Well, after a few days driving around in the North East in the Snow I have made a surprising discovery about my Sedici. Well actually it is more about my tyres.

I naturally left the car in Auto 4x4 mode as I was driving for the most part in 4-6 inches of snow and the car performed impeccably. Even when confronted by snow on an ice bed, a mere flick of a switch and the transmission is locked and traction is once again superb……………….but……………

Having watched a blinged up Vento driver, inch down a steep and narrow lane, I saw him get well and truly stuck trying to go up the other side. I naturally pulled up alongside him and asked if I could be of assistance as we were a couple of miles from anywhere. He thanked me, but told me a ‘works’ 4x4 was on its way to collect him. I smiled back at him and gently pulled away feeling sure he would be impressed by my surfeit of grip and surefootedness. Indeed I was so impressed myself………….. except……………….I was in 2 wheel drive!!!! The reason? My Vredestein Snowtrac 2 tyres, they really are superb in snow. So much so, I would say any FWD car with these tyres fitted and a sympathetic driver behind the wheel, would have no trouble at all in medium deep show and moderate inclines. It made me think. Although I have the 4x4 advantage, the grip afforded by these tyres would mean the snow would have to be really deep in order to defeat my car and probably long before the tyres gave up, my car would be ‘beached’ in deep snow.

Just a thought, but if anyone can afford a second set of winter tyres, the Vredestieins are astonishing.

according to vredestein the sportrac2 is not suitable for snow and ice use.

excluding 4x4, your driving technique is most likely the main difference between you and the vento. for example i can get up hills in the snow that 8/10 get stuck on simply because i learnt to drive in a desert so i know what to do.

jug said:

according to vredestein the sportrac2 is not suitable for snow and ice use.

excluding 4x4, your driving technique is most likely the main difference between you and the vento. for example i can get up hills in the snow that 8/10 get stuck on simply because i learnt to drive in a desert so i know what to do.

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I’m sure the Vredestiens you mention aren’t designed for use in the snow, but I have never used them I’m afraid. My current tyres are genuinely astonishing in the snow.

Having driven a lot in snow and having covered well over 500,000 miles (I am a real petrol head, honest, ask ScoobyChris) in my driving career, I am convinced the tyres are amazing. The big difference that I noticed is the initial bite when moving off, also the braking is far superior to stand ‘All weather’ rubber. My other car is a RWD and it truly hopeless in the snow. I suspect if I was to put suitable Winter tyres on it, I would be able to get my traction levels up to those of the average FWD cars. I would love to think it was my skilled driving that made the difference, but I am only an average driver. But having driven the Sedici in snow on it’s OE tyres and now, the new Winter tyres, there is a really big difference in snowy and sleety conditions. The braking seems better in the wet too.

jug said:

according to vredestein the sportrac2 is not suitable for snow and ice use.

excluding 4x4, your driving technique is most likely the main difference between you and the vento. for example i can get up hills in the snow that 8/10 get stuck on simply because i learnt to drive in a desert so i know what to do.

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You learnt to drive in the desert??
And is driving on sand the same as driving in snow?

Johanna said:

You learnt to drive in the desert??
And is driving on sand the same as driving in snow?

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In certain conditions, yes (generally warmer in the day though!). Pulling up a bank of loose sand is difficult at best.

jug said:

according to vredestein the sportrac2 is not suitable for snow and ice use.

excluding 4x4, your driving technique is most likely the main difference between you and the vento. for example i can get up hills in the snow that 8/10 get stuck on simply because i learnt to drive in a desert so i know what to do.

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Do I detect sleepy jug?

Snowtrac2... not sportrac2

Was wanting to get snow tyres for the Bravo but have not been able to find a set of 15"+ Fiat fitment wheels for pennies. And I don't want to spend much/anything on the wheels when they're only going to be used for a month or two per year.

Hellcat said:

Do I detect sleepy jug?

Snowtrac2... not sportrac2

Was wanting to get snow tyres for the Bravo but have not been able to find a set of 15"+ Fiat fitment wheels for pennies. And I don't want to spend much/anything on the wheels when they're only going to be used for a month or two per year.

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If you can afford a cheap set of steel wheels and a set of Winter tyres you would probably get several years of wear out of them as long as you only used them in the winter or very cold weather (they don’t like temperatures over 7C and wear quickly after that).

Mind you the likelihood of a second snowy winter in straight succession is probably slim I guess.

Ps I noticed that Jug hadn’t read my post carefully, too

Pps I like the look of your 16V Tipo. I used to fancy one of those when I was younger and had just sold my 130TC Abarth

5abr3 said:

In certain conditions, yes (generally warmer in the day though!). Pulling up a bank of loose sand is difficult at best.

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Although it is funny/ironic how my Dad puts Sand down on compacted snow to help get enough purchase for his car to get up the drive

Geordie Amanda said:

Although it is funny/ironic how my Dad puts Sand down on compacted snow to help get enough purchase for his car to get up the drive

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normal beach sand/dessert sand doesn't contain as much salt as road grit/sand as far as I know

Try driving on deep loose sand and you will find youself digging in or sliding about if you aren't careful

5abr3 said:

normal beach sand/dessert sand doesn't contain as much salt as road grit/sand as far as I know

Try driving on deep loose sand and you will find yourself digging in or sliding about if you aren't careful

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Don’t worry I wasn’t too concerned about the composition of my Dad’s sand, he throws ash from the fire on the drive too, it makes an awful mess. He isn't trying to melt the snow, more like make a snow/sand aggregate sort of mix. it works however.

I drove a Wolf Land Rover (I love proper Land Rovers-this doesn’t mean I wear comfortable shoes though) on a beach and in sand dunes once. It wasn’t very nice. I am glad I didn’t have to clean it afterwards too


Now if I had a Beach Buggie with a coupele of hundere BHP to play with...

Johanna said:

You learnt to drive in the desert??

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it was safer than the roads, and you dont need a license.

Johanna said:

And is driving on sand the same as driving in snow?

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very similar

Hellcat said:

Do I detect sleepy jug?

Snowtrac2... not sportrac2

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yeah i really should learn to read :bang:

Years ago in my Northern home town, winters lasted many months & we had shedloads of snow. I always bought a couple of spare wheels from the scrappy (generally a couple of quid each) and had them fitted with town & country remoulds - they were about a fiver each, which was alot back then but well worth it for the extra grip. When snow was forecast it was simply a matter of fitting the two spare wheels onto the driving wheels of the car.
As my doblo is fitted with alloys, & snowy roads are as rare as rocking horse manure I bought a pair of tyre socks & this past week I've been sailing along through thick snow as well as any 4x4 with only a couple of instances of lost traction - and they were only very momentary.
Not quite as easy to fit and remove as the adverts say but ohhh so well worth the £30-odd quid - especially today as the meals on wheels cars couldn't get out & we were asked if we could help. 70p/mile fuel plus 1.5 x hourly rate. Got all the dinners out, had a 2 hour paid break then delivered all the teatime meals. As there's more snow due to drop tonight, the buses have been cancelled again & I've been asked to help tomorrow.
Result.

Geordie Amanda said:

If you can afford a cheap set of steel wheels and a set of Winter tyres you would probably get several years of wear out of them as long as you only used them in the winter or very cold weather (they don’t like temperatures over 7C and wear quickly after that).

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My issue is the brakes will need 15" wheels or larger. Not many Fiats were sold with 15" steel wheels with near the correct PCD. Over 14" tends to be alloys.

p.s. Milkbottle says thanks for the compliment

sludgeguts, your sig says Protest about the 0.9p price tag of fuel. Every time you put fuel in your car, the retailer rounds up the price, so robbing you of money.
Write to the Office of Fair trading, complaining about this method of overcharging the already burdoned UK motorist.

rounding does not occur in the petrol pump situation. lets do a quick example to demonstrate the flaw in your logic.

imagine 79.9ppl and 80ppl

if i stick £20 worth in, i will get:
2000/79.9=25.031litres
2000/80=25litres

if the 0.9p was changed to 1p then you would get less fuel for your money. that is all.

the only way your rounding argument works is if you had to buy petrol in bottles, for example 1litre bottles. if you bought 15 they would round up to the nearest penny, so for example 79.9*15=1198.5 which would be rounded up to £11.99, so you lose half a penny. however even in that situation, it is still better to have the lower price because the 80p per litre bottle method would give a total of 80*15=£12.00, so you would lose 3 times as much as you do when rounding.

0.9p pricing gets us more fuel for our money, so dont complain about it.

I put Vredesteins on my old Alfa 159 and was impressed by both price and performance

I had mine out the first time in snow in December up a hillside and it did fine in auto mode, and that's with cheapo Kwik-Shaft tyres.

A Land Rover defender later got stuck!

Agreed our Sedici was superb in the 6-8 inch covering we had - I was desperate to try it as we live in the middle of a field. My neighbour was gutted when his M Class got stuck and we sailed by ;o)

hi gang
after reading your comment,s on winter tyres last year i decided to get some myself.
bought a set of spare steel rims from local suzuki dealer for about £125.00
fiat wanted £75.00 +vat per wheel!!
pay,s to shop around eh.
anyway got the rims and then bought vredestien sno.trac 3,s internet price supply only very good try tyremen!
got them fitted balanced localy £40.00 all in.fitted/balanced/+valve.s
sat back and waited for the white stuff to arrive.
boy! did we get some or what!
been all over kent mainroads/backroads ferrying people about to get their shopping etc.locals that we know with two wheel drives,& people with 4x4,s who dont know how to use them!!
arent i bitchy!! why spend over 40k on a car and then not bother to read the handbook and not be able to use the vehicles potential!
anyway drove all over the place and never even used the difflock.
brilliant!! thanks to gordie amanda for the info.i was getting winter tyres but had not made up my mind about make or type.
got the alloys back on now so it had better stay warm......
cant be arsed to swap them over again of it freezes up again..
ta ta.