Technical Tyres - general

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Technical Tyres - general

james_f

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Yes, I know, another bloomin' tyre thread... :rolleyes:

For the past couple of years I've had Vredestein Quatrac 2s on my Panda 4x4, and recently changed these for Quatrac 3s.

Now, having driven the new ones in plenty of snow over the past couple of weeks, I am not so sure the new tyres are any better than the QT2s :confused:

So, with our other car needing new tyres and having been very impressed in general with 'all-season' tyres, I decided not to buy a set of the QT3s, nor a set of the QT2s - partly for the reason given above and also because neither are / were available in our size for any of the usual stockists without having to wait for ages.

In the end, I decided to go for Hankook Optima 4S tyres (from Blackcircles), which seem to have had an excellent write up - albeit in German! - and they arrived this afternoon (many raised eyebrows at work!!). Same price as the QT3s (£190 for four delivered)

So, will report back on how they perform, although they couldn't be much worse than what's on the car at the moment and with the big thaw that seems to be happening maybe not so much snow to play around in. Still, I am sure there will be plenty of winter to come yet :D

Anyone else used these tyres and indeed what other tyres has anyone else used?
 
Anyone else used these tyres and indeed what other tyres has anyone else used?
I've got Hankook Optimo 4S's on my Active. Not had enough bad weather round here to really get the measure of them yet, but grip seems good in the cold and wet.

No feel through the steering with them though. When I picked the car up after having them fitted I thought I was driving on ice the steering was so light.
 
I would always say to get two sets of tyres, 1 winter and 1 summer if you're worried about winter performance. You'll have the crispness in the steering that you only get from good summer rubber and you'll get the fantastic performance that only winter tyres will give you when it's slippery.

It was such a pleasure to get the summer tyres on back in March or April or whenever I put them on, the steering just came alive with feedback and there was of course more grip. That's not to say that the winter tyres don't give feedback because they do and I was happily passing people at 40 when they were all doing 15 or 20 and there was only the slightest hint of looseness to the car at those speeds in deep slush. Cornering is much more fun because although I think it probably gives up a little in ultimate grip in the dry due to being 20mm narrower but it gives up its grip in a much more progressive and predictable manner ;)
 
Cheers guys - the overly light steering 'feel' also happened with the new QT3s when they went on - I assumed it was because I had the (heavy) trailer on at the time and so didn't pay it much heed, and have obviously become accustomed to it in the meantime!

Well, the Optimos go on this morning so we'll see. The main reason for upgrading was so that my wife could feela bit safer and if it's really bad she won't go out in it anyway, and not being 4x4 (her car is a Citroen Berlingo) and not having diff-lock etc not going to be much good in the deeply slushy stuff - plus we can't afford two sets of tyres at the moment!
 
Cheers guys - the overly light steering 'feel' also happened with the new QT3s when they went on - I assumed it was because I had the (heavy) trailer on at the time and so didn't pay it much heed, and have obviously become accustomed to it in the meantime!

Well, the Optimos go on this morning so we'll see. The main reason for upgrading was so that my wife could feela bit safer and if it's really bad she won't go out in it anyway, and not being 4x4 (her car is a Citroen Berlingo) and not having diff-lock etc not going to be much good in the deeply slushy stuff - plus we can't afford two sets of tyres at the moment!

You'd be surprised at how good a 2wd car with an open diff can be in the slush and snow. By all accounts all weather tyres aren't that far behind winter tyres in terms of snow performance and my 500 was amazingly good in the slush on winters.
 
Well, new tyres are on and after the initial slipperiness as per most new tyres all seems well. Maybe slightly noisy but maybe just aware of it because I'm thinking about it!

Now looking forward to the much-forecast cold snap on its way for the end of the week!!
 
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I was gently smiled at when I said I was buying Avon Ice Touring for the 4x4 a while back replacing the orginal Bridgestone Duelers.

Bought on the internet for about £34 each delivered. Far quieter than I thought they would be and they work! Instead of fighting over one of my Mercedes the family and I cant get enough of the Panda. My son came back from work outside Tiverton, Devon at 1am today and says the outside temp hit -14C at one stage. After the the car's capability it's then down to the rubber!

Ross
 
I put some cheapo Sava Eskimos on our 1.1 Active
(£29 per tyre, they've shot up since)
and have done a 550 mile round trip to the north and back this weekend, set out satuarday morning and got hit by the snow big time, never once did I have the feeling I'm in trouble or out of my depth, not even the snow covered Pennines fazed it, not one slip or slide and didn't even get the ABS kicking in and I still got 47 mpg.
I think the fact that it's light, not very powerful and the grip the tyres give made it seem effortless.

They are a little noiser, but even at speeds like 140800 yards per minute (you work it out) they're acceptable. At they price I paid, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them or use them again myself.

She look after us (four adults in her) all weekend and I feel guilty now leaving her out in the cold!
 
Back to James' original comment about QT3s not being 'better' than QT2, I can add that they have coped impeccably with the snow in Hertfordshire over past few days. Now, they may not be any 'better' in snow, but then the QT2 was a hard thing to improve on -- I think the area where they have been better has actually been during the summer/autumn driving, and in the recent pre-snow ice. I now have them on all 4 wheels (replaced the worn QT2s on the rears just before the first round of snow arrived... again from Supertyres in Welwyn GC). The QT3 has more fine 'sipes' in the winter half of the tread (compared with the QT2) and these seem to offer more stopping grip in icy conditions.
 
Maybe that's the key - they're not better / worse as such, but better all year round?!

They're certainly not the leap forward I experienced going from the Bridgestone Duellers (dear me they are poor for what I need to do, but they seem fitted to almost every SUV I see round here) to the QT2s so maybe that's where my perception isn't quite right?

I will continue to promote this type of tyre to all sundry locally, and prove their worth by not becoming stuck and continuing to rescuing stuck motorists!!
 
Quatrac 3s are as good as the original fit of Continental Wintercontacts, on snow, that is, because that's all there is to drive on at present. I'm impressed because the Quatracs are marketed as all-season and perform as well as a winter tyre.
What I'm hoping is that they perform better when the temperature goes up and that they don't wear out as quick as the Wintercontacts which only lasted 17,000 miles.
It's interesting that the price of winter tyres has shot up (on mytyres, which I use as my price reference) but the Quatracs, being described as all-season have stayed roughly the same. It means you can pay almost as much for poor quality Chinese winter tyres as for the Quatracs.
 
All,

I thought I would add that the Pirelli Snowcontrol series two i had fitted on or around the same time as James have perforrmed without fault in ther ecent snow. The hills around the Dales have, like everywhere else, seen snow for the best part of 4 weeks now.

The tyres have given excellent grip and like others have out performed many of the larger 4x4 due to the narrow tyres and outstanding grip levels delivered through the rubber.

If anyone had any thoughts about these tyres i would strongly recommend - not sure on the wear rate in the summer as thats the compramise so will wait and see.

Next time i may well opt for QT3, i tried earlier in the year to get them but could not wait as other tyres were worn. Depending on how Doc and others fair on these i may choose them next time.

PS also seen the other thread on windscreens - mine was replaced last week - crack comming from around the rear view mirror.

Cheers all
 
Hi,

I'm kind of hijacking your thread about tyres as there are so many and I thought this one was the most general without posting my own.

I have a 100hp which is coming up to 3 years old....I've always had the Eagle F1's on the car but I find that unless the weather is dry and warm they can be pretty useless.

I am really tempted to go for conti sp contact 2 which are a bit more expensive, but I've had them on other cars and they seem like a decent tyre.

If you have recommendations of a tyre better than the Goodyear could you let me know...I basically want the Eagle F1 summer grip but also would like some grip in the winter months too....

Thanks,
Layney:)
 
Hi,

I'm kind of hijacking your thread about tyres as there are so many and I thought this one was the most general without posting my own.

I have a 100hp which is coming up to 3 years old....I've always had the Eagle F1's on the car but I find that unless the weather is dry and warm they can be pretty useless.

I am really tempted to go for conti sp contact 2 which are a bit more expensive, but I've had them on other cars and they seem like a decent tyre.

If you have recommendations of a tyre better than the Goodyear could you let me know...I basically want the Eagle F1 summer grip but also would like some grip in the winter months too....

Thanks,
Layney:)
You're never going to find something that sticks well in winter like the F1's and in winter too. Don't want to turn this into a winter tyre conversation but have you considered winter tyres?
 
Stick with the summer / performance tyres at the moment, but if I were you, I'd spend the next six months saving up for a set of steel wheels and winter tyres for Oct 2011 onwards :D
 
Uniroyle rainsport 2's, crap grip in snow but amazing grip in the wet and all the grip you'll ever need in the dry, excellent tyre for English weather ;)
 
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