General To my thin-tyred UK brothers...

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General To my thin-tyred UK brothers...

Ucof

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I'm seriously considering getting a pair of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/9mm-CAR-SNOW-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item53de0aa15a just in case the weather gets even worse, and just generally for the future.

Does anyone have any experience on using snow chains?
Is there a maximum speed you are allowed to drive at with them on? I'm only asking as I have to go down the motorway to work.

Any reasons for not getting them?

I expect that most of us Uno (and Cinq and Panda) drivers have wafer thin wheels, and don't get much grip at all, even with front wheel drive.


Cheese in advance :)


mmmmmmmm... cheese.
 
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I expect that most of us Uno (and Cinq and Panda) drivers have wafer thin wheels, and don't get much grip at all, even with front wheel drive.

Don't forget though that thin tyres work better in snow than wide low profiles. The thinner tread area gives a greater down force over a given area that helps the tyre to 'cut through' the snow, whereas wide tyres act like a sledge and just slide over the top.

Never used tyre chains though. They wreck the road and make a hell of a noise when driving, plus I don't think you can go much above 40mph with them on. Imagine if they were to let go at 70 mph... :eek:
 
f = p X a ;)
I remember my GCSE physics, even if I can't remember the A level I did! ;)

I'm talking about having more grip on the ice underneath the snow, by the chains digging in, rather than just cutting through the snow. I'd be much more worried by ice than I would be by snow. :)
 
Maybe, though that would require a trip to the garage, cost for the fitting and the tyres too... and I'm not free for a while at a time that the garage would be open.

Snow chains I can fit easily myself, remove when I don't need them easily, as well as them lasting a good time longer than the tyres would.

It's sort of an investment for when I will need them, which I reckon would only be for a few weeks at a time, for about 3 months of the year.

:)
 
the mrs has been running continental ecocontact 3 165/65/14 tyres on her panda with no real issues over the last few days, and apart from the odd "moment", and general bitching from me, tippex has been fine on toyo proxes 195/50/15s. even the very short wheelbase, narrow tracked rear wheel drive paj on 205/17/15 has been fine. it's the usual, smooth and easy with the controls, vision up, awareness, and you shouldn't come a cropper....crosses fingers.....
 
Chains are a pain to fit. They are sure not fun to drive with.

The only place I have used them is on an access road to a skifield.

They will wear out real fast if you run them on any bit of road that does not have snow.
However, they do work but you can only go slowly.

If you have false teeth I wouldn't try using them!!
 
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They arrived today after I ordered them thinking that the weather was going to snow loads and I would need them straight away.

However, they are completely the wrong size! :D I was sent ~225, whereas mine are 145 at the back and 135 at the front.

Speaking of which...

Does it matter that they are slightly different size wheels?
Wouldn't the 145s be better at the front for slightly more driving grip?
 
A slight difference in tyre size like that doesn't matter, though the chains MUST be the right size... if the packaging doesn't say they fit, I think you should return them. Loose chains are very dangerous as they will fling into suspension parts or brake hoses, or undo themselves completely and damage something else as they fly off. The chart on your eBay listing says those chains will be too large for 155/70 13 or 135/80 13 tyres (original Uno sizes). I wish I'd read the eBay ad earlier, but I'm not one of your thin-tyred UK brothers :) The smallest size shown is a 155/80 13. You could buy a set of those tyres cheaply enough and they will work OK on the Uno, but I think if you're going to buy tyres, you may as well buy winter tyres - it all depends on your driving environment, though...

As the others have said, chains are a one-off use item, not something you'd leave on the car unless you are only ever trying to drive on deep snow, which I don't think you will be. I'm sure the weather's far too changeable where you are.

Last year I used chains, in the same way as rawill mentioned, to get up the Mt Hutt access road to a skifield. The road is steep, so past a certain point, it's snow-covered. Without chains it was not passable - even four-wheel-drive vehicles are prone to spin a wheel. The chains keep you moving - slowly and safely, under 40km/h-20mph! - even though the back end might slide around (I was driving a Toyota Camry). The vibrations are chronic and will probably shake the car to bits over time (of course, this was a rental car, so no-one cares about that!) After a couple of days, the snow had cleared anyway.

It is quite a fiddle to get chains on or off, so you wouldn't want to be doing that more than once in a journey. I think they are a good idea if you regularly have to drive up a steep hill close to home that gets properly snow-covered. Otherwise, I think you'll be better off with winter tyres. As Chas said, you don't want tyres that are too wide. Winter tyres have a softer compound and more water-channelling capability, at the expense of increased wear in dry conditions. It is common in European countries to have a set of winter and a set of summer tyres, especially now that the German uber-saloons come with such wide summer tyres.

At the end of the day though, whatever tyres are fitted, safe winter driving depends on the skill of the driver.

-Alex
 
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HAR HAR HAR!
I have more grip on my car than a 4x4 :D

Was following a car this morning round the last roundabout before the office, I was gaining on him and saw his rear end start to slide out sideways, whilst I merrily carried on round him.

:D

I had a smug. :)

Its not as bad as the press make out to be honest. Everything goes wrong in Britian anyway, but becuase we only occasionally get snow as widespread, it would be stupid to spend money on equipement that might only get used once or twice a year.
Thus, when it snows, the country grinds to a halt.
 
Yes - when I saw the amount of snow falling in Manchester, and Korea, and the forecast for a colder winter than usual here, I realised that Global Warming (now surreptitiously renamed 'Climate Change') is definitely coming off the rails. How are sea levels going to rise when many countries are colder than ever?

-Alex
 
It's just going to be a massive wall of salted iced water, slowly coming towards us.
I think we should be able to walk away safely without anyone in low level land drowning.

They might even be able to move their houses, brick by brick, to higher land.


During Probing Day, the day where the Tallest evaluate the Invaders’ performances, Zim has Dib captured in a space-time-field prison which is keeping him in slow motion, in which Zim wants to perform experiments on him for the Tallest. However, when a malfunction causes the prison to explode, Zim finds a piece of explosion that is expanding very slowly; in which Zim believes he can end if he throws it into the city’s cesspool. However, when he discovers that getting the explosion to the cesspool is much more difficult than he expected, he finds that he may just have to use unconventional means to complete the task.
+1 point if you understand the obscure reference.
 
Hi,

I was hoping the snow would get much worse as i inherited a set of chains a few months ago and really wanted to give them a go!

My dad used to keep (a long time ago) a set of wheels with chains fitted - he figured it was easier to change the wheels than mess about with the chains, plus he didn't risk damage to the everyday tyre, or wheel.

Tom
 
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