Moving to rural Wales and need a new vehicle...

buglawton

Average winter temperature in Wales is 6 deg, on average it snows for 2-3 days/year except for mountainous areas where it could be 20. May be worth researching your location before going for vehicle overkill.

coffeehound

buglawton wrote: »

Average winter temperature in Wales is 6 deg, on average it snows for 2-3 days/year except for mountainous areas where it could be 20. May be worth researching your location before going for vehicle overkill.

Clearly the whole of the UK has had /far/ more snow than that in this decade. It depends on how steep and well-treated the roads are where one is intending to drive (if they even know in advance) whether 4WD is necessary.

Personally I’ve been glad of having 4WD many times over recent years, everywhere from the Surrey hills to the Scottish southern uplands. Plus you don’t have the additional costs and hassle of fitting winter tyres. YMMV as the Americans say, and for once it makes sense

AdrianC

coffeehound wrote: »

Clearly the whole of the UK has had /far/ more snow than that in this decade. It depends on how steep and well-treated the roads are where one is intending to drive (if they even know in advance) whether 4WD is necessary.

Personally I’ve been glad of having 4WD many times over recent years, everywhere from the Surrey hills to the Scottish southern uplands. Plus you don’t have the additional costs and hassle of fitting winter tyres. YMMV as the Americans say, and for once it makes sense

2wd on winter tyres
versus
4wd on summer tyres
https://youtu.be/mfuE00qdhLA


...and that's before you consider changing direction or stopping...

Mercdriver

coffeehound wrote: »

Clearly the whole of the UK has had /far/ more snow than that in this decade. It depends on how steep and well-treated the roads are where one is intending to drive (if they even know in advance) whether 4WD is necessary.

Personally I’ve been glad of having 4WD many times over recent years, everywhere from the Surrey hills to the Scottish southern uplands. Plus you don’t have the additional costs and hassle of fitting winter tyres. YMMV as the Americans say, and for once it makes sense

If you get stuck in 4wd all 4 wheels just spin. You also need grip

lincroft1710

coffeehound wrote: »

Clearly the whole of the UK has had /far/ more snow than that in this decade.

Either you were born after 1962/3 or were too young to remember, but that was one of the worst winters in recent history, the snow just lay for weeks

coffeehound

AdrianC wrote: »

2wd on winter tyres
versus
4wd on summer tyres
https://youtu.be/mfuE00qdhLA

...and that's before you consider changing direction or stopping...

Mercdriver wrote: »

If you get stuck in 4wd all 4 wheels just spin. You also need grip

The semi-offroad tyres fitted to the Foresters have been good enough in situations such as untreated single track roads and steep icy gradients. They carry the snowflake symbol so have some credibility in snow. It was the X5s and Cayennes that were having to turn back.

AdrianC

coffeehound wrote: »

They carry the snowflake symbol so have some credibility in snow.

If they have the three-peak-mountain-snowflake symbol, then they're proper winter tyres. That's what that symbol means.




Tyres that say "M+S" aren't winter tyres. M+S ("Mud and Snow") just means that they have grooves that go clear across the tread and a certain %age of groove to block in the tread pattern. Proper winter tyres (3PMSF) have a different rubber compound, and a tread design that's designed not to clog with snow, with lots of small grooves ("microsipes"). Lots of budget summer tyres are M+S marked.

onomatopoeia99

The van tyres on my 30 year old VW Caravelle Syncro have coped very well with snow and ice over the years. My favourite moment was leaving a policewoman that was walking down a snow covered hill to close it gobsmacked when I pulled away from a standstill, up a 1 in 6 hill that was covered in snow and drove out the top of the road she had just told me was "impassable", and that I needed to turn round and go back down as I would get stuck like all the cars that were turning round in front of me. The look on her face as I just drove away from her was priceless. :rotfl:

On my "summer" van tyres. With four wheel drive, without using the diff locks.

But you will still get the "winter tyre" brigade out in force on topics like this

AdrianC

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

The van tyres on my 30 year old VW Caravelle Syncro

T25?

On my "summer" van tyres. With four wheel drive, without using the diff locks.


But you will still get the "winter tyre" brigade out in force on topics like this

And it would have been even easier on better tyres.

onomatopoeia99

AdrianC wrote: »

T25?

Yes. It's old and creaky but I like it.