Winter Tyre Test Video

Ultrasonic

Lum wrote: »

Also good when the road is cold AND wet, of course

Good point . It's the the cold bit that is critical (as you know).

shammyjack

I run on the Goodyear Ultragrip 8s in winter but notice since their last years good reviews they have gone up £10 a tyre since last year.

The Nokians are a good alternative. My tyre size shown but I can recommend this website .

Delivered last year at £42 a corner within 2 days from Poland !

Jamie_Carter

Ultrasonic wrote: »

You wouldn't want to change tyres on a daily basis either though. For driving in wet summer weather, summer tyres would be safer than winter tyres. Winter tyres are good when the road is cold not wet.

Winter tyres will wear very quickly on hot dry roads. They are softer compounds so that they will work better on cold roads, but the tread pattern has far more groves in it, and so will disperse water far better at any temperature.

Jamie_Carter

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Good point . It's the the cold bit that is critical (as you know).

No, it's the water dispersal properties that are far more critical, as demonstrated in the video.

King_Nothing

Never had a problem using regular tyres during the past few winters, plus haven't got £800 for a set of extra tyres.

Ultrasonic

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

No, it's the water dispersal properties that are far more critical, as demonstrated in the video.

In the following braking test you'll see that the WET braking figures for the all season tyres (positions 35, 42, 50 and 52) are worse than the better summer tyres, and on a par with the rest? You may have a point in relation to resistance to aquaplaning, but for general driving on wet summer roads I firmly stick to my view that summer tyres are safer. Aquaplaning is not the major concern when it starts raining.

OddballJamie

King_Nothing wrote: »

Never had a problem using regular tyres during the past few winters, plus haven't got £800 for a set of extra tyres.

Use steelies, the tyres work out loads cheaper and it saves your good wheels from the road salt.

reeac

OddballJamie wrote: »

Use steelies, the tyres work out loads cheaper and it saves your good wheels from the road salt.

I'm puzzled: why are tyres for steel wheels cheaper?

OddballJamie

reeac wrote: »

I'm puzzled: why are tyres for steel wheels cheaper?

Steel wheels are generally a smaller size (as long as you can clear the brake callipers). You could use smaller alloys but that ups the overall price as alloys cost more than a cheap set of steel radials and wont be as hardy in the salt.

From King_Nothing quoting £800 I'm guessing he's got 18"/19" wheels, if he could fit 16" wheels on the car with a higher profile then the tyres would be a fraction of the price.

I've got 225/45/17 summer tyres on my car, but I've bought 205/55/16 winter tyres to go on a spare set of alloys I have as the tyres are half the price and I can keep my better alloys safe in the garage over winter.

To answer your original question, the same tyres fit steelies and alloys.

neilmcl

OddballJamie wrote: »

Steel wheels are generally a smaller size (as long as you can clear the brake callipers). You could use smaller alloys but that ups the overall price as alloys cost more than a cheap set of steel radials and wont be as hardy in the salt.

From King_Nothing quoting £800 I'm guessing he's got 18"/19" wheels, if he could fit 16" wheels on the car with a higher profile then the tyres would be a fraction of the price.

I've got 225/45/17 summer tyres on my car, but I've bought 205/55/16 winter tyres to go on a spare set of alloys I have as the tyres are half the price and I can keep my better alloys safe in the garage over winter.

To answer your original question, the same tyres fit steelies and alloys.

If he's running 18"/19" wheels I'd doubt that he could go down to 16". Usually, as in your case, you tend to drop a size smaller. Even so, his £800 estimate sounds a tad high.