Having driven in Scotland, where the weather ain’t exactly warm all year, for 27 years, not once have I felt the need for a dedicated winter tyre.
Having driven in Scotland for the past 10 years I can say this is not true for me. Driving to work winter tyres, or all weathers (my preference) make a massive difference when it's icy, wet or snowing. They can mean the difference between getting home, or getting stuck like a lemon.
Year before last I remember five people crashing on one corner, a guy in a RWD Merc not making it up a hill, and me being very glad I has my winters on.
Does the maths still work out if your tyres age out rather than wear out? Had the MX5
A cold wet drive home in the dark in the passenger seat of an mx5 on a busy dual carridgeway convinced me that the only place an mx5 should be during the bad weather is in the garage.
Does the maths still work out if your tyres age out rather than wear out?
THIS is the issue for me on both sets. I now only do around 1500-3000miles a year.
It’s UV light that does most of the ageing, so tyres that are kept covered in a cool dark place (e.g my garage) for nine months of the year are likely to be longer lasting than tyres left on the car all year round. It’s always worth checking when tyres that are supplied to you were made-some may already be 3 years from date of manufacture but because they have been stored correctly can be sold as ‘new’
I got into them after reading on here and then needing them for a drive-ski trip to the alps. Not looked back really since as this:
the car feels a lot more skittish on summers than it does on the winters. Like driving on hard plastic rather than rubber.
The rubber compound is just so much softer on winters at <7 deg C. that it's also a lot more comfortable on the v broken tarmac we have locally as well as grippier. Yes they can feel a bit squirmy in the warming spring but that's the trigger to think about switching back to summers.
As said above, you don't have to have them for UK, but to the people saying they've never conceived of doing it in 47yrs on this earth I'd say car tyres are v different from 30+ years ago. The fashion for big alloys with wide, low profile tyres for sporty looks and handling to impress car journos, means that we now end up with pretty darn high performance summer tyres fitted OEM on almost all cars. These turn hockey-puck hard in the winter, rather than narrow softer all-year tyres we'd have got back in the day.
"its not the going, its the stopping…"
+1 !
I live 800ft up in the surrey alps. There's a school at the top of the road, and all the little cherubs get delivered in posh 4wds, which are of course perfect for this, especially in the snow. They're OK getting up but coming down is a different matter entirely!
My daughter has no problem either way in her Seat Mii shod with michelin cross climates...
we now end up with pretty darn high performance summer tyres
Or worse. Eco tyres made of old phones and other hard plastic to get the BIK down for middle management
South Manchester and never bothered. That said, ice spikers are ready for the MTB’s when needed. Will fit Snow Studs early to the commuter as I’m commuting on the canal and don’t fancy icy cobbles without them.
That the Bridgewater canal?
I do recall one time in Jan 2019 when it snowed fairly heavy overnight and it was virtually unpassable on my gravel bike.
The problem is the ruts that are created and the ice that forms due to the thaw-freeze cycle over 24 hrs.
It can get very sketchy.
However, it generally ends up with a few sketchy bits and the rest of the path clear. Having ridden studded tyes are a few times before, I dunno how appropriate studs would be with such long ice/snow free sections.
Cross climate 2s being fitted on Saturday. Mainly because STW says I should (😁) and also the car has 4 different tyres on it as supplied when I bought it.
dunno how appropriate studs would be with such long ice/snow free sections.
Studs don't care.
7 degrees is the recommended crossover point. For me in N Yorks that was generally early Nov until late March. I did get caught out once having put the summers back on and waking up the next morning to find 6” of snow! Made for an interesting drive to north Wales! I think the benefits of winter tyres depend on what car you have, where you live and what type of driving you do. A few years back I was weekly commuting from Bristol to Harrogate in a BMW so having winter tyres was a no-brainer. It made the difference between getting home for the weekend or getting stuck in Bristol or somewhere in between. The difference in cold, wet, slush, snow or ice over summer tyres was night and day. Even more so when compared to crappy run flats. Much safer all round. My commute is now simpler and in a FWD so I’ve gone for Cross Climates all year. A good compromise. I sold my old BMW alloys (bought secondhand for £100) and 2 season old winter tyres at a profit meaning I’d done nearly 30k miles for free!
I'm going to find out how good all-seasons are shortly. TBF they've been great all summer
Previously had Goodrich Activan Winters and whatever was cheapest for the summer but lack of storage meant this was becoming impractical so I'm trying all seasons on the new van, got some Maxxis Vansmarts. RWD and really heavy, this should be interesting on the ice!
My summers are "all seasons" (3 seasons really), my winters are mountain snowflake winters.
Bit of breathing room in the shoulder season but once it's reliably below 7 the winters are on. Law here is October 1st for m+s rated but that's insufficient.
Just got to kill off the last of my all season tread next summer then I'll likely go winter rated knobby tyres year round on the big van.
The way my man-maths works it out is that having winter tyres and summer tyres – each for ~6months of the year works out at zero additional cost. Each set of tyres will last approximately twice as long as they are on half the time.
If you do the swaps yourself, have somewhere to store them and keep your vehicle for a few years I find it actually works out significantly cheaper than just running one type of tyre year round.
I find winter tyres wear less in winter than a summer rated tyre does and vice versa.
In addition to that.... It only takes one 'oh shit oh shit oh shit' sliding moment to realise the value of winters.
Night and day difference in snow. Significant difference in cold slimy winter non-snowy roads.
As previously documented I had all season tyres fitted, just by luck, just when the snows hit earlier this year and they got me around the hills of Sheffield with barely a hint of wheel spin. I was very impressed with them.
They’ve also been brilliant through summer, very quiet, I get good mpg, grip has been fine (although note I am a fairly boring driver in a fairly boring car) and the times I’ve been driving across muddy fields etc they’ve performed well then too.
Can’t see me fitting anything else now and if I were needing new tyres on now and had summers on currently I wouldn’t bother with full winter ones.
Soon, but not quite yet. Usually done before the end of October and back again in April, depending; this year it was well into May before I swapped but this was an unusually cold spring.
I've decent summers on the big car at the moment, a Superb. The original alloys have the summers on and a box of 4 new factory steel rims a few years ago cost me £120 delivered from Germany. Goodyear Ultragrip full winters on those rims live in the shed for the summer, so last well and are going into their 4th winter with about 6mm of tread still on them. Living in rural Angus, practically everyone out here swaps over, except for those who have only one set of tyres for their transport- winters only, like on the Mrs' Fabia.
I've had to do a lot of mileage in daylight this last month to get out and cover running events, so prefer the summers stay on for longer drives in daytime temperatures.
However, mornings here are now cold most days, around 3-4C so well within range for the winters but as I'm no longer commuting to an office, that's pretty irrelevant this year. A desire to get to the hills year-round means that the winters will go on as soon as cold weather becomes normal again.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the 4 season, cross climate sort of tyre; it's never quite the 'right' tyre in summer nor grippy enough in snow or ice. Always a compromise but they do make life a lot easier without the twice a year swap hassles.
This test found a winter tyre pretty much the same in the snow as all seasons while being worse than all season in cold wet conditions.
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2021-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm
Will change mine over in nov probably. Not doing the miles anymore so will wait a little longer this year.
Unless of course the weather craps out and my wife wants to take my car into work
Changed roughly in line with the clocks changing, i.e. end-October then end-March. TBF I'm usually a few weeks late in changing onto the 'winters'.
Used to have full winters on spare rims for all 3 vehicles but now only have for my car (a 400bhp RWD penis extension), and even those are CrossClimate+ as decent full winters weren't available in the necessary size - still much, much better than summer tyres in colder/wetter conditions. Mrs a11y's car on CrossClimates all year round, and Pirelli (I think) all-seasons on the van. Central-ish Scotland.
I've just ordered another set of rims to get winter tyres fitted onto. I've done this with the last 3 cars. I was going to put crossclimates on, but they aren't available in the size I need and the current tyres are only 6,000 miles old.
I've got a set of wheels and winter tyres to sell that I used on the A6 - I'll just wait for the first few flakes and put them on Gumtree.
Hubby usually changes to winter tyres first week in November. Although one year we got caught out (living on a hill doesn't help) by early snow.
I may need to have a friendly word with a new neighbour who parks his car at the bottom of our road, there have been many sliding and slippery moments in the past, where cars from our road haven't managed to stop at the bottom. His car would become the buffer.
The way my man-maths works it out is that having winter tyres and summer tyres – each for ~6months of the year works out at zero additional cost. Each set of tyres will last approximately twice as long as they are on half the time.
Works out cheaper as my summer tyres are about £50 more each.
And we've already had some 3c mornings, but mine will be swapped later this month - rural Scotland.
No choice here due to constraints of a company vehicle, when they wear out it's whatever van tyres are actually in stock at the local fitters.
My own car has no ABS, no traction control or other gadgets. The tyres are an older profile and tyre choice is limited as it is.
For the last decade my commute as been either south shore of Loch Tay singletrack road
Was there a couple of weeks ago, lovely place. SWMBO was gutted the Crannog had burned down (Archeologist).
And we’ve already had some 3c mornings, but mine will be swapped later this month
I was monitoring temperatures when I was commuting to Strathpeffer and then to Inverness. There was no month in which I didn't have a sub 7C commute 😁
@jamesoz - there's a crannog in Loch Vaa near Aviemore. It's currently (last weekend) under 6cm of water so can be a bit tricky to find. Next time you're in the area with your wife, let me know if she wants to swim out to it.
@jamesoz – there’s a crannog in Loch Vaa near Aviemore. It’s currently (last weekend) under 6cm of water so can be a bit tricky to find. Next time you’re in the area with your wife, let me know if she wants to swim out to it.
Wow, very kind of you. I'm sure she'd love that, it was her first ever trip to Scotland and she loved the place.
A long journey from the fuel starved south but I'm sure we'll be back.
Having driven in Scotland, where the weather ain’t exactly warm all year, for 27 years, not once have I felt the need for a dedicated winter tyre.
I used to spend 3-4 weeks every winter in the Cairngorms climbing and would drive up from the South East on whatever tyres I had on the car.
Had many occasions when I could have used winter tyres. Worst one was coming back from the cinema in Inverness to Aviemore. I could see the b-roads hadn't ben gritted so thought I'd test the grip before I had to turn, so applied the brakes gently in a straight line, ABS kicked in and car just kept moving, then tried using the gears, nothing. Our turning came and went as we just 'drove' past it. Finally, just ground to a halt 300m later at the end of the road just at the start of someone's garden! Another 20 feet and we'd have be in their living room....
Then I've had to fit chains to get down from Corrie Cas car park when it had completely frozen whilst we were on the hill.
As per above, four seasons here. Had Michelin Cross Climates on for the last couple of years, but just changed the fronts to Goodyear Vectors (mainly because the reviews were good). I've found them really nice to drive on - quiet and comfy.
As has been said, it's not the going, it's the cornering and stopping. Live in Cheshire, so we get some cold weather, but probably not enough to justify full winter tyres. Having said that, all the tyres are M&S/Snowflake rated, so legal to use in Germany etc. in winter. I don't think I'd go back to summer tyres.