Winter tyres time?

Gloomendoom

I just run Goodyear M+S tyres all year round. They are not specialist snow tyres and probably a bit of a compromise in all conditions but seem to work well enough for me... even with RWD in the snow.

andy8442

Hold on to your seats! Here we go again.

OP....If you can afford 4 winter tyres, then absolutely buy 4. Look on Mytyres. Buy the cheapest Chinese cheapo brand they do. They will be just amazing in the snow! BUT take them off come spring. If you can't afford two sets of tyres buy ALL Season tyres that you can run all year and will certainly be an improvement in the snow.

Don't you just love the Winter tyre debate!

bikebarbie

thanks Andy that sounds very good and sensible advice :T

reeac

When did winter tyres become such a big thing? In 54 years of car ownership I've never owned any. Have I been missing something or is it all a sales gambit by Quickfit et al?

scheming_gypsy

After trying to work out how cost effective it would be to buy winter tyres and a set of wheels for them, where they might only get a couple of weeks usage this winter..... I bought a Jeep Cherokee instead

mikey72

reeac wrote: »

When did winter tyres become such a big thing? In 54 years of car ownership I've never owned any. Have I been missing something or is it all a sales gambit by Quickfit et al?

You've missed something.

Same as when they went from tubed to tubeless.
Or crossply to radial.
Now you can get a much better tyre for use in winter.
Well worth moving with the technology in this case.

agrinnall

I switched my wheels last week when it was cold, sod's law it's been well over 7 degrees since then, but it's only a matter of time before it plummets seriously.

I would disagree with andy8442's suggestion to buy cheapo Chinese tyres, the test in the current edition of Evo found they performed considerably worse than more premium brands, with Continental and Michelin coming out best.

mikey72

pgilc1 wrote: »

I read recently that insurance companies accept ONLY all four tyres replaced with winter tyres. IF you have two winters on the front and tyre summers on the rear, i think you could have real hassle with the insurance company if you have an accident.

Also, winter tyres work by

(a) working more effectively at a lower temperature
(b) during snow by their tread pattern to make the snow stick to the tyres, as snow grips better with snow to gain you more traction.

Therefore the amount of tread you have on a rear summer tyre will make little difference.

As has been stated, buy a cheap set of rims off ebay, and fit four snow tyres. You'll get several seasons out of them anyway.

Thinking about it, the Vredestein Snowtracs I just bought for my wifes car have a v shaped tread, and are directional, and are designed to eject snow from the tread as the wheel turns, to keep clean rubber on the snow.
If they wanted to keep the snow in, they would have to spin the other way, to force the snow into the closed end of the v.

davemorton

mikey72 wrote: »

For an all season tyre the Vredestein Quatracs get good reports.

After spending far too much time researching this, and having the dilema, of either 4 cheapo's or 2 decent snow tyres, I went for the middle ground and opted for 2 Vredestein Quatrac 3's. They are an all season tyre, but also comes with the snow & mountain symbol (the symbol you should look for on a snow tyre) Saves changing back over, and I will just put them on the back to reduce wear on them through the summer months, then replace the other 2 tyres with another two Quatracs next winter.

reeac

mikey72 wrote: »

You've missed something.

Same as when they went from tubed to tubeless.
Or crossply to radial.
Now you can get a much better tyre for use in winter.
Well worth moving with the technology in this case.

I'm all in favour of adopting advances - started using radials in the mid-60s for example.
I'll check with my local [rural] garage and see how many of their customers use Winter tyres.