Snow Chains - worth their weight in gold

pinkneonmartini

Back in autumn I nabbed a pair of snow chains in lidl for £20. Had no idea if they would be effective at all as previously I've always driven small diesel hatchbacks on skinny wheels and never had any problems in the white stuff. But last winter my dear old Yaris died and I got myself a brand spanking new hyundai i20, but it's petrol and easily double the size of my old mkI yaris, and as such I spent most of last winter going round bends sideways and driving with the window open to alert pedestrians and other cars that I had no control over bringing my car to a stop for things like lights or crossings, and that was if I managed to get the car off the driveway at all!
So when the chains appearred in lidl I figured they would be worth sticking in the boot for emergencies. And after driving from Cheshire up to Coniston, we were 4 miles from the hotel and the white stuff started to come down hard and fast. Literally within 10 minutes it went from a light fluttering that looked pretty to blocking roads, and we got stuck on a hill! :eek:
We watched as car after car put their foot down and tried to go round us only to get stuck 6ft further up the hill. But we got straight out and got the snow chains on, granted it was a little more difficult to get them on in 8 inches of fresh snow while it continued to fall, than it had been when we'd practiced on the driveway in the dry, but we succeed and within 20 minutes we were tootling up the hill past the 4WD van which was sliding down the hill with no driver :eek: past the Audi quattro estate (apparently 4WD counts for sod all if you're gonna put slick run flat low profile tyres on!) while everyone else was being guided back down the hill and turned round and set back the way they'd come.
We were stopped by builders pushing a low loader who looked genuinely gobsmacked to see these two girls in a fully loaded little silver car complete with a yapping pooch on the back seat, passing with ease, and they demanded to know where we got the chains and were even more gobsmacked to find out they were £20 from a budget supermarket a little further up the road we came across some policemen literally shovelling snow to dig out yet more audi estates (hehehe another point to the cheap korean ) and even a couple of soft-roaders. And again we saw the look of utter amazement spread across the policeman's face as he enquired about the chains and said "it's nice to see that someone's prepared" before giving us a wink and going back to his shovelling.

I realise this has become a very long-winded waffle, but I am getting to the point I promise.

Later that night we settled down in a lovely pub next to a roaring fire with a couple of pints and were informed by the barmaid that she'd been stuck on the same road, and she had to wait 2 hours for a tow truck to pull her out and pay for the service. She didn't tell us how much but the eye roll and full facial grimace told us it probably wasn't cheap. My £20 snow chains, not only saved us 2 hours and the cost of a tow truck, but a we took them off put them back in their carrier in the boot, and they will no doubt save us again, and probably many more times in the years to come. The monetary saving is too much to measure so there's no figure for a my siggy. But I wanted to relay the story because if any of you were wondering if they were worth the money THEY ARE! Even my lovely gf who is searching for a new car has now accepted that she doesn't need a 4x4 and is now looking at family-sized diesel hatchbacks and has said the first thing she is doing no matter which make and model she ends up with, is going to pick up a set of snow chains to put in the boot before the ink is even dry on the v5s!

mgdavid

Thanks for the tip - do you know if these are regular stock items or an occasional offer? (did it really take 728 words to say 'Aldi's snow chains are excellent'?)

Ms_Chocaholic

mgdavid wrote: »

Thanks for the tip - do you know if these are regular stock items or an occasional offer? (did it really take 728 words to say 'Aldi's snow chains are excellent'?)

They're from Lidl

ETA: I was at our local Lidl yesterday and I think they had some in, no idea of price tho, sorry.

mattyprice4004

I'm not sure shouting at pedestrians and other vehicles through an open window is an acceptable method of motoring - if it's that bad and you can't control your vehicle, you shouldn't be driving.

Crikey, if you'd hit my car just after shouting 'sorry can't stop' the snow would have been the least of your problems

agrinnall

For £20 it may be worth having a set on the off chance that you might need to use them, but generally in the UK there is not enough of the right kind of snow on the roads to make snow chains effective. Winter tyres are a much better option for all sorts of conditions in the colder months.

pinkneonmartini

mgdavid wrote: »

Thanks for the tip - do you know if these are regular stock items or an occasional offer? (did it really take 728 words to say 'Aldi's snow chains are excellent'?)

They were on promotion when I got them but they appear to be in stock throughout the winter in their larger stores. And when I asked in store they said it would be possible to ring round on my behalf and find a set if I had no joy.

And ok 728 words may have been excessive, but figured it was easier than waiting for someone to say "How do you know? Have you used them?" etc.

arcon5

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

I'm not sure shouting at pedestrians and other vehicles through an open window is an acceptable method of motoring - if it's that bad and you can't control your vehicle, you shouldn't be driving.

Crikey, if you'd hit my car just after shouting 'sorry can't stop' the snow would have been the least of your problems

Ye, running them down is always the better option!!

pinkneonmartini

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

I'm not sure shouting at pedestrians and other vehicles through an open window is an acceptable method of motoring - if it's that bad and you can't control your vehicle, you shouldn't be driving.

Crikey, if you'd hit my car just after shouting 'sorry can't stop' the snow would have been the least of your problems

Thanks so much for that patronising and condesending reply!

It was a new car and I had no idea how it would handle in the snow, until the snow came. The shouting out the window was a single incident on a journey home from work totalling 1.2 miles after a heavy snowfall during the day. It occurred at a crossing 200 yds from my front door after turning off a gritted A road on to the side road to my new build estate. Where the car remained for another week. I approached the crossing, a girl pressed the button and when I braked the car didn't stop because the side road hadn't been gritted. I had no way of knowing the car wouldn't stop. I shouted out the window because the girl at the crossing was shielding her face from the falling snow and wasn't looking in my direction, she heard the beeps of the crossing and stepped out. Would it have been better to knock her down?

It amazes me just how literally people take things. I was simply trying to share a genuinely helpful experience in a light hearted manner. Wish I'd never bothered posting now.

chris_n_tj

pinkneonmartini wrote: »

Thanks so much for that patronising and condesending reply!

It was a new car and I had no idea how it would handle in the snow, until the snow came. The shouting out the window was a single incident on a journey home from work totalling 1.2 miles after a heavy snowfall during the day. It occurred at a crossing 200 yds from my front door after turning off a gritted A road on to the side road to my new build estate. Where the car remained for another week. I approached the crossing, a girl pressed the button and when I braked the car didn't stop because the side road hadn't been gritted. I had no way of knowing the car wouldn't stop. I shouted out the window because the girl at the crossing was shielding her face from the falling snow and wasn't looking in my direction, she heard the beeps of the crossing and stepped out. Would it have been better to knock her down?

It amazes me just how literally people take things. I was simply trying to share a genuinely helpful experience in a light hearted manner. Wish I'd never bothered posting now.

Well for what its worth I found your post informative, and I had a tittler when reading it.
Made a change from some of the drivel that gets posted :mad:

cootuk

I see Michelin are now advertising snow studs (a bit like snow socks with studs). Should be a good seller.

mattyprice4004

pinkneonmartini wrote: »

Thanks so much for that patronising and condesending reply!

It was a new car and I had no idea how it would handle in the snow, until the snow came. The shouting out the window was a single incident on a journey home from work totalling 1.2 miles after a heavy snowfall during the day. It occurred at a crossing 200 yds from my front door after turning off a gritted A road on to the side road to my new build estate. Where the car remained for another week. I approached the crossing, a girl pressed the button and when I braked the car didn't stop because the side road hadn't been gritted. I had no way of knowing the car wouldn't stop. I shouted out the window because the girl at the crossing was shielding her face from the falling snow and wasn't looking in my direction, she heard the beeps of the crossing and stepped out. Would it have been better to knock her down?

It amazes me just how literally people take things. I was simply trying to share a genuinely helpful experience in a light hearted manner. Wish I'd never bothered posting now.

Sincerity is hard to read over the Internet - I imagined someone bouncing off the rev limiter determined to get to where they were going, sideways or not.

Glad the chains helped.