winter tyres or smaller wheels or what!

Lum

Snow socks don't last so long if you drive them on tarmac so if your commute is a mixture of gritted and ungritted roads you'll need to be constantly stopping to take them on and off.

Plus the cost of 4 snow socks is about the cost of 4 second hand cheapo wheels off eBay, and as discussed in the other thread, the winter tyres aren't actually an additional expense as they keep wear off the summer tyres.

shammyjack

red_eye wrote: »

for snow you need a thread pattern with wide spaces between the blocks to clear snow and a large aspect ratio to drop tyre pressure look at rally cars in wrc see what they use for snow, but with a 225/45/17 you will struggle to find a tyre/ wheel combo that will not drasticly affect your speedo

having a set of steels with snow tyres is a good idea but only if your in the sticks and no one clears the snow as once you get on the clear road it will rip the thread blocks to bits

COBBLERS !

The whole point of a snow tire is that it picks up snow ! It is the snow embedded in the tyre that gives you the traction . Snow sticks to snow better than rubber !

I am running Goodyear Ultragrip 8s this year , the updated version of the Ultragrip 7+ which won last years Autoexpress winter tyre test.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/total_tyre_guide/259435/winter_tyre_test.html

shammy

supermonkey

This seems as good a place as any. Not sure whether to go for these tyres. I would have nowhere to store another set of tyres, (or complete wheels)!

However I'm also concerned that whats on my car isn't suitable. The manual states 215/45/R18 89W. The back has 93V Nankang Toursport 611 & front 89Y Kumho Ecsta Spt. So they are not matched and the speed / load doesn't match the manufacturers recommendation.

Black tyres states "It is very important that you check your speed rating before buying your tyres - as choosing a tyre with a lower speed rating could invalidate your insurance." This has got me worried!

interstellaflyer

Trebor16 wrote: »

It might be worth getting a set of rims to fit the winter tyres on.

It might be worth checking with your insurance company first, wasn't there a bit of a fus last year when insurers were classing winter tyres as a modification and loading customers premiums accordingly.

Trebor16

interstellaflyer wrote: »

It might be worth checking with your insurance company first, wasn't there a bit of a fus last year when insurers were classing winter tyres as a modification and loading customers premiums accordingly.

http://www.abi.org.uk/Bulletins/Media_Outlook/2010/12/ABI_Media_Outlook__12_December_2010.aspx