When to put on your winter tyres?

[StevenRB45]

In my experience a lot of the people who are "driving with caution" tend be on a ling long tree seeker with cords showing. Not leveling that at Andy, I know he won't be...

However there's a significant difference between Norfolk/Norwich and the bit of the North that's North of what the South classifies as the North. In terms of both weather and topography.

To me the All-season is a Autumn and Spring tyre against the summer and winter. It has a broad range that means it's passable at all disciplines and when you get the forever period between September and Christmas and then March to May where the weather is neither fish nor fowl you don't worry about it.

2 photos from this May 10 days apart...

 

[chris3234]

In my experience a lot of the people who are "driving with caution" tend be on a ling long tree seeker with cords showing. Not leveling that at Andy, I know he won't be...

However there's a significant difference between Norfolk/Norwich and the bit of the North that's North of what the South classifies as the North. In terms of both weather and topography.

To me the All-season is a Autumn and Spring tyre against the summer and winter. It has a broad range that means it's passable at all disciplines and when you get the forever period between September and Christmas and then March to May where the weather is neither fish nor fowl you don't worry about it.

2 photos from this May 10 days apart...

View attachment 221548
View attachment 221547

They Allmost certainly are not a autumn and spring tyres they do 70-80% of the ice/snow grip of full winters without wearing excessively in the summer like many winters can do

 

[StevenRB45]

They Allmost certainly are not a autumn and spring tyres they do 70-80% of the ice/snow grip of full winters without wearing excessively in the summer like many winters can do

I think we're talking at cross purposes here a bit...I'd happily use an All season year round and do. At some point I'll just get the wheels refurbished if they get tatty.

But I feel the main benefit against a dedicated winter or summer is to be had in Autumn and Spring. Eg. in Spring the temperatures still get low over night which takes the summer out of its operating window. But by the time the afternoon comes around it's likely to be over 7 degrees and too hot for a winter. Also all seasons are significantly better at wet performance than the more specialised winter tyre which is further optimised to snow and ice performance so better in those April showers.

Compared to the summer they deal better with contaminated surfaces, so dead leaves, mud, pine needles etc. An un-siped tyre tends to slide a treat on those...the all season can usually find a bit more purchase.

So I suppose the point of my post was...they work more of the time than either a summer or winter and are probably the best tyre to be on 7 months of the year. While a winter manages maybe 2 months a year a summer 3-5 depending on the year.

 

[AndyRKett]

You could put winter tyres on every car and people would still find hedges in the snow.

The point I’m making here is if you’re running summer tyres and you’re having snowy and icy winters then it may be appropriate to switch to a winter tyre

If you’re running all seasons then for the amount we actually have true snow and ice on road situations then the all seasons should do the job, I don’t see any significant benefit in taking off an all season tyre and fitting a winter tyre for at worst usually a weeks worth of winter weather, that any half decent all season would cope with, worst case you might need to drive ever so slightly more cautiously with an all season than a winter tyre.

I can however see much bigger drawbacks if you already have all season tyres, with paying for and storing a set of winter tyres in both monetary costs and space.

So if you’re running summer and winter tyres I understand.
If you’re running all season tyres all year, I get it.

I don’t understand the point in all season tyres and then putting on winter tyres when it gets really cold? Why not put on summer tyres when it gets really hot? Or mud and snow tyres if you’re going to some attraction where you park on grass. It doesn’t (to me) make any logical sense.

 

[portland_bill]

Put mine on on Friday. Glad I did. A trip over the hills north of Burford on Saturday found a small blizzard, with areas of snow laying on the road. Panda just felt fine.

 

[StevenRB45]

Yeah we went straight from storm arwen, 100mph winds and horizontal rain to snow and ice.

Both myself and the wife have been out in all sorts with no issues at all.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Wife was glad. Her work didn’t salt the Carpark and you couldn’t stand up in it, but her car got across it.

 

[StevenRB45]

What quite amuses me with the shiny new forum...is that it shows similar posts at the bottom.

So below I have a thread from 2013 with poll in which I've voted I'm never fitting winter tyres.

To be fair still haven't but tyre tech has moved on since then to allow one tyre to be competent to good in all conditions.

Just waved the off to work into an unforecast blizzard, so no gritters have been out all day as we were only meant to get rain.

It is meant to rain over night and clear it...but it wasn't meant to snow at all when I checked the weather this afternoon.

When she finishes work at 7am on a Sunday you can guarantee if it's been heavy over night we won't have had any gritters and the road is already covered.

A few years ago she got stuck half a mile from home on summers and then nearly planted the car in the wall 50ft from the house when she did finally get moving.

At least I'll be able to sleep tonight..at this point I'm happy those summers went in the bin. I can't go dig her out because got no car to fetch her in so she needs to be able to make it under her own power.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

My daughter’s StreetKa has just suffered another puncture due to a bent alloy.

The roads around here are atrocious and the alloys seem particularly susceptible compared to the Fiat.

Wish I had a set of steel wheels and winter tyres for it.

 

[StevenRB45]

Hmm...

A quick search of Facebook marketplace suggests a second set of wheels and tyres would be worth 50-75% of the value of the car.

While you could pick up 4 of the standard wheels for 65 quid.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Hence the use of the word “Wish”. Long day Steven?

 

[StevenRB45]

Hence the use of the word “Wish”. Long day Steven?

Long month...got 9 days off over Christmas..but I'm a department of one either I do it now or I do it between Xmas and new year.

But aye..the point was more once you get to that age of car...you can buy 4 standard wheels for buttons so not really any need to worry other than the inconvenience.

Even if you bent 4...you've got 4 spares..and you've paid for 4 tyres which you'd have had to if you bought winters.

It was always the plan on my old car....but never needed to hit up marketplace in the end.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Tell me about it. That’s the third puncture this year because of the low profile tyres.

The alloys get bent out of shape and then start leaking around the bead.

Two alloys were fixed and the other is bound for the tip because it’s cheaper to buy secondhand replacements on eBay than have them fixed if they’re too bent.

 

[DaveMcT]

My daughter’s StreetKa has just suffered another puncture due to a bent alloy.

The roads around here are atrocious and the alloys seem particularly susceptible compared to the Fiat.

Wish I had a set of steel wheels and winter tyres for it.

You can. Just go on Oponeo and get a set of steels the correct dimensions and swap the tyres over. Their website wont offer steels as a direct swap so you'll have to find out the diameter width and offset and order directly. Pepperpot style painted solver look ok. Just get some suitable centre caps to smarten up the otherwise scruffy hubs.

 

[StevenRB45]

Well after spending most of winter wondering about even the wisdom of all seasons given its been autumn for 8 months.

Now it's summer they seem to actually have a purpose. Last Sunday it was 18 degrees and we were up in Alnwick playing in the fountains and I dropped a Psi out them as they were up at 35 due to ambient.

One week later...Hmm

Frost and snow all week...OK then. Finally Need to put some air back in them though.

 

[chr1s]

View attachment 404402

Frost and snow and UFOs.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

It’s funny because that lovely warm weather had me sorely tempted to take the winter tyres off.

I even mentioned to my wife that normally we get one more cold snap before Easter and that was why I was resisting the temptation to swap. Wasn’t disappointed as it’s the only snow we’ve seen this year.

Hopefully, from today it will be warmer temperatures and I will do the swap over Easter.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Winter tyres off. Back on the summer alloys.

 

[DaveMcT]

My daughter’s StreetKa has just suffered another puncture due to a bent alloy.

The roads around here are atrocious and the alloys seem particularly susceptible compared to the Fiat.

Wish I had a set of steel wheels and winter tyres for it.

I have Oponeo pepperpot steels on my Panda 100HP. Bought to the same spec as the original alloys (almost). 100HP alloys are 6.5J; the widest steels I could get were 6J but I went with the same ET (offset). They cost £40 to £55 depending on style. Painted bright silver, they'll echo the steels used on classic Alfa Romeos. Black top hat shape centre trims with a Fiat badge complete the look (vs the chrome hub caps use by 1960s Alfa).

Steel Wheels » Free Delivery » Oponeo.co.uk

Looking for new steel wheels for your car? Oponeo has a wide range of steel rims and products, so come have a look!

www.oponeo.co.uk

I used wheel trims like this

Genuine Citroen Berlingo Set of 4 Wheel Trims / Centre Caps Fits 14" Wheels | eBay

This part will fit certain models of Citroen Berlingo with 14" wheels.

www.ebay.co.uk

A grinder and flap wheel will (carefully) remove the raised logo to take 50mm Fiat logo badges. I replaced the brake retaining spikes with M8 all-threads. Half nuts retain the disc/drum and black finished stainless dome nuts retain the trims. Carefully measure the all thread as its easy to pop the top off the nuts if they are too long.

 

[StevenRB45]

That time of year again...another winter another all-season tyre test, his winter test is coming soon.



Few interesting bits in this for me, in that Michelin appears to have abandoned summer performance that the cross climate was known for...it's also not great in the wet but really good in full alpine conditions.

Which kinda leaves the Goodyear's I'm on as the default year round tyre as it does everything except stop in the dry better than average or best. Also been interesting to see how the Michelin wears given it can't maintain consistent tyre performance for 3 laps of a dry track and is good in snow that would appear to be a soft compound.