Winter Tyres & Black Ice

Gloomendoom

vaio wrote: »

I am surprised that the winter tyres are wider, normally winters are the same width or narrower than summers

They may also have clearance issues. Some insurers don't like larger than standard winter tyres to be fitted either.

neilmcl

The goodyear's are good, you may also want to look on mytyres.co.uk and camskill.co.uk.

What size are you looking at?

agrinnall

aliasojo wrote: »

Thanks both.

If I was to buy new ones, should I be fussy about the make?

The Black Circles site shows me 3 options:

Yokohama £66

Goodyear Ultragrip 7 £69

Goodyear Ultragrip 8 £71

I'll look through ebay as well first though.

It's worth having a look for tests conducted by car magazines as there can be a wide range of performance for different brands. This may be a good starting point:

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/274042/evo_2011_winter_tyre_test_the_intro.html

Paperbird

Winter tyres come with 8 to 10 mm of tread. In most of Europe where winter tyres must be used they are no longer classed as winter tyres when the tread gets below 4mm.
Part worn winter tyres from ebay with 5 or 6mm of tread are not much of a saving if you only get 1 or 2 mm of usable tread before they lose any advantages they have over normal new tyres.

Continental is advising consumers to arrange appointments to switch to winter tyres as soon as possible. The German tyre manufacturer says that consumer who wait for the first snowfall before changing their tyres may find it difficult to quickly find someone to do the switch. In addition, the company says it is expecting consumers to be faced with long waits for some tyres due to dealers having to restock popular sizes.
Continental is also advising drivers mounting the tyres themselves to make sure to check tread depth. The company says that those vehicles with a residual tread of less than 4mm could constitute a safety risk. Below this limit Continental says tyres are no longer capable of locking to snow as well, nor are they able to perform as well on ice.

sunshinetours

Winter tyres will help to a degree in pretty much any situation like ice, snow, heavy frost, etc BUT they won't overcome the laws of physics. They will however get you some extra yards braking room and potentially help you steer in low traction conditions. Also get you away easier from a standing start in icy conditions.

On my third season with mine now, interesting to see how public perception is gradually changing as predicted.

However saying all that any tyres with decent tread and properly pumped up will always be better than neglected bald flat tyres......

Aliasjo the Ultragrips are good tyres - have run mine for last 2 winters

GolfBravo

aliasojo wrote: »

Thanks both.

If I was to buy new ones, should I be fussy about the make?

The Black Circles site shows me 3 options:

Yokohama £66

Goodyear Ultragrip 7 £69

Goodyear Ultragrip 8 £71

I'll look through ebay as well first though.

I recommend the Goodyear Ultragrip 8 (fitted to my wife's car) - according to many professional tyre tests this is the best tyre for UK winters. Not the best in class in snow, but outstanding in wet and on ice.

redux

muckybutt wrote: »

You may also need to contact your insurer as well as strictly speaking winter tyres are not standard spec and could invalidate insurance unless they have been informed you are using them

A recent email from my insurer suggests considering winter tyres. My interpretation is that that gives me permission without me needing to ask.

luci

The Aviva website also states that you should consider using winter tyres. They don't need told if you put them on.

We both got the winter tyres put on a month ago when we had the first flurry of snow and it was a good move as the temperature hasn't gone beyond 5C since.

When I got my new car in January, one of my requirements was that it had to have 16" wheels. My last car had 17" wheels and 2 years ago I couldn't get winter tyres for love nor money. Everyone kept telling me I could, but they obviously hadn't tried every website and every garage within a 50 miles radius as I had. I did eventually get after 2 months of trying by ordering them from Germany.

sunshinetours

My model wouldn't take 16" wheels otherwise I would have done same as cheaper tyres as well. The 17" winters can be as expensive as the 19" regular tyres I run!

Saying that if you have to buy in the middle of winter you can get problems finding certain winter tyres as production runs have stopped

luci

I didn't wait until the middle of winter, I started trying to get them the third week in November!