 Poster: A snowHead
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Normally i have poo poo'd the idea of snow tyres. The usuall case of two sets of tyres, storage, cost ect ect.
Then i came accross this test by Auto Express
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/total_tyre_guide/259441/snow_traction.html
Their quote in the article "The Quatrac demonstrated that you only lose a little performance by going for an all-season tyre"
got me thinking. So i have actually after much phoning and internet research managed to order 4 Vredestein Quatrac 3XL and await their delivery. Found a very helpful place that had my size in stock 235/45/17. ( still have a few left as well
Winter/all season tyres are like gold dust at the moment.
Ill be interested if anyone has experience of this particular tyre, i know a lot of you rate Vredestein's on this site.
Also this site convinced me they would be all right as well.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Vredestein/Quatrac-3.htm
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 25-12-10 11:06; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I have just have the same tyres fitted to my car. Not driven them long distance yet but on the short hops they do feel more sure and reliable than my previous summer tyres, especially in all this snow and ice we've had. They do have excellent reviews, so I hope they perform as well in the other seasons!!
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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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carettam,
Good to hear, thanks. Mine were supposed to arrive yesterday, but did not, probably have to wait till after christmas 
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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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Speaking to this chap today and he had lods of Snow tyres available as he had just got a new shipment.
http://www.clickontyres.com/contact_us
He said he was selling to other dealers/fitters too as they could not get them elsewhere.
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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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Thats where i got mine from, they texted my mobile on Tuesday to say the tyres will be delivered Wednesday, now Thursday and no tyres 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Shame they don't make them in larger sizes. I'd be interested if so.
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Timbobaggins, could you edit the title to reflect the subject a bit?
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holidayloverxx,
Just done it as you requested 
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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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Timbobaggins, thanks, and merry christmas
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holidayloverxx,
And to you and everyone else, bummer got to go to work in 2 hours time 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I have the Quatrac 3s on my CR-V and worked in Portes du Soleil/ Les Menuires/Sauze d'Oulx and Germany last winter. Great grip. Only needed snow chains once. The winter tyres tend to slip slightly before they grip which can be unnerving but once you've driven them you won't go back. Excellent - if a little expensive... (though see they have come down in price since last year...)
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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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| Timbobaggins wrote: |
Winter/all season tyres are like gold dust at the moment.
Ill be interested if anyone has experience of this particular tyre, i know a lot of you rate Vredestein's on this site.
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I wanted to get some for my Jag AWD as I had them on my previous car,a Mondeo 4 x 4. I liked them a lot. I found them very good in the wet, a bit of a compromise on snow and ice but I would still recommend them for all year round use. They do save another set of wheels or trips to tyre man twice a year. I never needed chains with them but of course the four wheel drive helped out loads.
Because of supply problems in the UK with Quatrac 3 I have ended up with Nokian WRG2 which have a similar all weather tread although I beleive they are a full winter tyre. They were sourced from mytyres.co.uk who apparently ship from Germany.
The Quatracs were OK in the summer but you do lose out-and-out grip but one shouldn't 'door handle' on the public road, should you? 
Don't forget, though, that braking on snow and ice is the main problem and even winter or all weathers aren't magical!
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Just one thing to consider, and no, I'm not going to comment anything about recent "end of the world when there's 2cm of snow" you had last week or so.
It's not any more expensive to buy two sets of tires, then just one. Simply you just use them longer, since they are in use only half year instead of whole year. Second... all year tires are more or less crap. They are far from good in summer, and they are far from good in winter, but yes in most countries you won't get ticket when driving with them in winter. But that's normal for something, which is meant to be "working" at -20c and at +40c. I agree, you don't have need for winter tires in UK. There's no snow, and no temperatures under +7c, when summer tires stop working normally.... well except for times, when you actually have those conditions, and whole world stops because you are too cheap to pay 200 or 300eur every few years. 
And last... when you go out and crash, even if it's really just bend bumper, 300eur which you would pay for proper winter tires (considering you can use them for 3 or 4 years, that's just 100eur or less/year) and avoid that bend bumper, is nothing compared to this what you will pay to have your car fixed. And as I wrote, this is just about bend bumper, not about killing someone because you couldn't stop.
I know, tires are not cheap, but in my mind, tires go under car maintenance. If they are too expensive, then you simply have car which you can't afford. I believe tires for some 100.000eur worth BMW are not 200eur but 2000+eur. But if you have 100.000eur for car, then I guess 2000eur for tires is not that big deal. If it is, then this car is simply not for you.
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You know it makes sense.
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primoz, Shirley you don't think that all those cocks driving Beemers, Mercs and Audis throughout the land actually paid for them themselves do you? 
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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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primoz, No tems under +7c normally in UK. Surely you mean the south of |england.
Up here isn Scotland we get that every year. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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primoz, the temperature gauge hasn't risen above +7 here in East Midlands since late November. But what do I know, I have summer tyres.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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glasgowcyclops and queen bodecia, perhaps primoz knew that and was being just a small bit sarcastic.
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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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All-season all-year round sound reasonable to me if your car is FWD or 4WD, isn't a performance car (or driven like a performance car ) and doesn't generally have too many problems in the snow on summer tyres, at least in the south of England.
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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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primoz, the price logic for having two sets of tyres fails for a low-mileage user. Moreover, there is the question of where to store the unused set. However, from what I have been reading in sH there may be a strong case for a low-mileage user going for winter tyres, next tyre change, and using them all year round.
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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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Currently have Hankook Optimo 4S on my car this year as didn't want to get stuck in some snow like last winter; they perform very well in all conditions & certainly got me through a few uncleared snowy roads that I couldn't have done if still running with 'summer ' tyres.
I think that if you are not going to swap tyres before the season then better to run 'all season' or 'winters' all year than 'summers' all year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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With regards to achilles and Mitchell on using winter tyres all year round if you are not going to have 2 sets of tyres, it would seem from this previous thread that the MD of Vredestein agrees with you, quote:
"If a customer chooses to run cold weather tyres all year round, there are no dangers in doing so. In fact, we would prefer customers driving with cold weather tyres throughout the whole year versus driving with summer tyres throughout the whole year.
Cold weather tyres during colder months of the year provide improved traction and braking distances can be significantly shorter compared to a summer tyre in the same conditions. Dedicated summer tyres, in summer conditions, perform slightly better than cold weather tyres. However, the difference in winter will be much greater in favour of using a dedicated cold weather application."
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primoz,
I am no expert on tyres, i can only go on opinions. I am sure if Auto Express thought all seasons were crap, they would have said so, but in their test the all seasons performed slightly less and slightly better than some of the pure winter tyres depending on the test, there was no massive difference.
Also by the looks of some of the comments on here from people that have actually got them, they perform ok
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| slikedges wrote: |
| All-season all-year round sound reasonable to me if your car is FWD or 4WD, isn't a performance car (or driven like a performance car ) and doesn't generally have too many problems in the snow on summer tyres, at least in the south of England. |
The Nokians are classed as all season although they still carry the snowflake symbol as a tested snow tyre. You can get them in differenct speed ratings; get the 149mph version with stiffer side walls and they should be up to throwing a fairly powerful car around the bends in the summer.
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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 have used Wintrac Extremes all year round for several years.
(on a Ford Focus & an A3 Quattro)
They are brilliant.
If you are going to swap back & forth, then you need a second set of wheels.
Tyre side-walls are not designed for repeated fitting & removal.
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| primoz wrote: |
| Second... all year tires are more or less crap. They are far from good in summer, and they are far from good in winter, but yes in most countries you won't get ticket when driving with them in winter. But that's normal for something, which is meant to be "working" at -20c and at +40c. I agree, you don't have need for winter tires in UK. There's no snow, and no temperatures under +7c, when summer tires stop working normally.... |
Primoz,
On what do you base these statements? Experience?
For someone who professes not to be in any one place for too long, how would you know that we are frequently (even here darn sarf) at less than 7 c from November to March.
In MY experience, there is no sense in not using all weathers at least. OK, there is a drop off in ultimate cornering performance in the summer but most people don't do 'track days', or drive like Stirling on the road.
I have yet to find a downside and perhaps Mr Vredestein has more experience than all of us together. OK, he wants to sell tyres but he doesn't want bad publicity from underperforming or dangerous products.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Alan McGregor,
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Tyre side-walls are not designed for repeated fitting & removal.
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That's what I suspect, so I've gone down the wheels route and will be going year-round all-season on another.
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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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slikedges, most people over here have two complete sets, including rims - either you store them in your cellar or you leave them at your local workshop/dealer. I pay around 50 Euro for a season' storage and the changeover (including wheel balancing). They mark each tyre with its last position each time they take them off, so the next time they mount them they can put them where the wear will even out. I get a written confirmation of the warning when they reach 5mm of tread (4 being the recommended minimum).
I could store them at my place as I have the space, but they are filthy things and humping them around crucified my back one year, so I let someone else take the strain instead now
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I have my winter tyres on a set of OEM alloy wheels bought off Ebay, cost of 5 wheels and new wheel nuts plus transport from UK to Spain, came to less than half the price of just one wheel directly from Toyota. There are ways of reducing the cost of being safer, just takes a little time and research. BTW a friend has recently had to replace a headlamp unit on his BMW estate, because he had a little slide £1500 on his summer tyres. Only a few days after we had discussed winter tyres, his opinion was that because he had all kinds of traction electronics winter tyres were not needed. I am still biting my tongue.
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You know it makes sense.
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elj221c, +1..................I have Vredstein winter tyres and would not be without them. They take me everywhere the normal 4x4's get to during the bad winters (Landies thet the farmers have are different class, they go anywhere). I live up in the Yorkshire Dales, our roads very rarely get gritted (another subject but wont go there!), and my Vredsteins are now on their second season and looking good for a third after 2 trips to the Alps already. They are low profile, wide sports tyres mounted on factory Audi alloys and are speed rated to 120mph, but nobody in ther right mind goes at those speeds - it just shows how technically good they are IMO.
I'm a big fan of winter tyres, and believe they should be made mandatory in UK, stop vehicles sliding around on roads and clogging up the place in 1-2" snow. We blame lack of grit in cities - rubbish, its more to do with having the wrong kit on the vehicles. The Germans are very forward thinking regards safety on roads, ie made winter tyres mandatory this year, and I believe that in 5 years we'll follow, after all you wouldnt drive on intermediates in rain on a track (unless your are Valentine Rossi, my hero) would you, and thats what a 'normal' tyre is, an intermediate? So why do people drive in winter, ie bad weather with intermediate tyres, and then be surprised when the roads get blocked with jacknifed lorries and cars burbling about on tyres that are not designed for that situation, IMO they should be cautioned for driving a car that is not fit for purpose.
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