Just fitted the winter tyres to both cars 😈

Do you live in the north pole? I find the idea of seasonal tyres bizarre unless you live somewhere that suffers from extremes of weather. Do you?

jekkyl – Member
Do you live in the north pole? I find the idea of seasonal tyres bizarre unless you live somewhere that suffers from extremes of weather. Do you?

Good job that objective evidence shows that winter tyres perform better than summer tyres at below 7dgC.

summer? tyres? how does one assess which tyres are on your vehicle currently? my tyres do not have any markings of either summer or winter.

about to sort this out, too.
I don’t live *in* the north pole, either – a bit north of geoffj possibly.

No snow flake on the sidewall means it’s a Summer tyre.

I thought if there is a snowflake on the side of the tyre, it means it’s being driven by a Millenial 😉

I don’t. That’s why I have winter tyres fitted all year.

Two of my winter tyres (conti 850s) were worn when I swapped over a week or two back and I’ve gone for Michelin Crossclimates to replace them… well see how it goes. Ever so worth it IMO.

if we’d had a snowflake here for the last 4 years, coincidentally since I bought a fat bike, I’d be worried

Shirley there’s better ways of using your money. How much does it cost to get the tyres changed over and how much for the tyres? a lot of expense just for a bit more grip when it’s wet, just drive slower?! *shrugs*

I don’t change mine over, so £zero

Since I fitted my winter tyres 3 years ago we’ve barely had any snow or ice. I get that they provide more grip in the cold (<7degC), but at my old man speeds that’s not of a concern.

Just moved to the top of a hill that isn’t on a bus route. Mrs J had a minor bambi on ice moment in the 5mm of snow we had last year in the doblo, so it’s more about maintaining marital harmony than anything else.

Oh sweet mother of God, we’ve started this argument again

I’ll get in quick with “winter tyres are not the same as snow tyres”

Jekyll – try some. You won’t think it’s stupid after that.
I drive a lot with work. Got a set of wheels with summer tyres and a set with winter tyres. Takes 30-40 mins to swap wheels when need be.
Realistically, the winter tyres are a better compromise if I were only able to have one set of wheels.
As it is, I only fit the summer wheels out of vanity when the weather is warm/dry enough as they’re prettier….. 😳

Always used to swap my tyres over as well. Used BFG AT’s during the summer then BFG Muds during the winter.

Two sets of wheels. 20 min job with a farm jack.

When I lived in the uk my cars had high performance summer tyres all year round.
Now I live in Switzerland and we have to change our tyres to winters after Oct, I can say that they make a huge difference when it gets colder.
You don’t need snow to make them worthwhile, just colder, anything under 10c and you can notice the improvement.

Car is a 4wd if that makes any difference.

We have metal spikes on our car tyres what do we win?

We have winters on our cars almost all year now. Steep road in wet can be exciting and with ice/snow/frost much better traction. Both awd cars as well.
And £40 to swap tyres twice a year which is cheaper than a set of wheels

I’ve just fitted CrossClimate+ to my car, seems sensible particularly when travelling oop north for Crimbo and stuff (and to the continent over the winter period).

Winter tyres not on the MTB yet – spikes !! 😀

Dont worry, now I’ve swapped the 4×4 for a FWD we’ll have a proper winter.

During the time with the 4×4, didnt have one snowy winter.

Well I have have metal studded tyres fitted to my car at the moment and they will stay on until the end of March and then I will have summer tyres fitted. Summer tyres are much better in wet conditions, i.e. the summer

and its already proper winter here

Surely winter tyres are just a softer compound.

Winter tyres are a softer compound but also have sipes and a much deeper tread from new.

I used to run Nokian winters on my FWD 90hp estate, they were excellent and optimised for our kind of winter (slush, rain, cold) rather than full on deep snow and ice.

I now have a RWD estate with 500Nm torque and 265/35/R18 winter tyres are a little pricey, as are some spare AMG alloys to put them on so not looking forward to any snow/ice. I already have the traction control flashing away pulling out of roundabouts and kicking down the gears at over 50mph. Current tyres are Pirelli P-Zero which were excellent on the Evora on lanes with wet leaves but that had less torque.

If you keep the vehicle a while the costbof the tyres is insignificant as the wear on both sets evens out. I had a set for my Skoda and over the three summers/ four winters I had the car and 40000 miles I didn’t have to buy any new tyres. I then sold the tyres and wheels for £200
You just have pay up front an expense you would have anyway.
And as has been mentioned above, the difference in cold weather is noticible

We have metal spikes on our car tyres what do we win?

Either a surfmat ice driving cup or an audition for the next Mad Max reboot?

After the big snow of 2009 / 2010 I bought a snow shovel. It’s in the loft now having barely seen the light of day since I got it. 😥

What time said +1

The grip difference is noticeable in damp and cool conditions and I’ve been left thinking they saved me once last year when the car Infront miss read some lights and stopped on a dual carriageway. I stopped but slowly as abs worked hard, car behind had no chance but thankfully went for the hard shoulder and sailed past

I swapped the RWD van for a 4×4 negating any changes by anyone else from 4×4 to FWD.

However I also got a RWD teeny car of rapidity… so that may cancel out my change of works vehicles.

This is all too confusing!

On the more pertinent point of tyre choice, when my current summer tyres wear down I will probably stick All Seasons on, since they do the job well ooop North.

I knew it was time to put them on my car when I nearly had it sideways on the roundabout going to work on a cold morning last week.
Couple that with an interesting trip out of an icy Cairngorm car park in an E46 330i a couple of years ago has taught me all I need to be persuaded that winter tyres are a great idea in Scotland, if only to traverse the col du Dunfermline confidently.

A couple of winters ago, I got stuck at the bottom of a gentle incline when there was half a cm of snow. This was in a 1 series with Michelin Pilot Sport tyres (great in the dry, pretty awful in the damp and useless in snow). Winter tyres didn’t just make the car driveable, it made it great.

I bought some winter wheels (complete with tyres, I think they were about £350) and ever since then, I put them on in October and off again in April. Tyre wear is shared between my two sets so it doesn’t actually work out more expensive. I guess I could sell the wheels (if not the tyres) when I’m finished with them. Of course we haven’t had any proper snow since that first winter, c’est la vie.

I live up a hill near Sheffield. So not exactly too far north but we seem to get a fair amount of snow.

jekkyl – Member
Shirley there’s better ways of using your money. How much does it cost to get the tyres changed over and how much for the tyres? a lot of expense just for a bit more grip when it’s wet, just drive slower?! *shrugs*

🙄
Cross-climate tyres are optimised for lower general temperatures and cool wet weather, but will work perfectly well in the average summers we get in the UK, you replace the existing tyres with them when needed, so no extra cost other than the difference between the types of tyre. I have an old 110ps Octavia TDi, and on cold wet days it’s not unusual to have the traction light flash on some road surfaces and junctions when pulling away.
But I guess you’d be happier if they re-introduced a bloke walking in front with a red flag, to discourage drivers from driving at the posted limits in the wet…

jekkyl – Member
Shirley there’s better ways of using your money. How much does it cost to get the tyres changed over and how much for the tyres? a lot of expense just for a bit more grip when it’s wet, just drive slower?! *shrugs*

Having read the handbook (amazing, eh?) for my car – their instructions for driving in slippery conditions are simple and concise – put winter tyres on. Having nearly been stuck in a muddy car park earlier this year (sighs –
German car [tick], rear wheel drive [tick], 7 speed auto [tick]) I’ve replaced the OEM Hankook Ventus S1 evo2 with Michelin CrossClimate+. I will find out soon if they’re any good, but it seemed to me that for the same money a bit of extra confidence during the winter period was worth it.

Ours were fitted Monday, after it had snowed in the morning. I’m expecting a heatwave now 8)

You don’t need snow to make them worthwhile, just colder, anything under 10c and you can notice the improvement.

Really? Unless you’re Lewis Hamilton I have my doubts. Sure once it gets close to freezing the compound difference would start to be noticeable but 5-10c I highly doubt it.

Personally I just use four season tyres in the UK (cross climates at the moment), it doesn’t get cold enough (at least where I am in the SW) to warrant changing to winter tyres and decent four season tyres aren’t really a compromise these days over ‘summer’ tyres in warmer temps.

Unless you’re Lewis Hamilton I have my doubts. Sure once it gets close to freezing the compound difference would start to be noticeable but 5-10c I highly doubt it.

The crossover is designed to be 7c. You may have your doubts but all the evidence is to the contrary.

Having bought a new 4wd Estate in March I’m almost looking forward to the original tyres wearing out so I can put crossclimates on 🙂 With 13k miles on it so far, it will be going through this winter on the OEM ones though…

It’s not my doubts that track testing and measuring stopping distances etc. has shown a difference starts around 7c I’m debating that the average (or even above average) driver would start to notice at that temperature (based on feel in real world use).