After reading all the doom and gloom reports of winter armagedon coming, I decided to buy some Nokian winter tyres for the van.

Jesus H, it’s like driving on snow, mud and ice all the time now! very little grip, wheel spin at the touch of the throttle, understeer city. Not confidence inspiring at all!

The reviews for the tyres are very good, I’ve experimented with all sorts of tyre pressures all to no avail. Please tell me they need a good while to scrub in before they grip, otherwise they’ll be coming back off and the std’s going back on. I’ve only done 300 miles on them to now…..

300 miles is more than enough to scrub in. What van?

Not that this helps at all, but I have exactly the same problem.

Since swapping my nice grippy summer tyres earlier this week, to a set of Nokian WR-D3 I’ve lost all confidence in the car on corners and have to be very careful when applying a bit of extra acceleration.

I hope that they scrub in soon, I’ve only done around 50 miles so far, but not liking the initial grip levels, roll on the snow. It’s not much fun driving a Golf GTi and holding up the grey haired Micra drivers.

my new summer tyres were a little vague last night at -3 coming home across the moor but not as bad as I’ve been led to believe they should be.

As above 300 miles should do it. I had a set of Nokian Winters on my last car and at this time of year they felt every bit as good as the summer treaded Contis, you could hustle it quite hard and it was fine. They’ll be greasy with release agent to get them out of the mould at the factory.

I’ve not used the nokians but my snowproxes and icebears just bedded in like anything else, up to their best in a pretty short time. They’ll never be quite as grippy in good conditions as an equivalent quality all-year tyre though but they are very close (and better than the pish most people put on their cars)

Just finished re-scrubbing the snowproxes after a year in the garage getting covered in GT85 overspray… At least that’s how I justify sliding round those roundabouts.

So pleased I read this thread! Put some winter tyres on my Leon FR this year and for the last month my grip has been terrible! Constant wheel spinning! Hopefully this will I improve as the temp drops

It’s a 2009 Peugeot Expert, Had Conti VanCo on it with 6mm remaining, now Nokian WRc Van. 327 miles on odo since swap, I’ve lost all feel for the road, they’re spinning up for fun and daren’t go round a corner or RAB at anything above walking pace, don’t even want to entertain the idea of an emergency stop! much, much worse than the Conti’s that came off.

BMW 335d here and it’s terrifying! Done 400 miles now… a little better but I wake up each morning praying for sub zero temperatures!

were they cheaper than the rest by chance ?

my ching long (or what ever generic cheapo chinese) winters are no worse than the van contacts that came off in dry and cold conditions – and the van contacts were absolutely horrendous on damp grass/mud/snow and ice where the china tires are good- great at going in straight lines on the motorway though the van contacts were.

i just went with what my mechanic recomended and given he doesnt sell tires from his garage so no incentive to profit im happy to take his advice.

I have just spoken to ‘mytyres’ who I purchased the tyres from. They seemed very helpful and suggested that I used them a bit longer and if not happy then I should call back to see what they could do for me.

The theory of a greasy release agent from manufacturing might have something to do with it, as I felt that the steering was noticeably much lighter when stationary just after having the tyres fitted.

What mine? wouldn’t class £110 a corner particularly cheap. They get good reviews when I read them, just not sure why mine are so terrifying.

I’m aware of release agents etc. as have been top level racing for years and know I’d never use a new tyre to race on due to the lack of grip compared to worn, but these tyres are easily the worst I’ve used.

Well that’s settled the winter tyre debate for me then

I’ll stick with carrrying autosocks in the boot and just buy good quality standard tyres

Just replaced my summer bridgestones with some ‘budget’ winter tyres. Way less wheelspin and understeer now and more confidence inspiring in the corners.

Yup, worth noting that the cheapo winters that a lot of folk go for are just rubbish. We ended up with Nankangs on my wife’s car one year as we left it too late to get decent ones and they were ok in the dry or proper soaking wet and good in the snow but horrid on damp roads, they just felt greasy and nasty.
I’ve had good results with Nokians, Michelins and Goodyears though.

Seriously?

My Ultragrip 8s have been fantastic from the start – and its been mostly 7-10 degrees. Its only recently been <7 degrees.

They were a revelation last year in snow too…and better than my summer tyres <10 and <10 + wet. I only thought about my summer tyres again at about 15-18deg

I think you picked the wrong tyres – they shouldn’t be worse than summers tyres*

*Disclaimer – my summer tyres are still the factory fitted Michelin Energy which are rubbish as soon as it starts to cool down

Maybe it’s been too warm for those cheap winter tyres? They do have a high silicon content, I know that because after handling ours my hands are always sticky. We have Avon Ice Touring winter tyres on Mrs Gti’s Ibiza and they are excellent in all conditions.

Global, you on about mine? £110 not exactly cheap in 16″ size, Michelin and Conti around the same….

My Ultragrip 8s have been fantastic from the start – and its been mostly 7-10 degrees. Its only recently been <7 degrees.

I’ve just fitted a set of those to my car and they have definitely improved over the first few hundred miles. They weren’t bad, but they have got better.

I think it does depend on your summer tyres how they feel by comparison. On my previous car, the summers were Conti Sport Contacts and the winters were Nokians WR-G3s. In the winter the Nokians were as good, and obviously much better in snow, slush and ice. Once it warmed up there was no comparison, you could feel the tread flexing on the Nokians. Biggish, torquey RWD car though (530D)

I’m getting my Nokian WR-D3’s fitted tomorrow (Friday). Sounds like I need to take it easy for the first couple of hundred miles…

I find winters a bit more sensitive to tyre pressures than summers, and you often have to run slightly lower pressures than youd think on some brands.
I ran Contis which were pretty flexible on pressures wheras Ive had bridgestones on the same car which were sensitive to +- 2psi, out side of that range either way the grip dropped off markedly

Oh… I don’t know about you guys but it’s slippery as hell here today- cold, localised ice, mashy wet leaves everywhere, salt, plus that nonspecific early-winter greasiness that’s not quite faded away yet… I didn’t change tyres, I’ve had the winters on for a few weeks, but today and yesterday there was noticably less grip around.

I’ve just ordered 4 Nokian WR D3’s for an a3 cab! Not sure if I might try a different brand after reading this thread, or least hold of a week?

I put 4 Nokian WR-D3’s on or Saab 93 a few weeks ago now4. Probably done about 3-400 miles on them, they still feel a bit squiffy. Went for then as the reviews were excellent

Set of Conti winter contacts on mine and they have been amazing since I put them on. Roundabouts at 40 in the wet are a laugh. They grip better than my summer tyres to be honest.

I have Cooper Weathermasters, fine in the dry, but they do understeer more than the summer tyres in the wet, not enough to be worried though.
Oh, and they’re AMAZING in the snow, well worth the switch.

Also, they’re fat 18’s.

Re running them in, go find an empty bit of road somewhere quiet/car park, hit the throttle and dump the clutch, enjoy the smell of burning rubber for a sec or two, and enjoy new found ‘run in’ feeling (on your drive wheels anyway)

Let’s just clear something up here – Nokian are not cheap budget tyres, they are excellent. I’ve got three sets, two winter and one summer, and they are all excellent. When I switch from Michelin summers to Nokian winters the improvement is very noticeable.

I don’t recall any problems when they were new, but there were instructions on their site about bedding in I think – or somewhere.. can’t find it now though.

your nokians seem to have an E rating for wet grip so hardly surprising they are not great compared to your B rated van contacts.

winter van contacts come in at C.

Reading between the lines i would say nokian design tires for their climate – where its colder and less wet for more of the time.

not all winter tires are equal shocker.

rich mtb – i hear snow socks are great – mostly from folk who i invariably end up driving through the ditch to get past while they are farting about trying to get them on to get up the hill.

Nokian design tyres for different climates, according to their site.

Which tyres does the OP have?

Nokian WRc Van.

according to my tires all nokians van tires are E rated for wet weather.

Huh.. ADAC seem to like them

Do you guys have the tyres changed, or do you have a separate set of (cheaper?) winter wheels? And what do you use as a spare?

I used to pay to get them changed, but I think this year I am going to buy winter wheels as the good mobile guy I used to use quit, and its proven quite hard to find a replacement.

As for the spare, I left it as it is.

slowoldgit

I picked up a spare set of alloys to refurb over the winter – they will be my “summer” tyres.

I’m getting a new set of winter shoes today on the car – on the alloys already on there.

A month ago I put on Uniroyal MS+ 77. Felt good right out from the garage. Feels better in every way than the P6000 they replaced. A small amount nosier.

I had a set of Chinese winter tyres which were OK in the dry but became scary in the damp.

Changed them a week ago to Nokian WR A3 as the chinese ones were a big crash just waiting to happen. I was told by the garage to allow 200 miles for the Nokians to bed in.

Due to the deep tread pattern you can feel them move a little if you turn in hard but they don’t let go. It’s just a different feel to a Summer tyre. Wet grip on Winters should be better than a Summer tyre at this time of year regardless of the tyre labelling. There are a few places where the ABS would normally kick in when it’s damp on the Summers but I’ve not had that happen with the Nokians at all so they must be gripping better.

Take the tyre labelling with a pinch of salt. All tyres are tested at an ambient temperature of 25degC for the tyre label wet grip test. That might suit a Summer tyre but is totaly outside the intended optimum operating temperature for the Winter tyre. They should do a 25 degC test and a 3 degC test for all tyres.

Sounds about right neninja. Softer but squirmier, and definitely grippier.

http://www.promobil.de/test/vergleichstest-winterreifen-bei-promobil.de-459963.html

This review rates the Nokian WR Van very well. (You might need to use Google translate). I would give them a little longer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elP_34ltdWI – check out from about 3mins for a Summer vs Winter braking test in the wet.

Just a thought, the WR C Van are asymmetric aren’t they – have you checked that the garage have fitted them the right way round – they will be marked ‘inside’ and ‘outside’

Sorry OP, I thought Nokian were El Cheapo tyres.

I had some Vredestein summer tyres (Hi-Trac) that took bloody ages to bed in.
I’d used them before so knew they were good tyres, but this particular set took about 800 miles before they started gripping the road and not just skating over the surface of it.
When they did sort themselves out it was over the space of only a few miles.