Summer tyres for winter?

darkmatter101

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

No, rotate the tyres on the car so they wear evenly, then buy a full set of AWs at the same time. If you do put AWs on just a pair, the recommendation is to run them on the rear.

When you say rotate the tyres, do you reccomend switching the front tyres to the back and vice vera or so you mean to switch tyres in a clockwise pattern?

BeenThroughItAll

darkmatter101 wrote: »

Any suggestions for good all season tyres?

I've run Kleber Quadraxers, Kumho KH21s, Nexen NPriz 4S and Vredestein Quatracs. Can't say any of them have been significantly better/worse than the others, and they've all been way better than summers in wet/cold/icy/snowy conditions all year round.


The Quatracs did seem to wear out faster and the Nexen's I've got on at present do seem to be wearing quite quickly. My 'favourites' were the Kumhos, tbh. I had them on my 528i, and used it all the way through the winter of 2011 when we had snow on the ground up here from October 17th right through to January.

BeenThroughItAll

darkmatter101 wrote: »

When you say rotate the tyres, do you reccomend switching the front tyres to the back and vice vera or so you mean to switch tyres in a clockwise pattern?

Within the confines of any asymmetry and rotation markers, you move (for a FWD car):


NSR to OSF
OSR to NSF
NSF to NSR
OSF to OSR


Basically you're moving the front pair to the rear, and the rear pair to the front and opposing sides on the driven wheels, so for a RWD car, it's the opposite way round for the side swap.

Edwood_Woodwood

darkmatter101 wrote: »

Hello,

I have recently acquired an S line '07 plate A3 from a family member. It has 18 inch wheels with 2 Goodyears and 2 Continentals sport contacts low profile 225/40r/18.

Both tyres are summer/sporty tyres and all have good thread, around 5mm.

Now, as winter is coming up, is it worth spending money on winter tyres or do you think these tyres should be good enough? I will be doing around 160 miles/week. These summer tyres are around £130-150 new but I can buy new budget winter tyres for £50ish each.

Would the budget winter tyres, i.e. Nankang, be superior to the Goodyears and Continentals low profile tyres?

This old chestnut always comes up.

In the UK the best tyres to have all year round are wet weather tyres.

It can rain as much in a July as in a winter month.

And last winter was very wet.

force_ten

people go on about the cost of winter tyres but the fact that your summer tyres are in the shed for six months a year not getting used means they last twice as long

so the initial outlay is offset by the wear saving on the summer tyres, if you do 12,000 miles per year in four years time the cost is balanced out as one set of winters and one set of summers

if you move the car on before the winter tyres are worn out then you can easily move on the alloys with part worn tyres

so at the end of the day it works out about the same as we all need tyres on our car so be it winters or summers the cost is the same for the tyres and when the car is sold chances are it is money back for the spare set of alloys

Iceweasel

darkmatter101 wrote: »

I was thinking that the look of the car would be ruined with the smaller 16 inch alloys.

Yaris will be sold by the end of the year. M3 is useless in snow and can be scary in heavy rain when pushed even a little.

It's now obvious you know little about the capabilities of an M3 - it's all down to tyres - a bit like Formula1.

All season tyres are a poor compromise compared to having 2 sets of wheels.

Have a look here to see what a M3 can do - if properly equipped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOv2g5qTpvA

And I do know the vid is of an e46 and yours in an e90 - isn't it?

After a try two winters ago of a rag-bag set of alloys and part-worn winters, I sold my LandRover which up till then I had always considered absolutely necessary to stay mobile in Aberdeenshire through the winter, and get to work every day without fail.

Last winter I bought fresh alloys and top of the range winter tyres.



Swapping tyres over to existing rims is false economy as you you will have wear and tear on your good summer tyres and alloys and you have to pay for mounting and balancing for 4 wheels twice a year.

Over the life of the winters - say 3 to 4 years that will cost much the same as buying an extra set of alloys.

And as has been already said you can sell on the wheels and tyres when/if you change car with different size tyres/wheels and recoup most of the cost of the alloys.

Buy a set of decent wheels and winter tyres and be done with it.

Iceweasel

Edwood_Woodwood wrote: »

This old chestnut always comes up.

In the UK the best tyres to have all year round are wet weather tyres.

It can rain as much in a July as in a winter month.

And last winter was very wet.

I agree - if you can't afford two sets of wheels - or you have no space to store them - then it's better to have winter tyres all year round than summer tyres in winter.

Don't believe all the horror stories about the high rate of wear in the summer - that was true a few years ago on the first generation of winters - but not now.

Yes there will be an increase in wear - but not enough to make them uneconomic, compared to having 2 sets of wheels.

darkmatter101

force_ten wrote: »

people go on about the cost of winter tyres but the fact that your summer tyres are in the shed for six months a year not getting used means they last twice as long

so the initial outlay is offset by the wear saving on the summer tyres, if you do 12,000 miles per year in four years time the cost is balanced out as one set of winters and one set of summers

if you move the car on before the winter tyres are worn out then you can easily move on the alloys with part worn tyres

so at the end of the day it works out about the same as we all need tyres on our car so be it winters or summers the cost is the same for the tyres and when the car is sold chances are it is money back for the spare set of alloys

But the problem with this method is that you'll end up spending £40 each time to get the tyres swapped from summer to winter tyres and vice versa. That's already £80/year extra plus you may want to rotate them etc. Unless you have two sets of alloys, which again you have to spend for the extra set.

OddballJamie

darkmatter101 wrote: »

But the problem with this method is that you'll end up spending £40 each time to get the tyres swapped from summer to winter tyres and vice versa. That's already £80/year extra plus you may want to rotate them etc. Unless you have two sets of alloys, which again you have to spend for the extra set.

You're worried about £40 and having to buy budget tyres, yet you're living in London running three cars?

jimjames

JB9302 wrote: »

I am putting my Dunlop SP Winter Sports on at the end of this month and will keep them on till end March , found them to be very effective in cold wet conditions as well as maintaining grip in snow .
I have done additional driver training and several off road courses over the years and find the switch to Winter tyres when the temperatures drop improves the cars roadholding and helps us maintain grip when we get the icy/snowy conditions on the hills around where we live .
Initial extra cost in buying a spare set of wheels from the bay and then the tyres but since they are swopped over replacement tyre purchases are much further away .

Got a set of winter tyres that came with my car when I bought it so this will be first year of switching to them. When's the best time to fit them, is it just based on average temperature?