VW T6 van will need new tyres soon, I do a fair amount of deliveries and collections in rural areas with rough tracks and field entrances.. Got a bit stuck a few times last autumn-spring with the current original Continental vanco tyres. As they’ll need replacement anyway, looking for something with a bit more grip next time, although of course most driving is on normal roads so nothing too OTT and noisy, just something that’ll cope a bit better than present ones. Any leads / tips on makes etc, and perhaps deals on where from? Cheers

I left the winter tyres on my car until recently as they had much more grip in damp and slippy conditions. Might wear a bit quicker than normal tyres in warmer temperatures.

BF Goodrich ActiVan Winter

its what the local tyre shop recommended and ordered in for me. Been impressed so far, haven’t seen a flicker from my traction control light since I’ve had them and seem to be wearing pretty well.

Van co are a joke if you are doing anything but motorway. They have unidirectional tread designed for traveling in straight lines economically . Shed water well but grip nowt.

Got rid of 4 perfectly good ones that left me stuck on my own drive.

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Finally got the other two fitted up front Less pensioners retirement home more adventure mobile. Either way less time spent waiting on a shove out of fields….. #vanclans #selfbuildcamper #postbuscalleddignity #bfgoodrich #ivecodailycamper #postbus #vanlife #summerofcycling #allterrain #wintertireseason #wintertires #iveco #ivecodaily

A post shared by Terry Davidson (@trail.rat) on Jan 29, 2018 at 11:57am PST

Perhaps a touch extreme but it works dropped my tank average from 31mpg to 29mpg.

Looks for m+s tires (not mud and snow ) perfectly possible to get non winter m+s tires.

i just fitted a set of general grabber AT3 to my transit   no noticeable difference in road noise

much better for when off the beaten track, farm roads etc

I’ve got Goodyear Cargo Vector 2’s on my T5 kombi. Came factory fitted and M+S rated. Got 39k from the fronts, rears still had plenty of tread so left them for the time being. I’m as pleased as you can be with a set of tyres so replaced with exactly the same.

Grabber ATs on mine, less aggressive than trailrats but designed for 50:50 road and offroad.  Miles better than the stock road tyres and come in light truck/8 ply/commercial flavour.

Previous van had Toyo H09’s which are one of the more blocky square edged winter tyres.

Thanks all, gives us a better idea on what to look for

Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons on ours reduced noise, are mud & snow rated and I have found them grippy enough in the steep wet leafy lanes where we live.

Pay attention to load ratings.

One of the reasons I ended up with the tire I did was because I needed a 109 rated tire and they were thin on the ground in a winter tire in the measurements I needed  2 weeks before strathpuffer. I’d probably have had a general grabber as well but couldn’t get them in time. And I know brg tires ain’t noisy given their tread pattern as I already run muds on my landy and by all rights it should sound like a dive bomber but doesn’t .

How ever when we got to the strathpuffer we drove all the way to the top of the hill then parked it on the verge -then drove off on Sunday with not an issue…..but only after we pushed a VW camper that was on winters out the way. It was stuck in the verge .

Book marked as my Transhit needs new tyres

Related to my recent roof bar topic, sure someone said that they had issues with their insurance Co for not letting them know they had winter or off road tyres. Might be worth checking.

That was me.

I reasoned with them that id fitted the same size /rated tires on the same rims that tread pattern should not matter  it is suitable for conditions and approves foe road use. i.They would not ask me to tell them I’d fitted cheap remould tires made of hard plastic so this is not a modification.

It was accepted.

See if you can get some ‘General Eurovan Winters’ still – theres a ‘Eurovan 2’ that doesn’t have a good a tread.

A winter tyre that also has good blocky tread sort of kills two birds with one stone – grip on loose surfaces year round and better compound for snow and ice too. Some of the all-terrain tyres  can be quite a hard compound and don’t perfom as well in the cold. It can’t really be overstated just how much difference that compound can make – particularly if you’re on rural, ungritted roads. AT tyres are good if you’re the first vehicle up the road, but if a few people have been there before you and packed the snow down its the winter compound that keeps you moving.

In that respect – you sort of have to shop visually, lots of manufactures seem to change their tread pattern from year to year but give them the same name, so on the basis of a recommendation you could get a tyre thats pretty different to the one suggested

Look for snowflake and mountain mark on the tire.

That means it not only has an m+s pattern (m+s is not winter tire marking)

The snowflake and mountain mark means it also has the winter compound. Bfg make hard versions of their ATS and muds I assume for lowlands of  Oz and south Africa etx where there’s not much of a call for a winter tire.

I had the same problem as trailrat, old van was 15″ wheels and there are not AT tyres suitable,  only winter’s.  New van is 16″ wheels so there is a couple of AT sizes,  the ones in the photo actually exceed the load rating. Trailrat, I thought your van was a 112 rating (or 110 if it’s twin rear wheel) not 109! Axle is 2240kg so need a tyre that can do 1120, think that’s 112.

My T5 4 motion is now fitted with Yokohama Geolander G015 All Terrains. Very good tyre on the road, quiet and great handling. But not to shabby off road and also have benefit of full snowflake markings for winter use. Reasonable £££ too. Come in large variety of sizes, just need to make sure they are load rated if fitting to a van as some of the lower profile versions designed for SUVs come up a bit short.

Maxxis van pro tamed the lack of grip on my vito nicely. They were about £75 each I think but they have lasted ages. I just wish the maxxis logo on them was yellow then they would be perfect

My tires are 115 so ok

Just checked your right I do need 112 it must have been the cheaper bfg that were 109 and no good for me

That’s a relief 🙂 I had the same problem and like you ended up with 115s

Geolanders here, great on road in all conditions and pretty good off road. Recommend them.

Just fitted Maxis all season on our  boxer L3H3 as we will be doing loads of rural miles this year due to a particular contact. No problem so far. They were recommended by the tyre man, he was fitting them to his van when I dropped in!

Don’t know if Michelin Latitude Cross are rated for vans but got them on our FL and they’ve been pretty good, even driving up and down steep hill roads last winter to check the sheep. Only problem I did have was soaking wet clay on a steep hillside with the trailer. Had to ditch the trailed in the field to get the car out.

Don’t forget a decent pump and pressure gauge. If you get stuck lower the pressure in the tyres. Varying the pressure makes a massive difference to grip. I have m&s tyres on my T4 but dropping the pressure has got me out of more than one muddy field.