Motors Winter Rubber

Agreed, too many people driving unknowingly far beyond the limits of traction round where I live. Because everyone's coddled with radials, ABS and traction control, they don't know the consequences of stepping over the electronic safety net until it's much too late. Short of forcing everyone to drive a Government-issued TVR with Bakelite tyres for a winter to sharpen their skills, winter tyres are the next best thing.

 

Yep let's punish everyone and force them to fork out for something that might get used for 7 days out of 365 just because a few don't know how to drive.

Tiss no wonder we live in a nanny state.

 

I drive on all seasons and the snow was fine. People just haven't learned to drive on snow properly. People in their 4x4s spinning all their wheels while my Corsa 1.2 just daintily skimmed across the snow with a shitton of grip to spare...

Anyway, spikes... yeah there's absolutely no call for them in the UK while the Gulf Stream is still flowing...

 

That would be awesome. If I come to power, you are going to be my head of thingummys with cars.

FTFY

 

This is an obstacle that most folks can't get past. I don't mean SNOW tyres, I mean tyres designed to be used in winter, with a compound that doesn't go solid as a rock below 5'C like summer tyres. Tyres designed to be used in winter, i.e. from Nov to March at least.

 

Lol, those tires are strictly made for Car racing on a frozen lake and are in no shape or form "road legal". I think Kricket got what I was talking about , but overall I fear my joke seems to have fallen in with the wrong crowd

(what they are actually used on)

If you were ever to take those on the road for any period of time, the road would destroy them


On second thought tho, I kinda wished I had them with me at the moment, our university has been shut down for the week due to freezing rain.


By the sounds of your guy's winter conditions I'd seriously recommend going with winter performance tires. And the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3's are your best bet. And honestly, if your going to buy winter tires, buy 4 of them. Having 2 winter and 2 summer tires on at the same time does very little to increase your overall traction, and prematurely wears out your tires. I suppose it might make you "feel" better about driving around, but that does very little to increase your actual safety.

 

Not snow chains, cold-season tyres. This is a temperate country that spends a good 4-6 months of each year in cold-ish weather - much more if you live up North or in Scotland. I can't quote exactly the number of mornings where 8AM is 5 degrees or less in the shade, but it's a lot more than 7; it might be as many as 100. That's almost a third of the year you're using your summer-only tyres beyond their compound's specification. It's doesn't matter how good a driver you are; if a bad driver or an iPod-wearing pedestrian in front of you does something unexpected, your summer tyres won't hold your emergency stop in November like they will in July. All-season or winter-season tyres might not either, but they'll do a lot better.

 

For the times it does dump a load of snow in the UK i have heard good things about auto socks. http://www.autosock.co.uk/

 

They seem pretty good, but limiting the speed to 30mph... crikey. We've not had snow that bad for a while, when 40mph on all-seasons was simple and safe...

 

Bridgestone's new A001 all weather tyres are said to be good. Obviously dearer than a retread but you get what you pay for I guess.

I had budgets on my Laguna last year when it was bad and driving through deep snow on country roads at about 20-25mph was great fun - the car's ABS kicked in a few times which thankfully meant less slippy slidey, but my arse was twitching like a rabbit's nose. Keeping it in a higher gear (with lower revs) helped.

 

i Sweden there is a new rule that you aren't aloud to go round town with spiked tyres any more so all the Swedish car magazines have done loads of group tests but they find all the winter tyres without spikes are rubbish compared

any way here is a group test showing winter tyres http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2010-Auto-Bild-Winter-4x4-TyreTest.htm

 

Which is what I asked about on the previous page. Funny how nobody knows about them.

If you want people to buy them, they need to be marketed. If I could continue to get the majority of the summer performance from my practical family hatchback rock in the winter, I wouldn't mind paying a little for that. 180ps is difficult to put down in the wet, let alone the cold!

 

Those tyres on the last page are the tyres we both mean - the roundups test snow performance because they're designed with it in mind, but they're mostly focussed on good grip in cold, wet weather.

 

So you'll have meant all season tyres not winter tyres?

All season jobbies have slightly modified tread patterns over summer tyres but have the same composition as winter tyres to give extra grip in colder temperatures.

Might be a good idea for those who struggle, but no way should they be compulsory, modern rubber on a modernish car is still up to the job for the winter months we face.

 

Reading this makes me wonder....

A lot of people are on about getting winter or all season tyres.....

Up north in scotland i could understand, some parts where pretty much snow'ed in, but down here in the south, we had some down pours but where able to keep going as the roads where gritted.

Now my OH uses a car most days to get to work so in theory yes for her could be a good idea, but where would you keep the tyres that you arent using if you havent got a garage or somewhere to store them without some little thiefing git taking them?

Also what about the people who dont use their car very often? I have a bit VW LT35 which is my wagon for chucking my race quad in and going off and playing. Now this year i have done just over 4000 miles, which have been mostly between march and november going to race meets, practices and using the van for deliveries. Now its getting colder, it wont be used that much.

So should i be forced to fit winter tyres on??

The only time it will go out is if there is a meet, which if the weather is bad then tends to be cancelled as people get stuck in the fields. The only other time i will go out is if there is an emergency or for my van's MOT which i need to do next week.

Saying that i am lucky, if the weather gets bad down here, then in the room next door to me there is 3 quads, all with selectable 4x4 drive which in the snow last year took us to places that hadn't seen traffic for days and views that where frankly awesome!

What needs to happen really is to make people more aware of how to drive in these condition's. The amount of people i have seen spinning the wheels to pull away as they dont realise that they have grip, the amount of space between car's people leave with them forgetting that the 2 second rule really doesnt apply in icey conditions- more like 15 second rule! - and the fact that you just have to coax your car to where you want to go, even if it takes 3 times longer to get there.....

 

I don't think this thread was intended to be a debate as to the requirement of legislation on winter tyres.

I agree that more people could do with paying attention to conditions, but that's as true about rain and dark, as it is about snow and ice. People are complacent and don't pay enough attention - me included.

However, I'd like to see those who think summer tyres and driving knowledge are ok by themselves, come down to rural Cornwall. We don't gritted here and last year, we were cut off for 4 days (unless you had a tractor).

All very well if the road surface has been prepped, or on major roads/well trodden routes, but out here, some correct boots would help immensely. I suspect that there are other areas like mine throughout the country - especially up north.

 

Tell us the size of your tires and your car... ;-)
I have Conti wintercontact on a nissan Micra, as the price difference between the cheapest and best-test-winning tyres were very small. (155 tyre)
I have Hankook Icebears on the Coupe (205 tyre) as they were the cheapest one to perform well in the ADAC test.

185/65 R15
225/45 R17
205/55 R16
185/60 R14
195/65 R15
175/65 R14

Germans rate differently...a lower number meens a higher score.
so a 2.0 is better than a 3.5 (and 1.0 is perfect)

ADAC-Urteil is the totalTrocken is Dry
Nass is wet
Schnee is snow
Eis is ice
Geräusch/Komfort is loudness/comfort
Kraftstoffverbrauch is fuel-efficiency
Verschleiss is wear

 

Thanks for that. Everything even approaching good is £100 a corner for me, so that's the end of that! I usually pay £70 a corner for summer tyres! I'm supposed to be 205/50/17, but I run 225/45/17. Either size is too expensive.

But at least I know now. Thanks.

 

Re: Winter Rubber

 

Ok, time for all you guys to have a driving lesson...


No studs, just road legal winter tyres...