All season / mud tyres… car content.

A slightly different question.   Mrs K got introduced to a wet muddy field based car park unexpectedly the other day, and having taken my RWD car had a little spin and then had to be pushed out.  No damage, but it’s prompted the question for me….

Although clearly I bought the “wrong” car for parking in a muddy field, would All Season tyres have helped the situation at all?  I do of course use this car to travel to bike races.  Or would it be a % difference not worthwhile?

And bearing in mind it’s a BM with staggered wheel size so Blackcircles doesn’t seem to have 4 matching tyres, how can I go about purchasing 4 decent all seasons of differing widths and profiles?  Just go to the desk in a tyre place?

You don’t have to have staggered wheel sizes on the bmw. I had winters that were all the same size.

New car time.

You don’t have to have staggered wheel sizes on the bmw

Sure, but I want to ensure there’s going to be a positive before I invest in a new set of alloys as well.

New car time

I’d rather not, plus we have a Haldex 4wd with all seasons as the other car already.  This is just for odd occasions where one ends up in a surprise muddy field at the end when in mine.

Maybe an Alfa? But does she have the correct sunglasses?

Cross climates or similar will be effective for getting out of muddy fields. Drive ok in the summer as well.

xDrive + cross climates
OR a bit of planning and take the Kuga if there’s a sniff of a chance of muddy field.

I’m pretty sold on my all seasons tyres. Unless you are driving at the limits of performance of summer tyres, (and you aren’t unless you are a total throbber or go to track days) the improved wet and cold grip and breaking for 6 months of the year is great. Only downside I’ve found is a slight % reduction in MPG, (estimate 3%) which is noticeable on a nearly 60MPG vehicle, but maybe not on a more thirsty car. There are a few summer/all seasons/winter tyre comparisons on YouTube.

Ran 19” summers and the standard 18” with winters on mine.
Made it much simpler.
Never got stuck even when the really bad snow hit a few years back.
Use Tyreleader or similar though. Far cheaper than uk dealers

I’ll second previous post..Tyreleader very good prices. Ordered tyres (winters..Mud & Snow markings) and steel rims arrived in 2 consignments from Germany within the week.

All seasons will mean you get further into the field before getting stuck.

If heavy on the throttle in such that you spin the car round unlikely all seasons will help

^^^

That took longer than usual.

That took longer than usual.

I actually wrote it twice and deleted it twice because I realised the snowflakes would be out in force over it.

Cars don’t spin by their own want and need. The squidgy bit behind the wheel makes its spin. It won’t matter if it has all seasons on.

It’s probably the width of your current tires that is meaning your sliding about atop the mud . So you’ll fit narrower all seasons to cut through the mud and end up sumped out.

I’ve currently got Michelin Cross Climate+ on my S205. I’ve done more miles on them than the Hankook which came on it and the tread is still at 10mm. And the only place where I’ve found that they struggle is on the turn out of the road up from Gamblesby into the 686 over Hartside. But then the OEM tyres wouldn’t get me out of that junction. I’ve done a couple of fast trips down to Tuscany and they’ve so far been trouble free. Done 2500 miles in the last 2 weeks up to Penrith twice in heavy rain and snow and mid Wales this weekend.

How were they in muddy fields ?

Spin as in wheel spin (fair enough) or spin as in 180 spin (crikey)?

Either way, the solution is to not take the your ‘ultimate driving machine*’ into a muddy field. They really aren’t for that, whatever the tyres.

*until conditions are wet, or snowy, or muddy…

Just to highlight this word in the op “…unexpectedly…”

and these words further down:

This is just for odd occasions where one ends up in a surprise muddy field at the end.

But anyway, its sounds like investment in new alloys and all seasons wouldn’t make enough difference and the accidental interface with a muddy field just remains unfortunate.

Put a pair of wellys and a brolly in the boot of the BMW.

Park else where( further away if needs be and walk in to the field.

Always reminds me of two different stories of the puffer.

A mate trying to rip the body work off his d5 alpina towing a caravan into the field before letting the digger take it in (then parking his BMW in a sensible BMW parking space and walking in) and the mrt thinking their land rover could levitate and ending up sump deep waiting on the tractor.

I put Michelin Crossclimates on my van recently and they are ridiculously good. However, they will get stuck in a muddy field same as anything else as soon as they make a couple of revolutions and the tread fills up with mud.
I know this because I got stuck in a very squidgy garden / field in Clashnessie of all places last week. Of course it was late at night and in the midst of a rainstorm.
Snowchains did the trick though. IT’s not often they are required, but are a godsend in those instances.

Just to highlight this word in the op “…unexpectedly…”

Damn those blindfold carpark magical mystery tours! 😂

Nope. Just stay out of muddy fields in RWD cars. It won’t end well, especially if any slope is involved. The ‘thrust vectoring’ ability of FWD has a significant advantage in such conditions.

Like I said, new car needed.

There is quite a difference between tyres suitable for mud ie large gaps between the tread blocks to allow the tyre to clear itself and for snow, sipes to grip the snow and ice. You will struggle to find a tyre that will do both effectively.

Surly common sense is cheaper than new tyres?

Nope. Just stay out of muddy fields in RWD cars. It won’t end well, especially if any slope is involved. The ‘thrust vectoring’ ability of FWD has a significant advantage in such conditions.

To be pedantically fair, it’s not unknown for fields at, say, a 24-hour race, to start off nice and dry and firm and, by the end of the weekend, to have been transformed into a Somme-like quagmire.

The answer to that is, as most of us have now worked out, to avoid 24-hour races 😉

I’d be cautious about relying on CrossClimates to get you out of a muddy field.

I’ve got a FWD Focus with CrossClimates and managed to get stuck parking at the edge of a field / grassy area in Pollok Park of all places. A couple of kind souls pushed me back onto the tarmac.

To be fair I was far from the only idiot that day. I helped push a few other cars out of the same patch of “grass”.

They are good tyres and the extra traction they offer in the wet and cold over summer tyres is worth it just don’t rely on them for mud.

I think I’ve recommended these to you another thread, but we have some Pirelli Sottozero 3 (I think) RFTs on my wifes RWD 3 series and they are tremendous. Marked up with M&S and have gotten my wife to work (and back) at the hospital a number of times in the snow. They have sipes and very large gaps between the tread blocks. Not cheap but I will certainly buy another set once they’re done. Bought them from Camskill, Black circles had nowt.

I haven’t been in any muddy fields with it so can’t comment on that, but I have in my car.. so can confirm Michelin Pilot Supersports are not the tyres you are looking for!

Road cars aren’t designed to drive on muddy fields. Spending a load of money to make your car slightly less shit when it’s on a muddy field is bonkers.