Winter Tyres

jase1

missile wrote: »

I invested in 4 winter tyres & wheels last year and sods law we had a mild winter. :rotfl:

Same here... although I trumped that by being lazy and leaving the rears on (as they weren't losing any appreciable amount of tread), only to trash my car in the floods (took in water through the air intake) and, despite the fact that the new car takes the same wheels as the old one, lost the near-brand new tyres at £60 a pop :mad:

So just for this year I will wing it I think and just use the two. If this becomes problematic I will sort the rears as well -- I'm currently looking for a decent set of winters (or preferably all-seasons) to put on the back.

Chorlie

I'm going to throw a hypothetical question into the hat here.....

If you only drive a small amount of miles per year (say half the average) & you're in the market for a full new set of tyres; is it better to buy summer tyres & run them all year round or buy winter tyres & run them all year round?



(I'm going to rule out buying 2 full set (plus steel wheels) and switching them over as an option).....

jase1

Actually my earlier post leads me to a query. I thought about this last year but I'm fairly convinced of the logic now.

Can anyone see any particular problem with running summer tyres on the front in summer, winter tyres on the front in winter and the compromise all-seasons all year around on the rear?

Reason I ask is that I had the winter tyres on the rear for a good few months this year (up to June in fact) in all weathers (it was wet this year!!) and found them quite adequate. I figured that the all-seasons would be more so.

neilmcl

Chorlie wrote: »

I'm going to throw a hypothetical question into the hat here.....

If you only drive a small amount of miles per year (say half the average) & you're in the market for a full new set of tyres; is it better to buy summer tyres & run them all year round or buy winter tyres & run them all year round?



(I'm going to rule out buying 2 full set (plus steel wheels) and switching them over as an option).....

You don't want to run winter tyre all year round, they won't be very effective during the warmer months and they'll be trashed in no time at all due to the softer compound. A bit of false economy imo. If you don't drive many miles then stick to your summer tyres and take it a bit easier during the winter.

jase1

Not sure I agree with this -- I ran winter tyres on the rear of the Focus for about 8 months due to pure laziness, and they had lost less than a mm of their tread in that time (roughly 13,000 miles).

TBH I've had summer tyres that wear faster than that.

neilmcl

jase1 wrote: »

Not sure I agree with this -- I ran winter tyres on the rear of the Focus for about 8 months due to pure laziness, and they had lost less than a mm of their tread in that time (roughly 13,000 miles).

TBH I've had summer tyres that wear faster than that.

I'd dare say that would be a different if on the fronts. Also, not calling you a liar, but I'd find it very unlikely for any kind of tyre to lose less than 1mm only in 13K miles.

Why did you have winters on the rear of a focus anyway, did you have them on the front as well at any time?

jase1

neilmcl wrote: »

I'd dare say that would be a different if on the fronts. Also, not calling you a liar, but I'd find it very unlikely for any kind of tyre to lose less than 1mm only in 13K miles.

Why did you have winters on the rear of a focus anyway, did you have them on the front as well at any time?

Yes, I had them all round.

The front tyres were on for around 6000 miles and lost around 3mm -- so I'd expect around 10-12,000 miles from them. They'll be going on the Mondeo when the weather looks like turning.

It's possible that the rears may have lost more -- I checked the tread level about two weeks before the car lunched its engine and they were at 7mm.

neilmcl

jase1 wrote: »

Yes, I had them all round.

The front tyres were on for around 6000 miles and lost around 3mm -- so I'd expect around 10-12,000 miles from them. They'll be going on the Mondeo when the weather looks like turning.

It's possible that the rears may have lost more -- I checked the tread level about two weeks before the car lunched its engine and they were at 7mm.

That might explain it. Some winter tyres can have 9-10mm when new, whereas summers tend to be 7-8mm.

Also, on thing to bear in mind with winters is the recommended minimum tread depth will be higher than summers, ie, 3-4mm. Anyone buying 2nd hand winter tyres at around this tread depth is wasting their money.

missile

jase1 wrote: »

Actually my earlier post leads me to a query. I thought about this last year but I'm fairly convinced of the logic now.

Can anyone see any particular problem with running summer tyres on the front in summer, winter tyres on the front in winter and the compromise all-seasons all year around on the rear?

Reason I ask is that I had the winter tyres on the rear for a good few months this year (up to June in fact) in all weathers (it was wet this year!!) and found them quite adequate. I figured that the all-seasons would be more so.

All season tyres are a compromise. Not as much grip as the equivalent summer tyre in the dry but significantly better in cold / wet weather. Not as much grip as winter tyre in the cold / wet but significantly better in the dry. :T

See earlier post with quote from IAM. :A

Unfortunately all season tyres are not that popular in the UK. Consequently choice may be limited in the size and speed rating you may require.

jase1

neilmcl wrote: »

That might explain it. Some winter tyres can have 9-10mm when new, whereas summers tend to be 7-8mm.

It's possible, yes. Either way they seemed to be wearing surprisingly well. I didn't think they were 10mm when new, 9 maybe.

Also, on thing to bear in mind with winters is the recommended minimum tread depth will be higher than summers, ie, 3-4mm. Anyone buying 2nd hand winter tyres at around this tread depth is wasting their money.

Absolutely. Having said that, I tend to swap tyres out at 3mm anyway, so having these on over the winter, with 3-4mm of tread coming out in March will work out quite nicely I think.

missile wrote: »

All season tyres are a compromise. Not as much grip as the equivalent summer tyre in the dry but significantly better in cold / wet weather. Not as much grip as winter tyre in the cold / wet but significantly better in the dry. :T

Indeed -- dry grip isn't usually a problem, wet grip I can't see being significantly worse than a mid-range summer tyre on the rear of a car and it'll mean that I only have to bother swapping out two tyres rather than four (the latter being a proper pain in the arris to do onesself).

The size is a common one (205/55/16) so getting V-rated all-seasons isn't hard.