First of all, from my observation my Scottish friend call “summer tires” “all season tires” and “winter tires” are for them all tires sutiable for winter. But there are two kinds of them:
winter tires, which are very good for winter but they got worn very quickly when warm
four season tires, which are slightly poorer in winter, but suitable for all year long driving (especially in climates like in UK).
You can have two sets of tires and change them, but I think it’s not necesary until you live in Alps or Scandinavia. I always used all season ones, which are equally good for summer and winter if you don’t drive in extreme conditions (such as 2 m deep snow or 40 degree). I think that while advantage in winter of all season tires over summer tires is huge, and they are all right in summer as well, the profit from having typically winter tires is not worth the hassle in UK where you rarely have more than 5 cm of snow. And on the ice - well, there is no thing like “tire good for the ice” until we speek about the spiked ones, which are, as far as I know, illegal everywhere but Scandinavia.
I myself have Vredestein Quatrac fitted to my car (today I changed two of them).
These tires are only slightly more expensive from good quality summer ones and work well on the snow, and also they are nice to drive in wet, so good for Scotland. Downsides for driving on all season ones.
Also: having summer tires on one axle is very bad idea as someone mentioned already. I crashed my car last year because I had exactly this and someone cut in front of me and I skided when tried to avoid hitting him. (I knew that back then, but simply I was still waiting for my tires to arrive).
Edited: As you can see from my Avatar, I am an expert of that matter, LOL
Vredestein? I’ve heard of them before as they do a 135/80 14 Sprint Classic again (after long being an obsolete size).
I’ve just had my winter tyres fitted to rims today, so yet to try them out. I was waiting for the powder coater to get my grotty steelies back to me shiny and new looking. I plumped for Vredestein Snowtrac 3s for my old Dolvo. I have to say, I feel I’ve gone about German this year and looking around the Lidl/Aldi deals for a felgenbaum whilst chomping on the odd currywurst
Winter tyres are good for ambient temps below 7°C, which is probably Nov-Mar in the UK.
Nokian tyres also get very good reviews, try the usual online places , Camskill, black circle tyres, etyres, even the dreaded kwik fit had 25% off every tyre lately.
Vredestein? I’ve heard of them before as they do a 135/80 14 Sprint Classic again (after long being an obsolete size).
I’ve just had my winter tyres fitted to rims today, so yet to try them out. I was waiting for the powder coater to get my grotty steelies back to me shiny and new looking. I plumped for Vredestein Snowtrac 3s for my old Dolvo. I have to say, I feel I’ve gone about German this year and looking around the Lidl/Aldi deals for a felgenbaum whilst chomping on the odd currywurst
Winter tyres are good for ambient temps below 7°C, which is probably Nov-Mar in the UK.
i think that is the brand i got. really impressed with them and now my street has a nice layer of sheer ice i have had the chance to try them on a different surface. not a hint of wheelspin
yeah, I have them now, because I used them back in Poland and I think they are very good quality for money. Altough some Michelins or Dębica Kormoran are much better (but much more expensive).
macplaxton:
My only worry with winter tyres is the plonker behind on summers.
Cant agree more. This is my old car from Poland, the rear bumper was bend so many time, that after 4th time I just never bothered to fix it. You can hardly see it on that pic but I cannot find any better one: the opposite end of it was bend down. Soon after I took that picture, the left side wend bend up, so it looked like :S face img851.imageshack.us/img851/3627 … eyzyma.jpg
Well. It started snowing today at about 2pm, having reached a friend’s place to jump start their landrover (flat battery) having already done it for the daughters’ car of a family friend previously.
It stayed snowing all day, and so when I went out at 1830 it was quite thick on the ground with quite a few people already slipping. As I headed north into the rural area it got thicker. Braking/pulling away weren’t as bad as I thought and I saw a few vehicles out taking it carefully.
An hour later, on the return journey and there were a lot more people out, clearly getting stuck. I was told on several occasions that the road was blocked and to wait for a push to get reversed out, and they seemed rather surprised when, having engaged reverse managed to, well, leave.
I was laughed at out the back of a landrover 110 by a bunch of kids on an uphill section where they were slipping from side to side and I was going down the gears too, but they had stopped laughing 2 villages later. They stopped to help a BMW wheels spinning and as I edged past I was told the ‘fee’ to get up the road was £15 and I should wait my turn. I thanked them and carried on going, pulling away where the Beamer clearly couldn’t!!!
So I am very pleased with these Avon Ice Tourers, they are excellent and there are lots of places I knew I would struggle considerably!!! I still want a 4x4 in years to come but it isn’t as much of a worry now in winter time
I’m out later to play in the snow and take some photos with the all white out there. The visibility isn’t the best, being snowing and all but there are plenty of snowed over vehicles out there and roads that probably haven’t been touched.
Thanks also to Dexter I am sure your pink thing would love it in the snow too
Am going to Switzerland by car soon. So have them on my car. Don’t know if its only Switzerland, but once there is under 4mm of tread they don’t consider them to be winter tyres.
Hi all.Nokia Hakkapelitta are considered by most people to be one of the,ifnot THE best winter tyres you can buy.Up here maybe 70 percent of people have them in studded or friction types.I have them studded for my pick up.
They are of Finnish origin and the Finns know a bit about snow.Mike
Saratoga:
My work at the moment involves a 40 minute commute to work. Usually this is mostly on motorway and dual carriageways but it is also too much for me to walk there if the roads are too treacherous.
Saying that, I’m willing to try as much as I can to get in as it’s an Agency job and maybe even a Temp to Perm, so would prefer to be classed as ‘reliable’ to get in in poor weather rather than ‘first bit of snow and he doesn’t come in’ even though we’re in separate counties!
So, I’m strongly considering getting some winter tyres to go on my Rover 400 diesel with it’s 14" rims.
When I was on the buses the city buses weren’t equipped with them but those that came in from the outlying areas had them and as such went further than the city routes did in terms of actually getting there. So like most of you, I’ve had a bit of experience of driving it on regular tyres. When I did get to drive a coach with winter tyres I found it was much better handling on the roads and so feel it would be worthwhile.
What do you think, do you fit them? If so, are there any particular make/model ones you’d recommend?
TIA
Note that Winter tyres have lower Max Speed,and speed indicated on the Tyre gives you just a Guaranty that you could drive that Max Speed for up to 10 minutes.
Think on that when you buy Tyres.Also,Rubber gets over the Time hard and Winter Tyres after second Winter not any good anymore. I bough Lamell Winter tyre with max Speed of 210 and left them after second Winter on the Car to buy new in third Winter.
