Winter tyres on alloys or steels

colino

Surely its Mud & Snow.

Gloomendoom

colino wrote: »

Surely its Mud & Snow.

M+S is Mud & Snow but there is also a symbol with a mountain and a snowflake too.

All season or winter tyres can show one, the other or both...



The problem is that the snow capabilities of tyres just marked M+S can vary from slightly better than a summer tyre to only slightly worse than an all out snow tyre. You need to read reviews to see which end of the range a particular tyre falls into.
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colino

Yep, aware of the badge, but for the life of me don't know why it's there when the big bold M+S is an easy hook for memory of, well, mud & snow!

Iceweasel

colino wrote: »

Yep, aware of the badge, but for the life of me don't know why it's there when the big bold M+S is an easy hook for memory of, well, mud & snow!

The M+S is a worldwide marking - but it's in English.

For France they need to understand that M+S means Boue et Neige and what do the Chinese understand who have their own alphabet - or closer to home the Bulgarians, Ruskis or Serbs with Cyrilic.

How about Грязь и снег?

We are very lucky - those of us who are native speakers of an International language.

The Mountain & Snowflake symbol is a pictogram which needs no words or letters to get across the purpose of the tyre.

You'll be happy to hear that there are no plans to do away with the M+S - it's just an attempt to make things more clear to those folks to whom M+S means little in terms of words.

Edit: You should see what's in the pipeline for commercial vehicle tyres.

Symbols for buses different from trucks.
Local journey work as opposed to long distance.
Off road as opposed to highway.

And all done with pictograms.

Gloomendoom

colino wrote: »

Yep, aware of the badge, but for the life of me don't know why it's there when the big bold M+S is an easy hook for memory of, well, mud & snow!

The mountain symbol confirms that the tyre is definitely suitable for extreme snow conditions. Whereas M+S just indicates that it might be.

Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake:

Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake symbol (3PMSF). Additional marking on M+S tyres indicates they are designed for severe snow conditions.

http://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/learn-share/tyre-basics/how-to-read-a-tyre-side-wall

Beachview_2

chrisfreelander54 wrote: »

thankyou for all your replies.

Im the end I have decided to stick with my alloys and wrap them in nokian wr a3 rubber az the reviews and ratings for these are excellent.

I did concider having steels but would have worked out close to £500, where as buying just the rubber inc delivery worked out at £311.60, plus the additional cost of £6 per corner for fitting.

Chris.

I got my winter tyres fitted at the dealer and they didn't charge anything to change them. This is the 2nd year I've had them fitted.

Beachview_2

I just get mine put on the alloys. I wouldn't want to spoil the look of the car with steel wheels.

Iceweasel

Beachview wrote: »

I just get mine put on the alloys. I wouldn't want to spoil the look of the car with steel wheels.

Exactly - that's why I have 2 good sets of alloys and run them for 6 months each, changing them over when the clocks go forward/back.

I know this is Money Saving Forum - but I want my car to look good - for my pleasure alone that is - I'm not interested what other folks think of it - or me.

nobbysn*ts

chrisfreelander54 wrote: »

thankyou for all your replies.

Im the end I have decided to stick with my alloys and wrap them in nokian wr a3 rubber az the reviews and ratings for these are excellent.

I did concider having steels but would have worked out close to £500, where as buying just the rubber inc delivery worked out at £311.60, plus the additional cost of £6 per corner for fitting.

Chris.

All mine have been £20/£25 for a set of steel wheels, with the oe trims, off ebay. Cheaper, slightly smaller rubber than the alloys, and a one off fitting charge.

red_eye

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

It's not hard to work out. 195 is the width in mm, 50 is the amount of rubber distance between the rim and the diameter of the tyre, as a %age, so 50% of 195 mm is 97.5mm = 3.55 inchs
you double that 7.11 inches, and add that to the wheel diameter = 15 inches plus 7.11 = 22.11.
Circumference = 3.142 (pye) X Diameter = 69.5 inch

So the same for the target tyre. should be within 5% really.

175/60 15 = 71.2 inch circumference.

Personally I'd like to keep the same width. I know a narrowed tyre will cut through snow better.

I agree it is not hard, but with tyres nothings 100% accurate. only way is to measure the tyre yourself.

so your calculation and every other calculator will give an approximate just like my rule. Just my rule is quicker:p