Winter - BMW

Ultrasonic

I saw the thread title and expected lots of posts saying buy winter tyres. Surprisingly not, so here goes, get some winter tyres! As for storage there are tyre places that will store them for you although there will often be a charge. But compared to the cost of buying and running a second car this is not significant. An old banger with summer tyres on would also not be the safest for transporting children to and from nursery in either.

Here's a couple of BMW specific You Tube clips to show the benefits of winter tyres:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STaximkaQxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65UfKUS9-mQ

GolfBravo

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Does it have to be Toys"Я"Us play sand or will a couple of 25kg bags of cheap sand do?

Toys"Я"Us play sand is probably the cheapest anyway.

colino

At a slight tangent, what do most people really do with their nice summer alloys when they are ploughing the lanes with their horrible winter skinnies? A 5 series for example will only take the spare in the well and two in the boot. Do you do two trips to your friendly tyre fitter?

Gloomendoom

colino wrote: »

At a slight tangent, what do most people really do with their nice summer alloys when they are ploughing the lanes with their horrible winter skinnies? A 5 series for example will only take the spare in the well and two in the boot. Do you do two trips to your friendly tyre fitter?

No, I put them in the garage.

In any case, there is always the back seat.

mattyprice4004

GolfBravo wrote: »

Agreed.

BMWs are great in snow. :snow_laug You just need winter tyres. And if things are really bad, get a couple of 25kg play sand bags from Toys'r'us and keep them in the boot for some extra weight above the rear axle to improve grip.

This is a joke right? My friend's 320d and his old 325i were both utterly useless in the snow a couple of years back, despite swanky winter tyres.

I have fond memories of driving past an endless line of rear-wheel drive cars stuck on a gentle incline in snow on the M58 last year - I had no problems at all along with most other FWD drivers.

Iceweasel

colino wrote: »

At a slight tangent, what do most people really do with their nice summer alloys when they are ploughing the lanes with their horrible winter skinnies? A 5 series for example will only take the spare in the well and two in the boot. Do you do two trips to your friendly tyre fitter?

My 3er doesn't have a wheel well at all.

I keep my other set of wheels in the back of the garage or the shed and change them over myself.

For those with no storage space themselves I think tyre dealers will eventually cotton on to the money making idea of storing them for the time they are not needed, as happens in Germany and Austria for example.

But the great British public are just waking up to the winter tyre concept.

We don't have to have chaos when the temperature drops.

My winters aren't that 'skinny' - they are 225/45 17 front and rear - as opposed to my summer rubber which are 225/45 17 on the front axle and 255/40 17 on the rear axle.

scheming_gypsy

OddballJamie wrote: »

That's possibly the single worst excuse for not fitting winter tyres I've ever heard.

but it's the best one to justify buying a new banger just for winter!

colino

Iceweasel if you have gone to the trouble of fitting winters, why did you not go down two width sizes and up one in sidewall as our continental cousins recommend?

Iceweasel

colino wrote: »

Iceweasel if you have gone to the trouble of fitting winters, why did you not go down two width sizes and up one in sidewall as our continental cousins recommend?

Ten to fifteen years ago I would have - but that's no longer current thinking.

Narrow tyres will not give me the traction I need in the dry, or on wet roads at 5 to 10 degreesC on nicer winter days.

I run these tyres from Nov to March so it's not just about performance in several cms of uncleared snow, when narrow tyres are for sure an advantage.

'State of the Art' winters don't need to be narrower.

Both Continental and Michelin have abandoned the narrower tyre advice.

Here's the Michelin take on it:

Tomasz Młodawski, product manager at Michelin Poland:
Changing your winter tyre width to be narrower than those in summer is not recommended.The trend today is to use identical tyre size in summer (as approved by the car manufacturer) and winter tyres.Making the tyres narrower for the winter causes worse traction and, by decreasing the contact area, worse braking on wet, snow-covered (hard) and icy surfaces.

chrisw

Or do neither and learn how to drive RWD cars properly, preferably on a skid pan. I spent my teens and early twenties hooning around in RWD Cortinas and Cavaliers and haven't got my BMW stuck in the last 3 years despite rubbish run flat tyres.