blurring.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| FenlandSkier wrote: |
| DB wrote: |
| PS Does "Winter Tyres" and "Snow tyres" mean the same thing to everyone here? |
I always thought winter and snow tyres were different beasts for different jobs but it seems the distinction is blurring. |
Yes even tyre sellers seem to mix the terms. To me a snow tyre has a different compound and more agressive tread pattern specifically for snow & ice but it's performance on other surfaces (e.g. asphalt) is much worse than a winter tyre, on hard surfaces the snow tyre makes much more noise and doesn't last very long either. A taxi driver & local person in a snow secure alpine village or a winterservice vehicle might typically have snow tyres whereas the majorty of people (including people driving to ski resorts) would have winter tyres.
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If anybody is interested I have a set of Pirelli Snow&Ice tyres size 265/70/16 sitting in my garage. They were fitted to a '98 Land Cruiser Colorado VX and used for a season in the 3 valleys. I estimate they have probably done less than 4000 miles - basically the trip to and from the UK plus driving down to Moutier/Albertville once a week and maybe another 10 trips to airports/other resorts etc.
You could pick them up from Oxfordshire or I could arrange to drive them up to central London for collection. From memory they were about £500 new.
If anybody is inerested let me know.
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DB, I'm down here on the flat terrain of the Fens but my local tyre fitter says he shifts a lot of snow tyres to farmers in the winter as the tread pattern works well on wet fields as well as snowy roads. He rarely sells any winter tyres though although 1 taxi firm does spec them for their fleet and their boss reckons they're worth it.
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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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For years I use only the "all season" tyres which have one star less than the fully fedged snow tyres. The "all season" tyres can be driven all year round and last slightly shorter than the normal road tyres. They are the Pirelli Scorpion S/T.
Mind you the tyres are on a 4x4 Shogun. In 4 seasons I have yet to try out the new snow chains.
I had a normal road tyres on another 4x4 (RAV4) and it skid at a walking speed at a roundabout. I had to use the snow chain on that vehicle.
Plenty of tread is vital for conquering the Alpine slopes in winter.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Our Nissan X-trail was fine with the tyres I have on now (Bridgestone Duellers). We drove through heavy snow, and ice last winter. The snowchains are still untouched.
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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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| Quote: |
Just came across another UK supplier
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When I needed 4 snow tyres for a new car, in a hurry, last February I found loads of websites claiming to have the lot - but only one which could actually provide what I wanted, swiftly. I telephoned around a dozen, who mostly told me that they didn't carry much stock, because of low demand. It's always unpredictable when you might need chains. We spent two winters and scarcely touched the chains, then needed them on a warm April day with a bit of a snow shower - just the wrong combination of road gradient, surface and type of snow. I was astonished when I couldn't get up the hill I had driven up in much worse (I thought). You need them in the back, just in case. And if you want to buy snow tyres in the UK, don't leave it till the last minute, and take no notice of any websites until you've spoken to someone who actually has what you want, physically, on the shelf.
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Well, we've formulated what we think is a stonkingly cunning plan.
Having looked at the current tyres, they're not far off needing replacing. So we're going to drive down; get them changed and dump the old tyres. When we return in the spring we'll get some new rims in, get new tyres and change the set over. 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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I lived in Canada for a bit and drove about 10000km on graded ice and snow, and would certainly put in a word for winter tires with studs... Noisy on tarmac, but if you are keeping a vehicle in resort for more than a month or two might be worth it?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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skinutter - how did you find the car with the winter tyres left on?
I ask because we live in central London and our car probably only does 2,000-3,000 miles a year other than when we go down to France. One option might be to just leave them on the car. I realise they'll wear more quickly, but it's not like we do high mileage.
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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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| Helen Beaumont wrote: |
| Our Nissan X-trail was fine with the tyres I have on now (Bridgestone Duellers). We drove through heavy snow, and ice last winter. The snowchains are still untouched. |
Helen if you have a look, your Duellers have M S on the side wall, which means mud and snow! (Fitted as standard on SVE's)
X trails are great aren't they! On our 3rd one now 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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PhillipStanton, They are not as effective and noisier in summer temperatures. Even in the South of France people do leave winter tyres on year round (laziness) and I know several folks who do it ... any high mileage or high speeds definitely NOT reccomended
Mind you given UK weather (normally) surprise they're not reccomended year around anyway.
I seem to recall that winter tyres are reccomended up to about 8 degrees (website must advise??)anyway .. so judge for yourself
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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boredsurfin, very pleased with it. I remember snowbunny telling me to change the Duellers for something else though, can't remember why now. They've not given us any problems anyway.
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Our (two year old) Grand Voyager is looking like it will be in need of two new front tyres shortly. It takes 215/65 R16 (at least that's what's on it now). The tyres have all done 20,000 but the rears look like they have plenty of tread depth left.
My question is, if fitting snow tyres do I need to fit four or could I just put two on the front? I'm planning at least two weeks driving in the Alpes this year, have driven before (used chains a couple of times) and do have a set of chains, but since I'm going to put new tyres on anyway I'm thinking a couple of snow tyres at the front could make sense?
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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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AxsMan, No you MUST fit winter tyres to each wheel!
Details HERE
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AxsMan, No .. you'll end up in the ditch or worse ...
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FAQ
