(I know its been done to death)
Got MOT for the Honda HRV coming up, it’s going to fail on tyres or may scrape a advisory, eitherway it will need new rubber.

I know it’s not a ‘proper’ 4×4 but i was thinking of getting ‘all season’ tyres, from reviews on here and elsewhere Vredestein Quatrac 3 seem to fit the bill. For my wierd size they seem to come in around the £105 mark.

Expensive but due to my job (ambulance service) think they will come in handy epseically if it snows and i have to pick people up.

I suppose my question is are ‘all season’ tyres a con and could i get away with a cheaper ‘normal’ set?

Cheers

Hmmmmmmm

after watching this i think the only way to be sure in snow/ice/really sh*tty winter weather is to have a second set of dedicated ‘winter’ tyres on steel rims…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2wTg0l3_wI[/video]

Mmmm, just settling into a comfy chair with a big mug of coffee.
Biscuit anyone?
8)

Last time I went to the garage for tyres I enquired about winter and all season tyres and they didn’t know what I was talking about 🙄

I need new so will watch this thread

done to death? yeah – by you, twice in the space of 20 minutes.

oops sorry mods/people can you delete this one… wtf??? need a new laptop aswell!

I bought some Chinese made “Goodride” winter tyres from our local tyre emporium last year – think they were £70 each fitted. I wasn’t expecting much other than a swift snowy death, frankly….

Turned out they were great. Tamed the wheelspin in wet/slippy conditions (small light car with a tad too much oomph at times), were absolutely brilliant on roads covered with running water (remember last year?) and coped with icy/snowy roads way better than regular tyres have done (me and the wife both work across Derbyshire, including the higher colder bits)

Well worth the cost, not much wear after probably 7 months fitted (Nov-May), and currently sat in the garage waiting to be put back on, probably after the clocks change.

I’m sure other, better tyres are available, but I’m happy with those ones.

I had a set of Vredestein Quattrac 3’s on the old car, granted not a full winter tyre, but i live in Gloucestershire i don’t get full winters!!! At the time i was commuting to Chester weekly and did have to drive them in snow and whilst full winter tyres might have been better, they were fine. Certainly more usable than the tyres on the M3 trying to leave the services Oswestry way!!!

When the tyres on the new car wear out i will fit another set of vredesteins.

For the mileage i do it made little sense to get two sets, probably perish before they wore out!

Winter tyres make a remarkable difference IME

Slight tangent. Probably a daft question but on a FWD car can you get away with just a pair up front? Just thinking that I could keep 2 cars moving for the price of 4 tyres. I know it’ll offer less grip on the lightly weighted end and possible induce oversteer more readily but if driven sensible surly it’ll help with just getting traction.

as you say it has been done to death on here! I bought hankook 4 season tyres last winter and they do seem a fair better in snow, wet and cold, though the yaris they are on is pretty great in snow anyway. bit noisier in summer though.

If I really absolutely had to drive in snow without fail for a large proportion of the year I would buy proper winter tyres, but don’t have to and don’t have anywhere to store spare wheels. kwik fit have started doing summer/winter tyre storage in the european style I believe, if you can bear giving them any money.

I think if you are driving on sheet ice then you are in a bad situation whatever tyres you have fitted.

Second set of wheels here with proper Dunlop 4D winter tyres

Not driving like a fudd makes more difference than any tyre could ever make.

Nokians and Vredesteins are the ones I would choose. I am mad about tyres since I’ve used so many and can always tell the difference. I would only go full winters. If you’re going for a different size tyre (smaller the better so long as it fits over your calipers and is very close to the original circumference) for cheapness, make sure those insurance folk know – they like to wriggle out of things even when you’ve been good and halved braking distances etc. I honestly don’t understand why people think it’s fine to drive around on summer tyres in cold weather and/or snow and then flash me as I’m zooming everywhere!

Just noticed a comment above – only get all four done or just don’t bother – putting winters on the front and summers on the rear will be interesting – I’ve seen a car do a 180 when braking normally on snow!

And with winter tyres, I could drive as fast as I wanted in an RX-8 (so I guess like a fudd?) and have more traction than on mildly damp roads in the summer with Potenza RE040s.

Proper winters for winter

Decent summer tyre that can handle rain for summer.

Saying that I have Nokian WRG2 (now discontinued) which are an all-weather tyre rather than an ‘all season’. They are 90-95% of the winter performance of a full winter tyre but were better than anything else out there when it came to slush and just normal uk rainy winters. Also very efficient and better ride quality that any other tyre I’ve used.

Makes sense to us now to always use winters in winter. One bump or missed day of work and that’s the cost of tyres. If you have the car for at lea 3 years it only really costs you the price of the spare set of wheels to put them on.

I honestly don’t understand why people think it’s fine to drive around on summer tyres in cold weather and/or snow and then flash me as I’m zooming everywhere!

Ooooh I do, I do. See aforementioned fudd comment.

I have all season tires on my Multivan which came with the vehicle when we bought it. Compared with the winter tires on my old bus these seem like driving on summer tires in the snow. I’ll be going back to two sets again once these wear out.

glupton1976 – Member
Not driving like a fudd makes more difference than any tyre could ever make.

Not sure that one is true!

Kingpin remoulds at pattern. Not that it helps you but thats what im on for this year
Y
Driving fast on winter tires on ice is not recomended – flashing you for good reason.

Reminds me of when i was decending a hill in low box not touching brakes – mr white audi flashing me and tooting me….. Went zoomingpast as soon as there was a space.

Bottom of the hill i found him parked on a banking – saw the skid marks from miles up the hill.

Drive to conditions. And in ice – when you figure out its time to slow down -‘its too late

glupton – drive a car with decent winter tyres. If I want to do the speed limit because my tyres grip all day long and because I emptied my bank account to ensure that me and my family are safe then that’s up to me. I’d rather be perceived as a fudd than actually be the fudd pussyfooting around at 20mph wondering what I’m going to slide into next.

So don’t be a hero and think you can drive in any condition with whatever tyres, because you cannot.

Don’t confuse so called ‘all-season’ tyres for pukka winter tyres – there’s a huge difference between them.
I drive a big 4×4 (VW Touareg) which will go up pretty much anything in the snow on standard all-season tyres. The problem comes when you try to stop or steer the thing going down the other side 😯
I ran Vredestien winters last year and the grip you get when you stand on the brakes is remarkable. The look of confusion from other 4×4 drivers as you go off piste around the outside of their stuck car is priceless. (We had some pretty decent snow last year around Holmfirth/Huddersfield)
They’re sat in the garage and will be going back on as soon as it gets frosty in the mornings. Ran them from early November to the end of April last year.

Ill repeat

Expensive winter tires or not – you will not grip on ice

My advice is to not drive like a fudd, and get winter tyres.

So don’t be a hero and think you can drive in any condition with whatever tyres, because you cannot.

Don’t be a hero and think you can defy the laws of physics…

only things that will work on ice are studs but they they are not exactly practical for the UK unless you know you will only drive on ice.

I found winter tyres will still make driving safer in ice as you seem to be able to regain traction that split second earlier and having 3 tyres with good grip in the cold and wet is useful when the 4th ends up on ice.

Have fun in the snow on winters but go back to pussy-footing around when it’s icy.

I ran Vredestien winters last year and the grip you get when you stand on the brakes is remarkable.

once you have driven in winter on proper winter tyres the question is not should i use winter tyres, but why the hell wouldn’t you. comical amounts of grip compared to everyone else.

using summer tyres in the snow is a bit like using slicks in the peeing rain. possible with extreme caution, but really not a good idea.

How often do you get the chance to drive on snow or ice that isn’t slush full of grit? An hour/yr?

And do you trust the ability of other drivers, when it comes to them not driving into you, on snow and ice covered roads? I don’t.

glupton that addressed at me? before we got winter tyres my wife and i couldnt get the cars off the drive and up the street to get to work whenever it snowed. generally happens twice a year, so 4 days wages which since we are contractors is significant. it’s cheaper for us to have the winter tyres!
re the trust other drivers, no i don’t, but i’m not sure of your point other than to say i was on the way to epping mtb’ing once on one of the minor roads which hadn’t seen a gritter and had plenty of snow – eventually caught up with someone on a hill in an st focus who was sliding about all over the road. at one point he was sliding back down the hill towards me with all 4 wheels locked. i just reversed out of the way until he eventually hit the bank at the side of the road, and drove round him up the hill with no dramas at all.

i just reversed out of the way until he eventually hit the bank at the side of the road, and drove round him up the hill with no dramas at all.

Did you stop to help them? What would you have done if someone was behind you and you couldn’t reverse out of the way?

couldnt get the cars off the drive and up the street

Did you try digging the car out? And what was it like getting back in once there’d been a bit of a thaw during the day and a refreeze as it got dark and you’d turned the snow to ice? 😀

How often do you get the chance to drive on snow or ice that isn’t slush full of grit? An hour/yr?

Over the past three years, actually quite a bit during the two months a year my winter (not snow) tyres are fitted.

And do you trust the ability of other drivers, when it comes to them not driving into you, on snow and ice covered roads? I don’t.

Not a lot I can do about that other than hide under the stairs.

I have had much use out of my winters and all seasons. Living in Scotland, and bearing in mind part of the advantage is in cold conditions, I have had weeks of proper use. New job, while not in the mountains anymore, does require travelling a fair bit all round Scotland.
Great value IMO.

I told the focus driver to try winter tyres because they make the road come alive

Glupton – you’re clearly a bit of a tool, and obviously haven’t tried proper tyres on winter roads.
Either that or you have god like car control combined with the ability to defy the laws of physics.

Winter tyres allow you to stop and steer when summer tyres will be sending you into the nearest hedge. And it is remarkable how hard you can brake on untreated roads with a fresh covering of snow before the ABS kicks in. That doesn’t mean you can drive like a Scandinavian rally driver, but it does mean you can get to work/drop the kids off/buy food without having to worry about getting back up the road to your house everytime there’s a dusting of snow or hard frost. I don’t get paid to sit at home every time we get a bit of snow, and it doesn’t take many days wages before the tyres pay for themselves.

It also means when we do get some good snow I can get up into the hills and enjoy it, and there’s no danger of bumping into dicks like you 😉

Roads like these are a lot easier with the right tyres

Biscuits

Kettle’s just boiled 😀

That wee block user tab that I have is coming in handy. 😀

Spoilsport

Did somebody say something? 😉