Tyre snow sox

A snowHead

I got a pair of these for the front of the Passat for last winter and used them during heavy snow coming off the mountain. Had a fair few tank slappers with the rear of the car wanting to swop ends. Only my MK2 Escort driving saved the day Smile

Is there advice to put them on the rear tyres as well? Obvious answer would be to use winter tyres. Can't as company car.

A snowHead

Buy a set of chains. Sox are not a substitute to for chains ( as you discovered) and therefore you are laying yourself open to a hefty fine.

From snow sox own website

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betterinblack,

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I do have snow chains and carry them. Even if the chains had been on it would not help rear end traction as betterinblack say's.
I was travelling at 15-20 mph, so not fast but still enough to have put us in the barrier. My assumption at the moment is to point and squirt in a straight line and be very very carefull around a corner. Same for chains.

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On steep descents take the speed out while you are travelling in a straight line before the corner. Drive round the corner with as little braking as possible (i.e. no braking if you can get away with it). Any braking acton should be as gradual as possible. Try to maintain the low speed round the corner with very light braking rather than picking up speed and hitting the brakes harder later.

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Tatty, Well spotted
This is a bit odd tho?

If the front is gripping a lot better than the back, there'll always be that tendency. You'll just have to drive really, really, slowly especially round bends, especially downhill bends. 20 mph is not fast, but it might be far too fast in some circumstances (obviously was, if you had a "fair few" tank slappers).

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In tests snow sox type traction assistance devices didn't wear very well, in one test they were shreaded after ca 50 km.

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DB, Better than some supermarket chains then Very Happy

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Boredsurfing, it's probably so recent that the sticker is for any police office that is not quite clued up on the situation yet I guess. Also probably wht the UK website is not updated too!

You know it makes sense.

I have an Elise variant that cannot accomodate chains. These devices have done the necessary many times and I suggest the naysayers try them. They converted a mocking crowd in St. Anton last Feb when I fitted them to take me up a car park slope.

Of course chains are longerlasting, but for ease of fitment and ease of transport, they have their advantages.

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A snowHead

The best solution is winter tyres.Use them at home and when you go on holiday skiing

A snowHead

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"They are better than nothing (i.e. if chains don't fit) but for the same money you can buy something that performs and lasts a lot longer. I'd be concerned that on a long stretch with variable conditions they would become shreaded. "

DB, This is exactly what they are good at. I used to use them years ago (and carried chains as well) for exactly those icy conditions where there was intermittent tarmac, ice and hard snow. I found they outperformed chains in those conditions (in my car anyway) and you did not get all that crunching on the tarmac as you do with chains. But granted - they do wear out, but not as quickly as one would imagine (I believe they have a kevlar weave? - may be mistaken).

However, (without trying to sound smug), I have used winter tyres over the last few years and have never needed either sox or chains in some pretty dire conditions in a fairly heavy rear wheel drive estate.

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Having stopped to put chains on top of my winter tyres once - very heavy snow and traction wasn't great - I followed a car with sox. At first, going round bends, I couldn't make out what they were - looked odd, and visibility was bad. But he kept going, and had no problems with some quite tricky bends - so they can perform quite well. But I wouldn't bother with them if they had to be carried in addition to chains. I can't imagine they're that much easier to put on than decent quality self-tightening chains.

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pam w, you are absolutely right. I had both socks and chains, as having a heavy rear wheel drive car (E Class estate), I used to put chains on the back and socks on the front to make sure that when going downhill round a tight bend I did not continue straight on over the edge!

I can put chains on just as quickly as socks, however, taking socks OFF the tyres, takes all of 4, or at a push, 5 seconds.

.

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Mine take literally 10 seconds a side to put on. Couldnt believe it the first time i put them on. I pulled up and a guy with a Merc was look at 1 of his snow chains at the rear of his car. I had put them on and about to pull away as he was just starting to unravel the chain. I think he was converted.
From then on i was converted too. But i still carry chains for the deeper stuff.

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The TUV test of Autosocks examined various combinations of front / rear wheel drive and summer / winter tyres (with and without chains). In many circumstances e.g. rear wheel drive traction on snow, the Autosocks outperformed chains.

They aren't designed to be used on clear or well gritted tarmac (and they make that clear).

(By the way, the test run by the TUV that caused the Autosocks to fail was when they ran them on a banked test track in Spain in September in dry conditions with the car being driven at a constant 70Kph for 19Km.)

Here are some results (in German) where I have added a quick translation in English ....

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The TUV test I have (it's a .pdf) shows the braking distances from 40Kph to 5Kph in snow for a Merc C Class as:

Winter tyre = 22.07m
Snow chain on Winter tyre = 22.57m
Autosocks on Summer tyre = 21.61m
Summer tyre = 34.23m

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jtr, So braking distances are slightly shorter without a chain on the winter tyre!!? Is that correct!?.

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I think the Sox would work really well driving on fresh snow, they'd work just like skins on skis. Their weakness would show on ice or hardpacked compressed snow, where the mechanical grip of a snow chain biting into the surface would be better.

Tatty, Braking in fresh snow is better without chains as well as without ABS, a wedge of snow builds up in front of the tyre when the wheel is locked, without chains the area is slightly larger hence the reduced stopping distance. Same goes for stopping on sand. It's only when the tyre can gain traction on the hard surface, whether that be tarmac or ice/compacted snow, does the use of winter tyres and or chains become advantageous.

Autosocks on summer or winter tyres makes no difference as the tyre is only making contact with the inside of the sock, not the road.

You know it makes sense.

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jtr, I think I might not have explained properly, if you fit Autosocks onto your tyres, it's the Autosocks that are making contact with the snow not the tyres themselves, so it doesn't matter to the performance of the Autosocks whether you're fitting them to Winter or Summer tyres.
The test results you've quoted of 29.38m would have the same outcome if the Autosocks were to be fitted to Winter Tyres.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Tatty, When AUDI first launched the Quattro they had a switch to turn off the ABS when driving on fresh snow or sand.
The facility to be able to turn the ABS off altogether is no longer possible. In some cars, Land Rover equipped with Terrain Response for example, the ABS braking system is altered to be less agressive and allow the wheels to lock up more when Sand or Snow settings are selected.

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I was never convinced by these but getting the French approval seems pretty impressive.

My car is a big 4WD that can only take the £250+ chains so I am going to buy a set of sox for the times that the summer tyres and 4x4 system get over whelmed.

It may also stop me having to park in Bourg if plod are on the feeder roads.

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jtr, I've now read the article and noted that the Autosocks were only fitted to the Front wheels of the Passat, which explains why there is a difference between the Winter and Summer Tyre equipped Passats. I surmise that the braking of the Autosock equipped front wheels is identical and it's the lack of traction and therefore braking from the Summer Tyre equipped rear wheels that is giving the different stopping distances.

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The ABS thing is interesting, and something I've had some problems with (I should add that I know nothing at all about cars). We have ABS (Fiat Multipla) which as far as I know can't be switched off. I have very, very, rarely been aware of it working - in fact the first time, because I was so clueless about it, it quite frightened me and I thought I had something like a big lump of ice wedged between the wheel and the body of the car. I drive a lot on icy and snowy roads, mostly just on 4 winter tyres, occasionally with chains when necessary and I guess most of the time the ABS isn't necessary because I'm rather careful not to lock the wheels. However, the ABS warning light (ie the light warning that something is wrong with them) tends to come on - and stay on for a while (maybe an hour or so) but usually goes off if the car is stopped and ignition switched off. The first time this happened I dutifully took the car to a dealer who couldn't find anything wrong. Now I tend to ignore it. Happened in October though (was a fair bit of snow and I still had summer tyres on, so had to use chains).

Is it just that the ABS gets spooked by the behaviour of tyres encountering different road surfaces? Isn't that what it's supposed to be designed to deal with?

Am I wrong to ignore the warning light provided it goes away again before too long?

I like the idea of sox being very easy to take off - I would always far rather put chains on than take the damned things off, which invariably takes longer.

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Also from the article, Snowsocks are not tolerant of lateral loads, so a swerving manoeuvre could end up with the socks coming off.

pam w, the chains are most likely confusing the ABS sensors, probably through vibration, they can be a bit temperamental.

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as in "he swerved his socks off"?

Spyderman, yes,it seems to be the chains that mostly do it, though driving on uneven, unmade, roads with potholes also seems to upset them a bit sometimes.

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pam w, Put that down to Italian electrics Laughing

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Tyre snow sox

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