Motors Winter Rubber

Petrolheads UNITE!

I need some advice, Im looking for winter tyres to see me through until the new year. atm ive got Hankook Optimo K415's on and whilst they're good for my 1.4 peugeot 206 they;re easy to break traction in the wet/cold.

I dont have teh budget for Bridgestones or Michilins so im looking at around 40-45 a quarter.

any suggestions?

 

What size do you need? (approx, cold weather are often different if you have low-profile summers)

Difficult to find winter tyre recommendations in english, but I've heard very good things about the Yoko W. and T. range of winter tyres.

The Winter T's are discontinued now, but they can be found for pretty bargainous prices on eBay, someone I know picked up 4 brand new 15" ones for £130 from a random seller, and if you can cope with part-worns of other brands there are a lot of good condition ones coming through from Germany (where winter tyres are a legal requirement with quite a high tread limit too, 5mm iirc).

Otherwise http://mytyres.co.uk/ is a great site to use for searching.

 

Been looking at this for the A4, sadly due to the size most run far too expensive - Have a look at the Nokian Winter tyres, amazing reviews from what I can find, and not tooooo bank blowing if you've got sensible sized rims.

RwD

 

Had a trawl through the list on mytyres available for 14"'s and the best ones according to ADAC in 2010 are the Bridgestone Blizzack LM30's. Dunno if they tested Nokian though, judging by the list they might have.

 

Currently the best winter tire to buy is the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 http://www.michelinman.com/tire-selector/name/x-ice-xi2-tires. Blizzaks are pretty wonderful tires, I have used them extensively, but the Michelin's just cant be beat.

But remember, these are true winter tires, they tend to perform a lot worse on bare roads then they do on icy roads.

If you wont be dealing with icy roads quite as much, go with a winter performance style of tire. The Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3 is the best tire to get in this category http://www.michelinman.com/tire-selector/name/pilot-alpin-pa3-tires, although the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D http://www.dunloptires.com/catalog/winterSport3D.html is a pretty comparable tire if you want more options.


So in summary:

If your winters are harsh and your roads are mostly ice and snow during the winter go with the Michelin X-ice Xi2

If you see some ice and snow, but a lot of wet or bare roads, go with the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3, or the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D

Enjoy


PS:

If you are really desperate for that winter traction, go buy a standard all seasons tire, 300 Stainless steel bolts, 600 fender washers, and 600 smaller flat washers, a pint of quick expanding foam, some good elastic sealant, and make yourself some of these.

 

please dont

 

as Krikkit can probably testify to; our winters are **** as they can never make up thier damn mind about what they're going to throw at us, sometimes its just wet and cold, others icey and if its in a real mood a foot of snow.

tbh these past few years its been snowing in jan/feb so I have a feeling that it will again. weather reports today suggest that it's going to snow tonight/tomorow.

*edit* Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3 look decent. i'll have to see what priuce I cna get them for.

 

Our winters are mostly wet and cold with a little snow and ice thrown in. The reason everyone's getting interested in winter tyres is that we had an unusual amount of snow last year (it lasted for ages too) and all the local authorities ran out of salt for the roads, so everyone's summer tyres (which is what 99% of folks drive on over here, all year round) couldn't cope at all.

 

I honestly don't drive, but I have to say that my dad did perfectly well last winter with just his regular summer jobbies. It's a standard Jaguar X-type, 2 ltr diesel, etc etc etc. We had a bunch of snow, loads of ice, constantly wet, and driving was pretty cool for my dad.

Admittedly he has done this silly advanced police driving courses in addition to all that. He also tells me that when he got his licence, his driving test was in the snow.

 

Some cars faired alright, I managed perfectly well on normal tyres, but a lot of cars these days have much more performance-oriented tyres as standard these days, which don't work in the snow.

Notably from the cars we have was our Audi with low-profile Michelin Pilot Sport 2's, the banded tread works great in the dry/damp, but once the snow hit it simply couldn't cope at all.

 

I'll be interested to see how my car goes.

03 focus with a new set of Firestones, standard alloy rims, and no silly ****. Just gone through the advised 300 mile "may exhibit different blah blah" bit.

 

Indeed, my old Astra with boggo basic Yoko's coped admiraly, never got stuck, never failed to get to where I needed to go and I'm sure it'll be fine this year with Toyo's. (85mile commute each way, half M-way, half country roads in deepest darkest Worcestershire)

For this reason I've never looked at getting winter boots, but a quick search of the bay that is flea throws up tons of part worns, which could be the best way to go if you can get some cheap steelies to throw on for the couple of weeks when you 'might' need them.

However more important than tyres for our winters is learning how to drive in snow and ice, how to feel and know what your car is telling you and react appropriately.

 

tbh I coped alright as well in the feb snow but I wouldnt mind something to be a bit more suited to the conditions.

i need 2 new tryes anyway so im just thinking if i should put teh two good summers into storage for a while.

 

In all honesty as soon as I can afford to get some winter rubber on my car I will be doing, the grip from the current tyres on my car in this weather is frightening, I've started driving like an old lady because there's just no grip.

 

Me too. I'm running Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas up front and Proxes on the rear. Having tried F1As, the Ultracs, PE2s and PS2s in recent years, the PE2s were hands down the best all rounders, but then they should be, they cost a fortune.

It's the cold that bothers me, that's all. You can feel the rubber harden up. Today I've got cloudless blue with a balmy 9 degrees. Been out in a t-shirt and it's gorgeous. But you just know that later on tonight it'll be much colder and that's when you worry a little.

It'd be nice if there were tyres that would just cope at lower temps and with some rain. That's all I want. Cornwall doesn't generally do winter.

 

Thats what i use on my scoob.

I've never used winter tyres and have always managed the 50 mile round trip to work through country roads with out any issues. I think its more down to driving appropriately for the conditions and what vehicle your using. Having said that as i've never used winter tyres I do not know what I'm missing out on.

 

Our lorries struggled like hell getting into our yard at work with all the snow/ice. I'm personally looking forward to another dusting, but i bet our drivers wont be enjoying the drive in and out of Bracknell if it happens again.

Going back to winter tyres, can you get the equivalent of winter tyres for bikes? As i'm going to be cycling to work, wondering if theres something that will help (other than stabilizers)

Sam

 

Assuming yo mean push bikes, then yes you can;

 

4 season Tire in Winter are illegal here ^^ Did UK drivers really need spike on them rubber ? I mean I live in CANADA and I never used them, except if you want to drive in a frozen field or a Forest. For the rest, I trust my Dunlop

 

If you look at where he's from you'll see the reason to use spikes.

In the UK there's no call for spikes unless there's a freak weather event, most of our winters are just slightly frosty and very damp, hence no legislation for using winter tyres over here, which should change imo.