Winter tyres

REDDDRAGGON

How does it work with insurance? Changing the wheels means you are making a modification to the car (unless you having two sets of matching alloys)?

Isn't changing the tyres a modification?

Mr_Toad

I love the way people equate winter tyres with snow.

Winter tyres are not about snow, they are a compound that remains pliable and grippy at low temp and in wet conditions that also offer better traction in snow.

I started using winter tyres several years ago and was initially skeptical but the difference in grip was very marked.

worried_jim

REDDDRAGGON wrote: »

Isn't changing the tyres a modification?

I hope not! Every car on the road older than a few years will be void of insurance!

I wonder if McLaren give Santander insurance services a call every time Jenson Button makes a pit stop! "I see Ron, but when you took the policy out twenty minutes ago they were on factory fitted super softs and now you are saying you have changed to intermediates?"

Sharp intake of breath, followed by,

"your new quote is now...", "and then there's the cancellation charge etc".

Iceweasel

REDDDRAGGON wrote: »

How does it work with insurance? Changing the wheels means you are making a modification to the car (unless you having two sets of matching alloys)?

Isn't changing the tyres a modification?

Looking at it like that, changing to any type or brand of tyre other than the ones the car left the factory with is a modification.

Insurance company phone lines would be jammed all day.

I have a set of different design wheels but they correspond to those offered by the car manufacturer as an option when the car was originally ordered. The original owner had a choice of around 10 different styles of wheel.

I told my insurance company I was fitting winter tyres, and would be changing them around every year, but the person on the phone just laughed and said thank you for telling us.

Same with the tyres too - all they have ever said to me is that as long as they are one of the recommended sizes given on the tyre-fitment label on the driver's door-post they are fine, and I don't need to inform them.

But if you are in doubt - phone your broker or insurance company to check on their attitude to making your car safer in wintertime.

OddballJamie

REDDDRAGGON wrote: »

How does it work with insurance? Changing the wheels means you are making a modification to the car (unless you having two sets of matching alloys)?

Isn't changing the tyres a modification?

Have a check on this PDF for your insurer.

When I first got mine I contacted my insurer and they said as long as the winter tyres/wheels aren't larger than the standard ones it's fine.

I run OEM 17s in the summer and OEM 16s in the winter (bit cheaper that way).

Not once have I regretted buying them.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Mr_Toad wrote: »

I love the way people equate winter tyres with snow.

Winter tyres are not about snow, they are a compound that remains pliable and grippy at low temp and in wet conditions that also offer better traction in snow.

I started using winter tyres several years ago and was initially skeptical but the difference in grip was very marked.

Going back to all season,

The questions people should ask themselves are:

- How many times have I run out of grip on a warm summer's day?

- How many times have I run out of grip on a cold wet day?

The scenario I would suggest is pulling out of a junction in busy traffic, where it is very easy to get wheelspin. In the wet it is very easy to trigger traction control. It was the thing that I noticed I used to get the stability control light triggering with worn summer tyres in the wet, whereas with All Season that problem went away, even with reasonably worn tyres.

Clearly, the vast majority of sensible drivers never reach the limits of their tyres in the dry, but regularly do have issues in the wet.

Why would you then be worried about say a 10% loss of summer grip when you gain 10 or 20% of grip in the cold and wet - and on the rare snowy day, All Season and Winter tyres are off the scale compared with summer tyres.

If you drive a high performance car (including 4x4s) then summer and winter is probably the way to go - the cost of running two sets of wheels is not massively out of proportion to the running costs, and they do tend to push the limits of adhesion even in the dry.

Drive a run of the mill car, or you do not really use the performance of your car (thinking of the typical mid spec Audi/BMW/Merc that are driven in a moderate fashion) then All Season makes sense - small compromise on stopping distance and handling in summer that you will never really make use of, yet you get improvements in poor conditions where you have no "headroom" where you will already have experienced issues.

Richard53

Another vote in favour of winter tyres. I fitted some to the Mondeo in November 2013, thinking I would splash out on some summer tyres in the spring and run two sets of wheels. As it turned out, I didn't do this and have run the winter tyres over last summer and this winter. Performance in the dry and warm weather is indistinguishable from summer rubber, they are no noisier and have had no measurable effect on fuel consumption. They coped with a fully-laden high-speed run to Switzerland and back last summer. They have done around 8-10k miles and still have most of the tread left.


I live in Wales, I haven't had chance to use them in snow, but I can say that in cold, wet conditions (sub 5 deg C) the grip is awesomely good. A couple of weeks ago, the (private) road out of my workplace at 6.30 am was covered in heavy frost, conditions where I would be riding feet-down on the bike. I tried to provoke a slide, but could not do it. It was uncanny. They feel massively safer in these conditions than the Primacies they replaced.


On the insurance issue, I notified my insurers (Churchill) and they amended my schedule to note I had winter tyres. They definitely wanted to be informed (and also when I change back to summers) but there was no charge for the amendment.

neilmcl

Richard53 wrote: »

On the insurance issue, I notified my insurers (Churchill) and they amended my schedule to note I had winter tyres. They definitely wanted to be informed (and also when I change back to summers) but there was no charge for the amendment.

Not according to this they dont - https://www.abi.org.uk/~/media/Files/Documents/Publications/Public/Migrated/Motor/ABI%20guide%20to%20winter%20tyres%20The%20motor%20insurance%20commitment.pdf

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

neilmcl wrote: »

Not according to this they dont - https://www.abi.org.uk/~/media/Files/Documents/Publications/Public/Migrated/Motor/ABI%20guide%20to%20winter%20tyres%20The%20motor%20insurance%20commitment.pdf

Perhaps it is a case that they will not invalidate insurance without it, but are more than happy to have complete records.

Also, the people on the phone probably are trained to record everything regardless of the underwriter's view that there is not a premium difference.

[Deleted User]

treboeth wrote: »

Are those really your wheels in the first pic?

Impossibly clean and shiny :rotfl:

Please send tips on cleaning asap
But do agree with you

Only last night I was cleaning the wife's alloys to the same standard above. Still got mine to do... Hard work but an ideal time to do it while the winter wheels/tyres are on