When to put on your winter tyres?

[Troubles with 500c]

Personally I’d go for the tyre that has the best wet weather performance. Mainly because it rains a lot more than it snows and most tyres will be good enough in the dry.

 

[koalar]

But looking at this I'd wonder why you'd fit a gutter seeker when 4 Toyos would be just over 20 quid more that's literally fractions of a penny over the tyre life.

I Have Toyo nano energy fitted ?

If you phone around you should be able to in the £45-48 each bracket

.

Personally I’d go for the tyre that has the best wet weather performance. Mainly because it rains a lot more than it snows and most tyres will be good enough in the dry.

correct

 

[StevenRB45]

I Have Toyo nano energy fitted ?

If you phone around you should be able to in the £45-48 each bracket

Apologies, think we are slightly across purposes..in that another poster was fitting literally the cheapest tyres available at £44.

If well rated Toyos are available for £51 as you point out I really don't know why you'd risk it.

 

[portland_bill]

Many years ago, when running a classic Panda, I replaced two tyres, with a good mid-range brand. My boss, running an Uno just to commute a few miles, mostly in slow traffic, bought 4 remoulds, for significantly less than my two.
His Uno didn't like corners above 25mph, but were rarely asked to perform such a task. My Panda would monthly do a 2-hour journey, two-thirds of which were on dual carriageway and motorway.

When running a Corsa C with BSM, tyres were replaced with cheapies, as costs were borne by BSM, and were a regular failure as learners clipped kerbs. The cheapies were horrid. First time I drove on them I stopped to recheck the pressures 3 times in the 12 mile journey home. Swapped the cheapies to the rear, where their effect was less, and put the remaining originals to the front. All my learners were then threatened with severe repurcussions if they popped a tyre. When we moved to the Corsa D, different tyre size, the cheapies from the same manufacturer were indistinguishable from the originals.

The tyre labels, I believe, relate to a 'typical' size of that tyre, as not every size has been tested.

The scare that winter tyres will disintegrate in summer is nonsense. They will feel a little squidgy at times, on the hottest days, so do not suit anyone requiring sporty performance, but for the majority of us, we'd not notice. I ran the winters on the Panda through two summers, in an attempt to wear them out before they age hardened. Noticeable difference to the summers, but not dangerous.
Many supermarket vans run winters all year round without issue, but are now moving to all-seasons. A RWD Sprinter van goes nowhere in snow on summers, but the same van on winters is amazingly competent.

 

[koalar]

I ran the winters on the Panda through two summers, in an attempt to wear them out before they age hardened. Noticeable difference to the summers, but not dangerous.

Depends what you call winters.

Some winters are similar to a summer just on a different compound. I would call them all season and are fine all year

You can’t run mine at all on a dry hot road. Each block is designed to move around and warm up.

Looking at the tread on some winters just appear to be stupid to me. Anything designed to squeeze water out will compact slush until you are running ice on ice

Worst still is the testing. Great if you live in the alps. Here in the UK we rarely get dry powder that fall out of the treads. Wet sticky snow or icy slush is what I normally see.

Just as not all summer tyres tyres the same

Not all winter tyres are the same.

 

[StevenRB45]

The scare that winter tyres will disintegrate in summer is nonsense. They will feel a little squidgy at times, on the hottest days, so do not suit anyone requiring sporty performance, but for the majority of us, we'd not notice. I ran the winters on the Panda through two summers, in an attempt to wear them out before they age hardened. Noticeable difference to the summers, but not dangerous.
Many supermarket vans run winters all year round without issue, but are now moving to all-seasons. A RWD Sprinter van goes nowhere in snow on summers, but the same van on winters is amazingly competent.

As said by Koalar will depend on the brand.

Gentleman in my street used to run Michelin Alpins year round..I say used to as the front ones ended up with torn treadblocks hanging off them when we had the warm period last summer.

Regarding snow choking the treads, my understanding is you want that, snow sticks to snow well much better than rubber does so if your tyres can pick it up and hold it you get more grip rather than less.

That and water clearance is important as we don't get Nordic conditions often but melting slushy crap that's a bit of both is pretty common.

 

[portland_bill]

Depends what you call winters.

Some winters are similar to a summer just on a different compound. I would call them all season and are fine all year

You can’t run mine at all on a dry hot road. Each block is designed to move around and warm up.

Looking at the tread on some winters just appear to be stupid to me. Anything designed to squeeze water out will compact slush until you are running ice on ice

Worst still is the testing. Great if you live in the alps. Here in the UK we rarely get dry powder that fall out of the treads. Wet sticky snow or icy slush is what I normally see.

Just as not all summer tyres tyres the same

Not all winter tyres are the same.

Nothing to do with what I call winters. It is what the tyre manufacturer calls them. Not me. You can call them whatever you like, that changes nothing.

The tread blocks are designed to hold snow, as Steven says, snow sticks to snow, better than rubber does.

 

[koalar]

Nothing to do with what I call winters. It is what the tyre manufacturer calls them. Not me. You can call them whatever you like, that changes nothing.

The tread blocks are designed to hold snow, as Steven says, snow sticks to snow, better than rubber does.

Not on mine

Each block is sliced through the full depth of the thread less than 5 apart. You can move the block around with your thumbs. It’s this movement that generates heat an keeps them clear. You can not drive them on a dry hot road.

Not my tyre but almost identical

 

[StevenRB45]

Well here's one of the all-seasons on snow drove it up an uncleared road at reasonable gradient with no bother.

You can see how they work, just grab and hold fresh snow in the grooves which then sticks to the snow on the ground.

Does mean they can be hard enough to use year round, although ice performance is not as good as a soft winter..as they aren't like bubble gum.

What we're talking about here the difference between a Nordic spec studless winter tyre and the more euro spec ones.

Nordic studless are awful in both warm weather and deep water which makes them an interesting choice in the UK.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Turns out Sunday was the day.

5 Degrees was okay for changing wheels. Wouldn’t want to do it when it gets any colder.

 

[StevenRB45]

Probably a decent shout,

Was out Saturday and going over some higher hills in Northumberland there was ice in the rain also not been above 5 degrees all week and snow forecast for end of week.

Although my "this time last year/2/3 years ago" photo thingy has been showing snow photos for weeks.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Last Sunday was a good call after all.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

Interesting comparison today.

The 500c is on winter tyres that are reaching the end of their life and was incredibly grippy.

My Mercedes is on practically new all-season tyres and they weren’t even close to performing as well as the well worn winter tyres.

 

[StevenRB45]

Interesting comparison today.

The 500c is on winter tyres that are reaching the end of their life and was incredibly grippy.

My Mercedes is on practically new all-season tyres and they weren’t even close to performing as well as the well worn winter tyres.

Very much depends on the brand, car and size.

New Vs old tyres..



But smaller lighter front drive car versus larger heavier rwd car on wider tyres.

I'd suggest on summers the Merc wouldn't move under its own power if there's that much difference. With the amount of snow that fell the 500 would have probably skated round quite happily on summers given the tyre width and weight distribution as long as there were no steep hills or sudden stops. I've seen Mercs stuck on a flat piece of road..

 

[Troubles with 500c]

To provide a little more info for comparison;

We had between 2 and 3 inches of snow.

The Fiat is on 175/65/14 Pirelli Winter Response tyres.

Mercedes is on 185/65/15 Vredestein Quatrac All Seasons.

The Mercedes weighs 200kg more than the Fiat and is RWD.

I choose the Vredestein for it’s wet weather performance because that’s what we generally have to deal with.

I knew the Mercedes being RWD and on all season tyres wouldn’t be brilliant, but was very surprised the 500 with FWD and worn winter tyres would still be so much better.

The 500 dealt with the steep hills we have around here with ease. In fact the street we live in is quite steep and a number of residents couldn’t get back up it with normal tyres.

 

[StevenRB45]

To provide a little more info for comparison;

We had between 2 and 3 inches of snow.

The Fiat is on 175/65/14 Pirelli Winter Response tyres.

Mercedes is on 185/65/15 Vredestein Quatrac All Seasons.

The Mercedes weighs 200kg more than the Fiat and is RWD.

I choose the Vredestein for it’s wet weather performance because that’s what we generally have to deal with.

I knew the Mercedes being RWD and on all season tyres wouldn’t be brilliant, but was very surprised the 500 with FWD and worn winter tyres would still be so much better.

The 500 dealt with the steep hills we have around here with ease. In fact the street we live in is quite steep and a number of residents couldn’t get back up it with normal tyres.

Well currently we have the same snow...but it's been down since Thursday and polished to ice.

We're on 205 all seasons..not had a single TCS intervention or ABS trigger except for when I've done it on purpose to check grip levels when entering a new uncleared road.

Basically it's a light car with the engine from a heavy car and 60% of the weight is in the nose over the driving wheels.

If you were to design a vehicle to be stuck in an inch of snow..the perfect design would be an unladen open diff long wheel base panel van..but a RWD BMW or Merc is a close second.

 

[portland_bill]

2009-10, BSM ran Fiat 500s as school cars. We had a bit of snow that winter, and the 500 Pop I was running, on summer tyres, had no problems with the snow at all. On all-season or winters, it should be even better.

End of last winter, I caught a puncture, which scrapped one tyre. Being they were all 2013, and getting noticeably stiffer due to age, there was no point adding a new one to the old ones. So I'm currently on the summers. We had a flurry of snow yesterday, maybe two or three snowflakes deep, but no issues with the Panda. With only about 6000 miles a year, swapping tyres means they all get old, long before wearing out. I'm hoping to manage through the winter on the summers, and wear them before next winter, when they'll be replaced with all-seasons. Maybe if I lived further north, winters might be needed.

Biggest issue in the winter, is not whether I can get going, but trying to avoid the clowns who have no idea how to manage slippery conditions.

 

[Troubles with 500c]

That was the issue here yesterday evening. Several accidents where people approaching T-Junctions would apply brakes as normal and then wonderi why they crashed.

I watched a guy at the end of our street try to get up the hill for 10 minutes in his VW Up. All he succeeded in doing was compacting the snow and polishing it to a fine sheen. It made it totally impassable, but kids were over the moon as it was great for sledging.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Well I can testify that Michelin Alpins are good winter tyres driving ove rthe peaks on Sunday after 150 miles of Icy roads. HDC system in the Panda was tried and approved. Driving down the steep hill at Sparrow Pitts to Chapel en Le Frith its which was sheet ice. It certainly made it relatively stress free as I could divert nearly all my attention to steering and feeling what was going on while the car did the job of rolling down the hill at my chose peed with no signs of effort. Whe we got below the snow line I took over again. Its a great system.....until it goes wrong.

 

[vexorg]

The fiat 500 traction control is completely rubbish in snow, cuts power so far that it stalls the engine! Only hope is to turn tractional control off.