winter tyres or good all season tyres?

[mickthetree]

Hey all

I need some new tyres for my car and I'm tossing up between some winter tyres which I guess will have a shorter life after winter or some good all season tyres instead.

I only have a ford cmax so I'm not looking to put many hundreds of pounds worth of rubber on there, but want to get the best value for money.

I tried mytyres.co.uk which will do me 4 winter tyres (205 55 R16 T) for £240 + £50 fitting at a local garage to me.

To my mind thats a reasonable price then I can look at new tyres next year.

I MUST also get a spare sorted since I binned that stupid glue pump. Anyone got a spare 16" ford wheel and jack? ;-)

 

[MickCheese]

Winter tyres do not do well when it gets warmer. Are you able to source a spare set of steel wheels and change them back in the spring.

Mick

 

[tomatwark]

I put winter tyres on the van last year and it made a great difference.

I bought a couple of wheels in the spring and put normal tyres on them, the winter wheels will go back on at the end of the week.

I only put them on the front as my van is front wheel drive.

Tom

 

[MickCheese]

I put winter tyres on the van last year and it made a great difference.

I bought a couple of wheels in the spring and put normal tyres on them, the winter wheels will go back on at the end of the week.

I only put them on the front as my van is front wheel drive.

Tom

Is just having two sensible? That may make the van oversteer and that is often more difficult to deal with than understeer. That is why you generally have the best tyres on the rear when getting new tyres fitted.

Mick

 

[Dibs-h]

I would get a spare set of wheels and then put the winter wheels\tyres on from Nov-Mar. Yes, it's a slight faff but worth it. My current A4 has 245x45x17's and the winter before last, it bogged down due to the width and low profile.

Got a spare set of wheels and some winter tyres (from mytyres.co.uk) last Nov and the car didn't bog down at all. Hoping we'll have little to no snow till the weekend, so that I can swap the wheels\tyres over rather than one cold\snowy morning. #-o

Can definitely recommend mytyres.co.uk and winter tyres! :mrgreen:

Dibs

 

[myturn]

Winter tyres are made from a different compound rubber to normal tyres and they really make a big difference to grip in all conditions below about 7°C. All season tyres just have a mix of tread patterns and are a compromise that don't offer any better grip but should clear the snow better.

I have a spare set of wheels with winter tyres on because with my normal tyres when there's snow and ice I can't even get out of the drive which slopes up but only slightly. With the winter tyres I can really feel the difference in grip even now when there is no snow but it is cold and wet. When there's loose or packed snow I get good traction, the only problem is other road users impeding my progress!

Winter tyres may be a costly solution but I only use them for 3 months of the year and then they go back into storage where they are covered and protected from light which is what causes stored rubber to deteroirate. I've had the same set for 3 years and they hardly any signs of wear at all so will last several more years.

I have heard bad reports of mytyres.co.uk and would not use them, I get mine from Camskill.

 

[mickthetree]

thanks all. I'm not surprised at the mixed feedback from mytyres as it can be pretty cheap.

Anyone know where to source a spare set of wheels from? Ebay a suppose, but any other sources?

 

[MickCheese]

thanks all. I'm not surprised at the mixed feedback from mytyres as it can be pretty cheap.

Anyone know where to source a spare set of wheels from? Ebay a suppose, but any other sources?

Try a breakers yard.

Mick

 

[mickthetree]

Know of any round wycombe way Mick?

 

[Harbo]

They are mandatory in parts of Europe even for tourists when the average temp falls below 7C.
I don't do enough driving now to justify them but bought some Snow Socks last year - but have yet to try them out thank goodness.
Wasn't there some issues with Insurance Co. penalising motorist who fitted the tyres as they were not standard issue?
They will certainly not like mix and matching them?
My wife swapped her Golf (which was hopeless in snow) for a Kuga - we might be able to get out of our village this winter?

Rod

 

[Lons]

I bought and fitted a set of winter wheels and tyres to my wifes cooper just before we left mid Nov. I managed to source them locally at the same price as on-line dealers and bought alloys as almost as cheap as steel and plumped for premium pirelli tyres. Cost me £550 all in and I recon a reasonable price to pay for safety through the winter.
My view is that I'd rather spend £1000 less on a car but fit the best brakes and tyres than the other way around - what are your families lives worth?

It is possible to do it cheaply with s/h wheels but personally I won't do it as they could have been bent or damaged and repaired but there are dealers on line and on ebay selling new, not OE steels and you could consider budget or even remould tyres to keep the cost down.
They actually refer to them as "cold weather" tyres as the improvements are evident at below 7 deg but performance is not good in summer so they really must be changed over March/April.

My wifes car had 17" wheels and the winters are 16" - an important point as in ice and snow you need thinner tyres not wider. (The tyres are chosen to give the same overall diam. so speedo isn't affected). Just look at the bicycle wheels fitted to rally cars. Also note that they are usually marked with arrows of rotation or "outside" so be carefule to fit correctly.

Fittig to the driving wheels only is frowned upon and may invalidate your insurance as it can affect the hanling of your car and will be deamed as unsuitable.

You won't get the severe weather we get in Northumberland but do some googling and you'll find plenty of auto tyre tests which will open your eyes more than a little.

cheers

Bob

 

[Steve Jones]

I'll second the snow socks !

http://www.autosock.co.uk/

I bought some of these last winter for my Mk3 mondeo estate, which is like driving a sledge in the snow. We live on a hill and last winter on my way up it I was 'forced' off the tyre tracks by a car coming down, I ended up in the fresh loose snow towards the gutter. I knew I had no chance of pulling off again so jumped out and put the snow socks on the front wheels, the car pulled away no problem at all without slipping and sliding and I was very impressed.

Yesterday I changed the Mk3 for a Mk4 estate but unfortunately the socks don't fit as the new wheels are 215's, so high on my list of priorities it to get another pair that do !

Cheers

Steve

 

[RogerS]

thanks all. I'm not surprised at the mixed feedback from mytyres as it can be pretty cheap.

Anyone know where to source a spare set of wheels from? Ebay a suppose, but any other sources?

Watch out for the scam/scum artists on the internet that offer to find you spare parts such as wheels etc. When you do a search for a part on their website, it tells you that they have a million dealers all with your spare part readily available and that if you agree to sending them some money ...often via your mobile phone account ...then that is the last you will hear from them. Shysters par excellence. DAMHIKT although Orange, to be fair, did refund me my money.

 

[tomatwark]

A lot of people who have vans just put them on the driving wheels.

My van has proper heavy duty commercial tyres on it and they stay on the back.

The other thing to consider that if you have and an accident in a van or a lot of the 4x4 pick ups on the road and you are doing over 50 on an A road 60 on a dual carriageway you are breaking the law anyway and your insurance may not pay out in any case.

http://www2.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/s ... imits.html

The only vans this does not apply to are car based vans such as Fiesta.

What a lot of people don't know is also applies to a lot of these 4x4 crew cab pick ups that are the fashion at the moment.

I would not recommend putting winter tyres just on the driving wheels of a car with low profiles on though.

I am going to buy some snow socks for my wife's car, I already have chains for the van if I get really stuck because as Lons said we do get a bit of snow up here now and then.

Tom

 

[flying haggis]

Vredestein Quatrac 3, Hankook Optimo 4S or Kleber quadraxer are very good all season tyres if you cant afford / justify a spare set of wheels with winter tyres. When my current tyres on the car are due for replacement these two will be top of the list.

 

[mickthetree]

A good set of all season tyres and some snow socks is certainly a consideration to a new set of all four wheels and tyres.

 

[henton49er]

I use General Grabbers new AT2 tyres and just switch to low ratio and Diff Lock if I get a problem with snow or ice - mind you, in the welsh hills I need a Landrover Discovery all year round!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

On the minus side the tyres are over £150 each!!

Mike

 

[Dodge]

BF Goodrich Mud Terrains on my landrover 90, Goodyear Wranglers on my wifes ex-military landrover 90 and General Grabber AT2s on our Isuzu Trooper - all we need now is the snow!

seriously before our resident hit squad start shouting me down for having three 4x4s and not being green etc we are members of the Norfolk and Suffolk 4x4 Response group (Sarah my wife being the controller for this area) and we assist not only the Lowland Search and Rescue teams but provide off road support to the ambulance service, meals on wheels, transporting carers and medical staff in bad weather and flood situations

We are also members of Suffolk Rover Rescue which operate in a similar manner


And this is all done voluntarily at our own expense

have a look at http://4x4response.net/ or http://www.suffolkroverrescue.org.uk/

Roger

 

[Steve Jones]

=D> =D> =D> Roger and Sarah

Steve

 

[soulboy]

i can also recommmend Grabber AT2, have had them on all year. chris (hoping for some snow this year!)