GCR2ERF:
Michy CrossClimate are the next best thing.
Looking to get a couple of those fitted and price is around £153 each fitted, is that about right ■■ 245/45w17 ■■?
A good alternative for 245/45R17 is 225/55R16. Same outside diameter and same load index so you can use the same air pressure. It depends whether 16" rims will clear your brake discs. 7Jx16 rims would be needed. Michelin Alpin 6 winter tyres are available in this 16" size. Good modern winter tyres can be used all year round. They work a lot better in the summer than summer tyres do in the winter.
I asked my dad and he said he just gets the cheapest tyres he can because he doesn’t care about noise levels or ratings. And told me to stop making excuses to find something to change on the car.
He hasn’t had a crash yet and he has been driving longer then I’ve been alive so he might be onto something.
adam277:
I asked my dad and he said he just gets the cheapest tyres he can because he doesn’t care about noise levels or ratings. And told me to stop making excuses to find something to change on the car.
He hasn’t had a crash yet and he has been driving longer then I’ve been alive so he might be onto something.
Your dad is right. The best improvement you can make to any vehicle, is the operator.
adam277:
I asked my dad and he said he just gets the cheapest tyres he can because he doesn’t care about noise levels or ratings. And told me to stop making excuses to find something to change on the car.
He hasn’t had a crash yet and he has been driving longer then I’ve been alive so he might be onto something.
No doubt most of us giving you advice about the original question you asked have also been around longer than your years.
Still as they say you can lead a horse …
I’ve been using Michelin CrossClimate tyres since they were released.
I’m not a spirited driver, so there’s no danger I’ll find the limit of what the tyres can do in the dry, and I like the fact that they’re pretty much designed for the UK weather!
The resistance to winter tyres that’s so common is found in all areas you care to look at. It’s the “cheaper is better” attitude that the UK is infested with. Then there is much gnashing of teeth and wailing about how the country shuts down at the first sign of cold weather… or hot weather… or wet weather…
Now that the weather is getting colder, most of us are about to start having our washers freeze over because our firms won’t use proper winter fluid etc etc.
I have a Range Rover Sport with Pirelli Scorpion Zeroes ( 245/45/20) on. When the snow hit back in February, it never missed a beat. Our town by pass (Louth) is all hills and it made me chuckle as we sailed up and down past all the spinning cars and vans. I never even put the box into ‘snow mode’. A lot of the problem is down to the drivers themselves.
But in two weeks time we are off to Italy for Xmas and New Year and so I have had to borrow a double set of snow chains just to keep the Italian and French police happy. It could be interesting going down through the Alps.
Trickydick:
Wifes old merc we used to run winters on that all year round, made a huge difference even in the damp there was much more grip, when the mercs detect wheel spin they take the throttle away, just what you dont need when squirting out into a busy lane of traffic.
RWD in the snow is just pants.
Ref the honda 4x4 dont assume a lifetsyle 4x4 lookalike is actually a 4x4.
A 4x4 is a 4x4.
But, a 4x4 on summer tyres is useless.
This video tells you everything you need to know:
Tbh down this end of the world Ive found when you get stuck all most need is a gentle push to get rolling again and thats where 4x4 scores regardless of tyres incl summer ones.
I ran land rovers for years fancied a change and got mercs with rwd, come the few days of snow I had to abandon the thing on the m20 and walk miles home, add bags of sand and sit in the boot of the wifes car just to get up the hill to the house.
Even the wife has a quattro, thats on summer tyres and is bloody good in the snow amazing grip and control, buy like I said we dotn get real snow down here.
I very quickly went back to land rovers and have not strayed since!
Ive been stuck in the snow in a 4x4 but off the tarmac road and spent plenty of time with the winch to get myself out, I realise most dont have the luxury of a winch
I’ve got general grabber at3’s on my discovery.
They were faultless in the bad snow we had in March. (And it was bad, 10 inches plus)
I towed a few cars up a steep hill and even then the car didn’t slip, just ploughed on up.
Before that, I had perelli scorpion atr’s which are supposedly m+s rated, but they were dire in the wet and useless in the snow. I got stuck on my own bloody driveway with them.
109LWB:
I’ve got general grabber at3’s on my discovery.
They were faultless in the bad snow we had in March. (And it was bad, 10 inches plus)
I towed a few cars up a steep hill and even then the car didn’t slip, just ploughed on up.
Before that, I had perelli scorpion atr’s which are supposedly m+s rated, but they were dire in the wet and useless in the snow. I got stuck on my own bloody driveway with them.
■■■■ Ive got ATRs on my D3!
Before the ATRs I had the Zeros and what I found with both models is they went off within a few thousand miles, they still did the job but just didnt have their inital grip, the Zeros also wore bloody fast 14k and they were dead, mind you the ATRS are better but not that much
Scorpions? bloody lethal on a Hilux, glad to get the things off, General UHP’s proved very miles better in the wet.
For big 4x4’s you can’t got wrong With BF Goodrich AT’s, winter rated, really deep tread, good off road (tough sidewalls) as well as on it, can last up to 80k, expensive mind.
Got Hankook Winter Icept Evo 2’s on my MX-5. Swapped them on the OE alloys last year but this time I’ve bought a set of steel rims for them to save the cost of swapping tyres twice a year. They were absolutely brilliant last year - no issues at all getting out of our estate even though others with street based 4x4s struggled with traction on the hill. The only thing that stopped me was deep, fresh snow - so deep that the car was on its belly. Brilliant traction on ice and compacted snow though. Wish I’d discovered Winter tyres decades earlier, TBH.
Got CrossClimates on Mrs Roymondo’s C3 Picasso (on the basis that she’s not one for “spirited” driving in the Summer months and if it gets really bad in Winter she stays at home anyway). Can’t fault the CrossClimates even on baking hot days in that there French France - they’ll be replaced with the same as and when they (eventually) wear out.
Never bothered, winter isn’t harsh enough for long enough here to warrant them.
I always have good tyres anyway and have found them fine. Pilot supersports, eagle F1s, P Zeros and the like. Putting 4 new ones on my new car in the next couple of weeks and will probably opt for Uniroyal Rainsports, fantastic in the wet which is what most of our winters are.
Replaced the o/e michelin on my freelander with uni royal rain tyres.
It’s not lost traction on either…ever.
Michelin lasted longer…but were £160 more expensive.
commonrail:
Replaced the o/e michelin on my freelander with uni royal rain tyres.
It’s not lost traction on either…ever.
Michelin lasted longer…but were £160 more expensive.
I’ve never managed more than 5k miles on a set of Rainsports. The price you pay for unrivaled wet grip I suppose.
My pick up has Pirelli Scorpions 275/50R20s, pretty decent in summer considering how light it is at the back end. The winter tyres I have are the same size Michelin Latitude.
