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Winter tyres

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Winter tyres

Winter tyres, would you buy them

  • Already have some, have used them for years

    Votes: 7 21.2%

  • Got some in the last couple of years after the bad weather

    Votes: 8 24.2%

  • I'd buy them if I could afford them/had space to store them etc etc etc

    Votes: 9 27.3%

  • I'm never going to buy winter tyres

    Votes: 9 27.3%
  • Total voters
    33
306maxi

306maxi

STOP! Hammer time!
Joined
Mar 3, 2008
Messages
24,547
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Location
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It seems after 4 winters with varying levels of snow, attitudes on here and out in the real world seem to have changed with regards to winter tyres.

Just thought I'd do a little poll to see what people's feelings were.
 
dave said:
be nothing like winters unless the winters were down to last 4mm or less, they will be wrong compound and have no snipes
Click to expand...

doors :p

I concur.

That said, new summers are better than worn summers at least! My 500 locks up and takes ages to stop when there's a hint of snow. Panda just stops.
 
I'm the wrong side of 50 to be fannying around with one tyre then another.
in any case, I learned to drive in thick snow - the wing mirrors were grazing the top of the snow! (in the days when wing mirrors were attached to the wings). I managed to get up the hills in the Pennines on whatever rubber happened to be on the wheels & I've yet to have a problem getting around.
Although, I have to admit to having a pair of snowsocks in the boot - just in case.
That said, when it has snowed, I spend a couple of minutes fitting the snow socks because it is simply so much easier to drive with them on.
£40 investment back in 2007 still working well. Bargain (y)


Edit : just noticed one of the poll options - "Already have some, used them for years" - doesn't rubber deteriorate/perish over time? Isn't there a danger of being lulled into a false sense of security?
 
Last edited:
sludgeguts said:
I'm the wrong side of 50 to be fannying around with one tyre then another.
in any case, I learned to drive in thick snow - the wing mirrors were grazing the top of the snow! (in the days when wing mirrors were attached to the wings). I managed to get up the hills in the Pennines on whatever rubber happened to be on the wheels & I've yet to have a problem getting around.
Although, I have to admit to having a pair of snowsocks in the boot - just in case.
That said, when it has snowed, I spend a couple of minutes fitting the snow socks because it is simply so much easier to drive with them on.
£40 investment back in 2007 still working well. Bargain (y)


Edit : just noticed one of the poll options - "Already have some, used them for years" - doesn't rubber deteriorate/perish over time? Isn't there a danger of being lulled into a false sense of security?
Click to expand...

in the olden days all tyres had sipes, looking at the tread patterns coming out now i think summers are getting worse for winter grip. it seems tyre manufactures want everyone to have 2 sets of tyres.
 
sludgeguts said:
Edit : just noticed one of the poll options - "Already have some, used them for years" - doesn't rubber deteriorate/perish over time? Isn't there a danger of being lulled into a false sense of security?
Click to expand...

I wasn't referring to the same set of course. Mine are in their 4th winter now and are past their best. They're currently on the Panda and when the weather gets better, they'll go on the 500 till they're no longer useful and I'll get another set in the autumn.
 
Worn winter tyres will be good to burn off through the summer if need be
Then you can have a set of nice fresh winters when it hits again :)

My parents dont like the space my tyres take - but i like having them on the rear and really really cant wait to have a full set of winters

My summer tyres were ""okay"" in the snow, but now they are getting low its getting harder to drive

Summer tyres in winter = a complete different driving style and habbits

Ziggy
 
Ziggy122 said:
Worn winter tyres will be good to burn off through the summer if need be
Then you can have a set of nice fresh winters when it hits again :)
Click to expand...

That's the plan. I think there are probably only a couple of mm of sipes left and the tyres have hardened up a bit and just aren't performing as well as they could. I suspect a few hard drives over the moors on some warmer days will murder them properly :)
 
306maxi said:
That's the plan. I think there are probably only a couple of mm of sipes left and the tyres have hardened up a bit and just aren't performing as well as they could. I suspect a few hard drives over the moors on some warmer days will murder them properly :)
Click to expand...

there naturally a softer compound

Warm them up in the summer and hell there gonna some sticky tyres....

Ziggy
 
Hmmm 5th bad winter in a row in the north, and if I had a new car I was babying and would have for the next 5 years, possibly however my current car will never ever have winter tyres, snow socks do a better job in properly bad conditions, and on gritted roads just drive to the conditions.

Notice most of the big winter tyres advocates seem to be down south..
 
Well, I'm in North Wales so not a Southerner as such. It's been pretty bad around here, there are cars buried in snow drifts and there's one snow drift which must be about 3 or 3.5 metres tall! Been pretty exceptional.
 
306maxi said:
Well, I'm in North Wales so not a Southerner as such. It's been pretty bad around here, there are cars buried in snow drifts and there's one snow drift which must be about 3 or 3.5 metres tall! Been pretty exceptional.
Click to expand...

Every year since I've started driving I've had to drive on snow and ice on summer tyres, this year wasn't even that bad, remember the year that was famous in london because they had snow for a week, the snow was up here for 2 and a half months..I bought tyre socks that year was bored of digging myself out of drifts...
 
StevenRB45 said:
Every year since I've started driving I've had to drive on snow and ice on summer tyres, this year wasn't even that bad, remember the year that was famous in london because they had snow for a week, the snow was up here for 2 and a half months..I bought tyre socks that year was bored of digging myself out of drifts...
Click to expand...
I don't want to get into the whole tyre socks thing again :p The amount of times today that I went from snowy conditions to being on completely dry tarmac was mindboggling, I'd have been sick of taking the socks off and putting them back on. In a way if the snow is everywhere like it would be the further north you go, snow socks are probably the better option, but in placed where it's more patchy, winter tyres are fit and forget :)
 
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