Winter Tyres

greatgimpo

If you do go down the road of a spare set of wheels from Ebay or whatever, you should also think about getting a cheap but efficient hydraulic trolley jack from Halfords for about £40 - it's a pain to change four wheels without one.

londonTiger

im considering snow tyres too, just on my drive wheels on my fwd. I thought it was expensive to have spare wheels, but then if you factor in that both sets will be used only half the year it makes sense to have a dedicated season wheels.

The wear might even be better because they're being driven in seasons they were meant for.

londonTiger

EdGasket wrote: »

Get some snow chains?

at £50 an axle, rubbish performance, illegal to use off the snow, and hard work to put on. I don't think so.

Snow chains should be used in places where they have months of non-stop snow. Not for occasional snow here and there like in UK

OddballJamie

londonTiger wrote: »

im considering snow tyres too, just on my drive wheels on my fwd. I thought it was expensive to have spare wheels, but then if you factor in that both sets will be used only half the year it makes sense to have a dedicated season wheels.

The wear might even be better because they're being driven in seasons they were meant for.

You should really change all four tyres, not just the drive ones. Could get scary when cornering or braking on steep hills in bad weather.

Also think it could invalidate your insurance with having different types of tyres on each axle.

alun4

neilmcl wrote: »

Not a good idea. Once the weather and temperatures improve winter tyres will wear significantly quicker than standard summer tyres and performance will also suffer.

Certainly that used to be the case (not sure how dramatic the extra wear would be on our roads. The compounds have changed and you might find it worthwhile speaking to tech dept of one of the majors. Our local tyre dealer kept snow tyres on his Subaru all last year and hoteliers we know in Austria don't change them for the summer months where the temperatures can be a lot higher than most of the UK.

I will see as the year passes as a few thousand less miles out of a set might be cheaper than running 2 sets of tyres (particularly if changing to a different car is envisaged)

A lot of tyre retailers will store the alternate set of tyres/wheels ...... of course for a fee!

NeverEnough

neilmcl wrote: »

Not a good idea. Once the weather and temperatures improve winter tyres will wear significantly quicker than standard summer tyres and performance will also suffer.

It depends really, where you live - some people do leave their winters on all year round especially in cooler parts of the country. Lasy year was so grim that I didn't bother to swop mine over and there really was very little additional wear on the tyres, which have been used since 2010 now, including last summer. Generally, the softer compound on winters will wear quicker with temps consistently over 7C, but in chilly wet conditions like the horrid summer of 2012 it didn't seem to add much to the wear.

I also prefer the ride quality on the smaller, thinner tyres to that of the mega wide alloys with their rubber bands!

ShandyAndy_2

Snow chains are a big no as soon as you get off the snow you have to take them off again just like snow socks. I work in motor trade so swapping the wheels on a ramp could be done in a dinnertime. All season tyres might be worth a look, but won't swap them while I have good tyres all round on both cars.

lil.smartie

I have some all seasons on my Smart Fortwo, Kumho Solus Vier they've been pretty good. I have proper winters on the main car (Colt CZT) on spare rims these are Falkens, once bedded in they have been really good, still grippy but not a mm of trouble in the snow/ice

Kate

Mr_Toad

I've never had a car that I couldn't drive in snow until I got my current car, a Merc SLK 32 AMG.

In the snow it's basically undriveable even on level ground. Too much power through too wide wheels even with the gearbox on the winter setting.

When I first got it winter tyres were hard to find and very expensive so it was cheaper to leave it in the garage in bad weather. However, winters are worse and winter tyres are easily available so I've been using them for three years now and I was amazed at the difference they make.

Since using them I can not only drive in the snow but I've never been stuck. My car feels like it's got 4 wheel drive. It's hard to believe that something as simple as a change of tyres can make such a difference.

As others have said they also make the car more sure footed in the wet and on frosty roads.

The only down side is that mine are quite noisy on dry roads, my Merc sounds like an old Land Rover with the tyres whistling but I don't care. I'll never drive another winter without them.

My son drives a Hyundai Getz and he never gets stuck with his normal tyres, likewise my ex's MG TF, it was great in the snow with the engine in the middle, I used to use it before I got winter tyres on mine.

londonTiger

OddballJamie wrote: »

You should really change all four tyres, not just the drive ones. Could get scary when cornering or braking on steep hills in bad weather.

Also think it could invalidate your insurance with having different types of tyres on each axle.

I guess you're right, I was going to say that drive wheels on winter tyres and the other axle in all season should be safer than all four on all season in winter.

I guess the all season in winter would be predictably poor so you're more likely to drive slower and take a lot of caution.

Having winter tyres on the drive on a fwd and non winter on the rear could mean that you have good traction while driving straight so you drive faster and then the first turn your take the rear just swerves out.