Car Winter Tyres (possibly stupid thought!)…

I ve got one winter tyre on my car! Can’t say I have noticed any difference since the demise of its buddy. Anything with a decent tread works better.

The 4×4 damage couplings.

Right. So you’d better have 32psi x4 with +/- deviance too.

OP – Are you thinking about putting x 2 winter tyres on just for the 3 days a year it actually snows, or leaving them on all year when 90% of the time summer tyres will offer more grip?

Fitting x 2 winter tyres and driving around on them all year is silly financially and safety wise.

Ok I know winters differ year on year and dependent on location, but last winter we only had 1 frost in Yorkshire and barely any days less than 7 degrees. People always think the winters are harsher than they actually are.

Edit: I’m just getting some snow socks.

4 snow socks i hope ? 😉

Or youll go to hell backwards in a ball of flames if you even think about slowing down.

Nope just on the rears to get up hills. The rest of the time I’m happy to be on normal tyres going very slowly.

The UK is not Norway etc and the 1 day a year it does snow its not about making progress at a reasonable speed, but just being able to make it home. A set of snow socks on the driven wheels would allow people to get up hills.

Having said that Asda are doing some snow socks that are only £30 a set which are getting good reviews!

Also funky dunk. What aboute before 8 am and after 4pm , how many days were less 7 at those times ? Ie when most folk drive.

Snowmageddon is coming this year i assure you, i sold my road going 4×4 and have omly the van and the 90 project.

Going up hills is fhe easy part apparently. What about coming down, youll be spinning out of control madly.

( im taking the piss btw, im in the front wheels only camp for the same reason you are)

Trail rat in Yorkshire last winter barely any days went below 7 degrees.

I get the whole 7 degree thing, but the fact is the UK is a warm place, I bet 80% of the year is above 7 degrees.

Downhills I’m in the camp of 1st gear feet off everything, if your vehicle starts sliding at that point then its probably too steep to be attempting anyhow.

In the deep south of yorkshire i will give you that. Up here im the arctic circle (scotland) its rarely above 7 in winter except in a 50ft radius of mcmoonters stoves.

I only have 1 spare set of winters – 2 identical cars, for day to day driving in traffic where my aim is just to get out of the sticks and onto the main gritted roads im quite happy with two.

If im going skiing or long trips on faster roads i will swap to 4 on one car.

Yorkshire last winter barely any days went below 7 degrees

Balmy 5 degrees this morning at 8.30am in tropical cheshire, was similar yesterday too.

hora – Member
The 4×4 damage couplings.

Right. So you’d better have 32psi x4 with +/- deviance too.

Yes Hora, tyre mismatch is a valid concern and can lead to expensive bills.

There is an awful lot of variance in different brand and models of tyre so at the risk of not being able to get the same again make sure you replace all 4. Lots of motorway driving is particularly bad as the coupling just sits there working away for hundreds of miles because of the RPM mismatch between front and rear axles.

Depends what vehicle you have that does andyl

Audis haldex system is nasty for it.

Most part time 4x4s and selectable diff lock 4x4s should be fine. Old landys/discos etc,

Limited slip systems like the freelanders and that ilk are prone to vcu luncheon

Double post

it does yup. I’m not counting the semi perm ones as they will be shut down most of the time or the old agricultural ones but things with modern fragile things like the haldex and FL VCU you mention. Another notable one is Volvo which they made worse by fitting different tyre widths front and back so it was very hard to get the tyres well matched so a lot of 850s ended up 2wd, as do a lot of freelanders as the owners simply get the garage to take out the coupling and leave it out.

Mismatched tyres are a sign on any car that the owner may have scrimped/neglected (especially cheap ones) but on a 4wd I would be especially cautious.

Nope – not Haldex so doesn’t have that chocolate rear-diff

I sufficiently understand/ get the under /over steer argument about choice of where to put the new tyres (leaving winter /summer mixes out of the equation) but can you explain how hard straight line braking (particularly in the wet) fits into that dynamic.

The dynamic weight transfer under braking increases front grip and reduces rear grip. If the new tyres are on the front, you are more likely to imbalance the car enough to swap ends under heavy braking.

OP – Are you thinking about putting x 2 winter tyres on just for the 3 days a year it actually snows, or leaving them on all year when 90% of the time summer tyres will offer more grip?

Don’t know where you or the OP live, but in Northants countryside winter tyres have better grip for most days from around late November through to March. It just needs to be under 10 deg in the dry (but not a big deal unless close to freezing) or pretty much any winter temp in the wet – which is a lot of days. Plus of course on the handful of days it does snow and they don’t grit the local country roads you can still safely get around. The winter before last they were a godsend when there was snow around for several weeks. However, most people around here don’t use winter tyres and get in a right mess when it does snow.

I’d buy four winter tyres and point the chimney myself. Even if you can’t borrow the gear to make doing the job safe the cost of scaffolding tower, ropes and harness will be £500 rather than a thousand. I got a quote for one gutter and found I could buy the scaffold and all the materials for just over half the original quote.