Suggestions please – How to make a Ford S-max 1.8tdci better in the snow?

We just made it over the A66 last night. We slowed to a crawl on some of the hills when everyone else seemed to keep traction.
I did keep in a high gear and went easy on the throttle, but the car just seems poor in these conditions. The weight distribution and the high load rating tyres must be wrong for these conditions. I believe Mondeos are the same.
I’m going to get a pair of hankook winter tyres on the front as its not the first time. If it had got worse I was going to drop the tyre pressure.
The car is otherwise awesome, so don’t want to sell it. I’d only go out in those conditions when it was necessary btw.
Thanks for reading.

Any better ideas?

Winter tyres.

Be careful of potential oversteer moments with grippy winter tyres on the front and slippy summers on the rear!

Dropping pressure should help as will the right tyres have you thought about snow socks ?

Winter tyres on my Pug 206 didn’t ever stop me getting up some pretty steep hills in snowy conditions.
Chains proved to be very effective, and once learned very easy to fit correctly, on dual carriageway driving at speed.
Stay at home for the three days of snow that the UK gets.
Refuse to panic in a way that the press would like you to.

Best thing to do? Don’t go driving in the snow.

Maybe alter your driving style in snow? You say everyone else kept traction but your car struggled?

Possibly driving in to higher gear at the wrong speed?

Some good stuff there. I’ve got to the point in life where chucking a couple of hundred quid into some tyres and rims is worth it to maybe save an accident every 10 years or to get home when we get caught in bad weather. I’d like to think we could nip up to Scotland when the conditions are right, but the thought of getting stuck doesn’t appeal. I don’t want to get a 4 wheel drive just for a couple of days a year.

Big car, wideish tyres, well under maximum occupancy = bit of a sledge IMO

I’ve an MPV & suspect it’ll be just the same though haven’t driven in snow yet

get some narrower winter wheels with narrower tyres on them ? (if yr insurance will allow)

Snow chains/socks sound like a good idea. Anyone recommend some?

Just buy some snow socks and stick them in the car. Wife focus 1.8tdci is useless in the snow but after five minutes to put snow socks on it will climb hills easily.
Put them in your car in Oct, take them out in spring. Cheap, practical

You could go for a good all season Tyre. I fitted some khumo kh 21’s on my wifes focus estate. Great Tyre just fit and forget. Superb in all but the worst snow. Fine in the wet and couldn’t really notice any drop in performance in the summer. Wear rate slightly higher due to softer compound, more silica to keep them grippy in freezing conditions.

Just remember that the snow socks are an emergency get out and you can’t shouldn’t be using them for any kind of distance at speed.
Chains can be used over longer distances at higher speed, I think mine are speed rated to 40km/hr, plenty fast enough to get past the sock wearing or naked numpties slipping and sliding at 20km/hr. 😀

focus 1.8tdci is useless in the snow

Same car here, surprisingly crap in the snow 🙁

I’m going to get a pair of hankook winter tyres on the front

Gotta fit Winter Tyres on all four wheels or you’ll find one end trying to catch the other which isn’t good!

Not cheap but a set of winter tyre has turned my lump of a focus estate into a reasonably capable snow machine. Had a great time late yesterday afternoon meandering round the local village & surrounding country lanes, the only other traffic being 4×4’s. Was supposed to drive over to a m8’s 40th party, but unfortunately even though the g/f was impressed by the new snow performance (it got stuck the other year on a very very ‘slight’ slope), she didn’t want to risk spending the night stuck miles from no-where, so we didn’t go!
Off-hand it’s improved the snow performance immensely but there not infallible

I’d echo the winter tyres on all corners thing – you are not going to put winter tyres on the morning before it snows – you’ll have them on for the season. So you’ll be driving with that mismatch of grip for several months and it’ll be most apparent in the wet.

Don’t bother with two sets of rims – it cost buttons to have your tyres swapped at a garage, some will even store the spare set for you. I’ve chosen to just run winter (as in Mud and Snow) tyres all year round, as much for mud as snow – having a rear wheel drive van I more commonly get stuck in mud in the summer than snow in the winter.

Timing is key when you buy them – winter tyres are manufactured in the summer, by the start of winter they are all but sold out, and if you wait until they weather gets properly wintery you’ll pay top dollar for them

I drove our 1.8tdci focus estate in the snow and ice east of Penrith with no real problems on standard tires – but then I don’t think I’m a WRC driver and am prepared to stop and walk things first before piling in.

Winter tyres….. seriously, once you have tried them you wont go back to innappropriate kit for the conditions again.

Its not just in snow, they work better in the October – april Permaslime as well, I run winter treads on the Van (Renault Trafic) all year round, as its hopeless in the snow otherwise, and no real trade off in summer, barring slightly more wear and better comfort 😉

Socks are for people that cant be bothered for chains, chains are great when you really need them but a pain, and you get filthy fitting / removing them.
I have Chains for the van too, but I have never had to fit them since I have run winter tyres…..
and that was spending the last 10-12 years in Meribel every winter 8)

Could you not just get your nearest and dearest to perch on the bonnet for the tricky uphill bits that need extra traction?

Snow socks are really only for getting you up ‘that hill’ or to the end of your street and gritted roads. You shouldn’t expect to leave them on for your whole journey.

I would expect to pay £25 per wheel for a garage to swap your tyres…that seems to be the going rate for fit and balance if you supply your own tyres. Cheap set of wheels could pay for themselves in one season.

We stuck some ‘all season’ tyres on our car a few months back. Slightly more woolly handling on tarmac, but on Sunday afternoon I was the only car to have made it 25 metres up a sloping car park and park out of the way, every one else was getting stuck within 10 metres and playing dodgems at the entrance. We also scrabbled our way up an icy unmade track that normally only sees 4×4’s in the snow.

Ford Fusion BTW.

Focus tdci here too.. I have to leave it in the drive whilst the roads are slippery as it’s completely useless in the snow.. Had to push two police cars out of my road yesterday (both focus’s).

Don’t bother with two sets of rims – it cost buttons to have your tyres swapped at a garage, some will even store the spare set for you. I’ve chosen to just run winter (as in Mud and Snow) tyres all year round, as much for mud as snow – having a rear wheel drive van I more commonly get stuck in mud in the summer than snow in the winter.

M&S is german for snow&slush not mud + snow.

Made it up and down a couple of 15% hills yesterday in my focus on summer tyres. Slow and steady wins the race.

I had chains and they were much better than the 4X4 I had in the Snow.

M&S is german for snow&slush not mud + snow.

never the less – the deeper, more cross-ways tread helps, most van tyres have almost no grooves across they tyre.

All weather tyres – we went skiing in Verbier a couple of years ago, and I had to park our Touran at the bottom of the hill leading to our chalet, as it wouldn’t touch the road surface which was largely compacted snow. There was a local who I saw driving up the hill happy as larry in his Touran, which was equipped with all weather tyres.

Kumho(I think) M+S tyres on our Audi all year round.

4 winter tyres.

don’t fit 2. Really bad idea. You can get away with fitting snow socks or chains to only the drive wheels though as they are mainly designed to provide traction for drive. But I would fit 4.

Chains should only be used on unploughed roads or ones with a thick layer of compacted snow/ice. Which pretty much shouldn’t be used anywhere in the UK (except some very remote places).

Socks – as above can only be used a temporary measure for short distances.

Winter tyres are the most expensive but the benefit/£ far outweighs any other solution.

As for spare rims – just get yourself some cheap steelies or some cheap alloys off ebay. Looking at £10-15 per tyre for fitting so just get some cheap wheels.

For insurance as long as you stick with the recommended winter tyre size in our cars handbook (or call your dealer) or if none is recommended then stick with the original size you should be fine.

I use some Nokian WRG2. They have now been replaced by 2 different tyres – one all season (less winter bias) and one with more winter bias. They are fine to use all year if you want to but I don’t. In winter they are simply amazing. I can actually corner harder with them on a cold winter day (not icy or wet etc) than decent summer tyres in summer. I managed to get my front mudflap to hit the floor going round a corner before 😀 (and nothing wrong with the suspension – all new oem spec).

Its the way the tyre deforms thats important

Rubber does not grip snow

Snow grips snow very well

Trap enough small amounts of snow in the tyres Sipes (The small cross grooves in the tread) and this snow will grip the snow under the tyres.

MAke these sipes zigzag to increase the surface area, add more of them to each tread block, which makes each tread block more flexible as well, and you have the makings of a good snow tyre.

Effectively you are trapping lots of small zigzag walls of snow in the tread which grip the snow beneath

The tread blocks moving around, coupled with the much higher silica content, means they warm up quicker and maintain their flexibility and therefore grip in lower temperatures.

As the tyre rotates, with its nice flexible tread, it releases grip on the snow trapped in the sipes and leaves the tread clear for the next rotation.

You can see the difference in tracks left by snow tyres and those left by normal tyres…… the snow tyres will have loads of little zigzag walls sticking up whereas the normal tyres just squash and flatten everything.

On Ice, theres not a lot short of Studs or chains that will help, and studs are not legal for road use over here

Winter tyres. Doesn’t cost any extra in the long run because you’re using each set of tyres half the time. Also winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for any time the temperature is under 7C or when it’s icy. Could save your life one day not just get you home in the snow.

My sister had organised a birthday do for my Dad in Brecon yesterday, and didn’t cancel it as she should have. So I was obliged to go really. Coming back over the Storey Arms down towards Merthyr we were driving ok but the steep bits by Nant Ddu were more or less blocked by people sliding about. Could’t really tell if anyone was getting through or not so we turned around and went over the top to Aberdare (a very bleak exposed high up road). A good few inches of compacted snow on the roads, we had no bother at all in our light 2WD car. Stopped to help a BMW who was struggling – wish I’d had a tow rope in the car. Actually scratch that – there would’ve been a good chance he’d have slithered off the side of the road and taken us with him!

Always found the 1.8tdci fat max to be quite good in snow. Certainly one of the few non 4x4s to get out of our estate in the snow…

Tyres are actually quite narrow by modern standards.

Also winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for any time the temperature is under 7C or when it’s icy.

Ice is ice whatever tyres you’ve got fitted

No, not really. Ice isn’t ice. You could be on a slick bit of ice, it could be wet or dry, or it could just be an icy road surface.

Ice is about as far from just being ice as any other substance actually. It’s incredible and bizarre stuff.

I invested £400 in a set of Kumhos this winter, now working out at £133 per day of effective use!! I find them a bit squishy in normal conditions over the normal tyres but it is a nice feeling knowing that you won’t get stuck.

The big problem with winter tyres is however, that few people have them and therefore its very easy to get stuck behind muppets that refuse to accept that normal tyres, snow and hills are not a good combination.

FWIW I have winter tyres on the front only, with a set of sensible allrounders on the back, and I’ve had no problems at all with that combo. Possibly helped by the patheticness of my rear brakes, to be fair. I understand the arguments against it, but in practice it hasn’t been an issue at all, and the winter tyres on the driven/steered wheels have been very handy at times.

rangerbill – Member

Wife focus 1.8tdci is useless in the snow

Funny, mine is unfazed by snow- didn’t give me any probs even before I fitted the winter tyres.

Funny, mine is completely unfussed by snow- didn’t give me any probs even before I fitted the winter tyres.

Why did you buy winter tyres? 😛

Because they’re even better. Obviously 😉

cb, that’s why I went over the tops yesterday – I knew that thre’d be hardly anyone on it.

running a civic 2.2 diesel on winters all year round
Only marginally more wear but the security of great all weather
Performance rain, slush snow or cold roads

You really will notice the upgrade in grip, braking and overall security

I’ve got chains too for the really icy descents for security
But only needed them once in the last 2 yrs
And even a local 4×4 couldn’t touch the performance

I’ve used Bridgestone a001 all weathers / khumo izen kw27’/
And conti winter sports

The bridgestones have been spot on, best mix of grip vs wear rate
Just put them on all 4’s
Nasty things happen under braking or steep hills if you don’t

I have had 2 Galaxy’s (same as s max’s) for the last 4 years and initially found them rubbish in the snow, but after dropping the tyre pressure slightly and getting rid of none essential spares (i work in the service industry and need many spare to keep equipment running) the car became quite different and alot more managable.

My work have provided me with snow socks and chains now 😀

The verdict is still out on the Vw Sharan that has replaced the Galaxy’s though 🙄