coldplug

Putting Yeti close to extreme limits... Driving through ~40cm (15 inches) of snow on ~6% ascent toward mountain pass: Extracting from parking area 2.0 TDI, 81kW, 4x4, manual transmission, offroad button. Tyres Nokian WR D4, 215/60-16. Will add more during the winter stay tuned.

Rally is on plowed surface (or whatever, but hard packed snow or ice) and usually with studded tyres. So, narrowed tyre make better pressure per square area of contact, and thus, better grips hard snow/ice, and tyre studs pierce deeper into it. On the other hand, if you drive unplowed snow, especially if it is deep, deeper than your ground clearence, then there is no point of trying to sink into snow and reach hard surface below. Deeper your tyres sink, sooner your vehicle bottom start to float on the snow and you stuck because of resistance. Wider the tyres, less sinking and less chance to become stuck with vehicle bottom or front bumper. So, optimal tyre width really depends on what snow you drive.

I will briefly repeat here my thoughts. Temperature doesn't matter much if road is clear of snow. Summer tyres will be little harder in cold, and so grip will be little worse than winter tyre, but the difference is so small that I would much rather drive on new summer tyre than on weared winter tyre if road is clear of snow/ice, no matter what temperature is. However, if vehicle gets on snow or ice with summers, then all sort of problems will arise, because winters are so much better at snow, so that those two can't be compared at all in such conditions. So, it depends if you get snow or not. If you're sure you will never be on snow, I wouldn't bother with winter tyres. If there is even medium chance for getting vehicle on snow, then winter tyre is must have.

Arguments to purchase winter tyres "because temperature is below 7C" is tottaly stupid. At the other hand, I'm big fan of winter tyres, but when put in their world - snow. What is going on there is that 7C thing is marketing b/s. Yes, winter tyre will have better grip at -20C then summer tyre even if road is clear and dry. It will just be more flexible and will grip better. But how important is that difference if road is clear and dry? Not at all imporntant! Difference is so small, that difference between new winter tyre and same but 3yr old winter tyre is much bigger in such scenario. In other words, I would much rather be on new summer tyre than on weared winter tyre at very low temperature if road is dry. Also, difference between premium tyre and cheap Chinese tyre will be again much bigger than difference between premium winter and premium summer tyre, both weared the same, at -20C, if road is dry. Also, there is much bigger difference between dry and wet road, then between winter/summer tyre at dry road.... So if 7C thing is b/s, what is not? Snow and ice. Particularly snow (at ice, everything is bad except studded tyres). Winter tyre is sooooooooooo much better at snow than summer tyre that it is completely impossible to compare them. This is the difference and this is the reason of having winter tyres.

Two example videos from time I have driven Hyundai Accent. Snow tyres were Dunlop Wintersport M3: Now I drive Yeti 4x4, I will fit probably Nokian WR D4 for the winter. I expect much more climbing power through snow Question - How much do I need to worry about overheating Haldex during such snow torture? And how I will know if that happen? Thx

Well yes, Yeti has 4x4 badge but it is not intended to be competition to any real offroad vehicle. In fact as manual states, even not with SUV's; quoting manual - "Even with off-road button, your vehicle is still not a true SUV". Despite this it is great for snow; however, many 4x4 SUVs and even sedans are equally good, but much much less for rocky offroad trails, just like Yeti is not. There is too low suspension articulation and low ground clearence to be able to cope with rocky terrain. That's why Yeti is pretty much not offroad vehicle, and performance tyres are good default choice for many owners. Still, I deliberately chosen 16" wheels with 215/60 tyres, knowing in advance they will be little bit more capable than 17" counterparts for light offroading (and also, cheaper for replace). Your legals don't allow winter tyres instead of having mounted chains? That is strange but if it is, then you will have to go to narrower tyres as only solution.

Hello, If you absolutely require front axle chains, I would suggest that you replace your tyres to 205/50 R17 and you're done, chains can be fitted then. Or even better, sell those rims and purchase 16", then use 205/55 R16 tyres. And about this Haldex thing, new generations are proactive, which means that system can predict that engaging rear axle will be beneficial and push lot of torque there even before front wheel spins, or does not spin at all. How it does it; well, computer takes many variables into account; momentary driving style (particularly engaged gear and amount of accelerator pressed), steering wheel position, road inclination and so on, and if it thinks that wheels might spin it will transfer some torque to the rear. Basically, if you provoke the vehicle by agressive driving, particularly aggresive accelerating, it will do a lot of rear wheel action. If you drive with very defensive style, then not so much.

Hello! My first post here I would also be able to have ability to temporary disable stability control by long press on ASR button. However, following procedures described in this thread, I always get "Coding rejected, Error 31: Request out of range". I have ESP MK60EC1 h35 0104 ABS component, part number: 1k0 907 379 BS, on Yeti FL, MY2015, 2.0 TDI 81kW, 4x4. Probably this ABS module is too new to accept above suggested codes? Any idea? Many thanks, Ivan