I've had enough of this flipping snow.

After 25 minutes in -10C temperatures this morning the car was defrosted and ready to drive, then promptly beached itself after 10 feet on the 7 inches of snow covering the centre of the driveway. You can see where what I assume was the undertray was resting on the snow. Eagle F1's don't help either, being useless at -3C and utterly pointless at -10C.

An hours manual labour with a brush and shovel freed the car and cleared the drive, I then got stuck again further up on some compacted snow requiring a push from from a mate.

I'm wondering if snow chains would help or are winter tyres the answer for next year?

Eagle F1's don't help either, being useless at -3C and utterly pointless at -10C.

I'm wondering if snow chains would help or are winter tyres the answer for next year?

Not really, just don't fit these in the winter.

You seem to have found how totally useless they are the hard way. We been saying on here for years. For the 1or 2 weeks of the year where you might be margianlly inconvenienced by a bit of bad weather it's a lot of expense and hassel that you can probably manage around unless you do live somewhere which will warrant the investment.

Snow shoes would be a cheaper option

Considering a snowmobile myself.

Whilst I would happily recommend the winter tyres I fitted to my VRS they don't give any more ground clearance, so still just as likely to get stuck if the snow is that deep

Prefer driving my old Renault 9 TSE in snow as opposed to the Fabia, for stability and grip.-- Fabia is a bit like Rally Cross on town roads. LOL

Considering snow shoes myself. More forecast for the weekend down here in the south.....

I have come to the conclusion that the factory fit conti sports2 are also pointless in this weather.

I am getting stuck on the slightest thing. I've done the whole getting beached on the engine undertray thing. But once these tyres have worn themselves some grooves in the snow, you're done for. You're not getting out without a push or a tow. You can have shovelled all the snow out from under the car, but these tyres won't get you the four inches or so needed to get out the ruts they create.

I managed to stop a guy in a JCB this morning, only to realise I have no clue where the towing eye fits on the front - I assume you pull one of the foglight surrounds off...

I also discovered that you need a run of movement to be able to put snow socks on. If you're already stuck, you can't fit them.

Wasted literally hours today on this... When the demand dies down (and I can afford it), I am definately buying a couple of steels and some snow tyres...

Edited 7 January, 201016 yr by dxg

I also discovered that you need a run of movement to be able to put snow socks on. If you're already stuck, you can't fit them.

Looking at this vid it looks like you dont. Fit it over most of the wheel and spin the wheels?

interesting, wonder if theyre as effective as they look

Winter tyres - £220 just before Christmas. What a good investment. Keeps moving even though snow up to bumper and leaves lovely flat bit where undertray rubs snow down. Thought of socks, but the problems are that you have to fit them in the wet/cold and probably most useful getting up the ramps to main roads. What do you do then? I can't imagine that they'd last long at any speed (could be wrong) and to take them off means stopping off the main road and then......

interesting, wonder if theyre as effective as they look

I will let you know as ordered some a couple of days ago, just waiting for delivery and after seening the forcast the sooner they get here the better

Simon

Winter tyres - £220 just before Christmas. What a good investment.

A man with a bit of foresight, unlike me! Ordered some from mytyres to fit to my (rather nice actually) new audi alloys, but I suspect it'll be a week or more before they arrive. Tried asking at the local garage and told not to bother, as they can't get hold of any at all!

Just buy a couple of coire coconut door mats, and ten foot of clothes line to join them together

Put through front windows and at the front of each wheel, drive off , haul matts back onboard away you go

(WARNING IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO PUT THE CORD AROUND YOUR NECK)

National

Looking at this vid it looks like you dont. Fit it over most of the wheel and spin the wheels?

The problem is, you have to put them over as much of the tyre as you can, then drive forward to roll the wheel round so that the sock can be fitted to the bit that was on the ground.

So, you have to put them on *before* you hit trouble. If you've already lost grip, then it's too late. As I discovered this afternoon...

Could you not jack up the wheel to let you turn it? I know it's on snow but you could easily clear a few square inches to get the jack down, as long as you're not already stuck in a ditch of course.

Did you eventually get them fitted? How were they?

Dunno if it's anything to do with the fact mine's not quite a vRS, but that's twice in 3 weeks now that I've completed major journeys (250 miles plus) in ridiculous conditions (snow, blizzards, compacted snow, ice, no visibility etc) with no real problems! It took quite a bit longer, but at no point did I get stuck.

And that was through the Scottish highlands, which believe me were bad enough :S

Could you not jack up the wheel to let you turn it? I know it's on snow but you could easily clear a few square inches to get the jack down, as long as you're not already stuck in a ditch of course.

Did you eventually get them fitted? How were they?

Actually I never thought of that. I suppose if the car was out of gear, or you jacked both front wheels off the ground, you could rotate them by hand. Not sure I'd be happy about the stability of the scissor jack / widow maker on snow, though.

In the end, I convinced a couple of guys to give me a push. The socks remain in their bag... Tomorrow, maybe / most likely. Not looking forward to it. If there was any way of working at home I'd be there...

I've only been stuck once so far during this bad weather and I'm out and about every day. I don't think that's too bad considering the 400lbsft at the front wheels. :S

I've had enough of this flipping snow.

After 25 minutes in -10C temperatures this morning the car was defrosted and ready to drive, then promptly beached itself after 10 feet on the 7 inches of snow covering the centre of the driveway. You can see where what I assume was the undertray was resting on the snow. Eagle F1's don't help either, being useless at -3C and utterly pointless at -10C.

An hours manual labour with a brush and shovel freed the car and cleared the drive, I then got stuck again further up on some compacted snow requiring a push from from a mate.

I'm wondering if snow chains would help or are winter tyres the answer for next year?

Once snow chains hit dry roads they can get damaged. Metal on concrete.

Winter tyres is the way forward! think hankook icebear tyres

The problem is, you have to put them over as much of the tyre as you can, then drive forward to roll the wheel round so that the sock can be fitted to the bit that was on the ground.

So, you have to put them on *before* you hit trouble. If you've already lost grip, then it's too late. As I discovered this afternoon...

I have these socks. They are ok but are a hassle to fit to the car and they are very dirty when removed. You can't really use them on dry roads also so you have to stop and take them off.

Anyone know the legality of studded tyres?

I live up in Crieff in Scotland and we had 13 inches of snow overnight a week or so ago. And even with that and a bit of careful car control I havent taken a day off work. I find the ASR a pain in the arse and its switched off. But I have only got stuck once or twice and it was nothing major. Only brown trousers moment was coming down a steep hil and instead of braking I double de-clutched and changed down to 2nd. unfortunately i didnt quite match the revs perfectly and I started to slide, but a swift pull on the handbrake got the car back inline! Oh and i'm running Toyo T1R's on a 17" rim!!!!

Yeah, I've done that with the clutch, wheels can't match engine speed so they lock up

Well, winter tyres - what can I say? Took mine out for the first time after fitting them and am absolutely flabbergasted. Grip levels are astonishing and the furby was transformed into an unstoppable snow monster! I didn't try to get through anything deeper than 3 or 4 inches, but still spent nearly 3 hours hunting out every snow covered road I could find, many on steep hills and not one was a problem.

It is also the best fun in the fabia I have had since, well, ever! Forget just not getting stuck, thrashing around in the snow when you know you can get grip is hilarious.

I am shortly going to be putting photos in the alloy wheels thread and take the record for the smallest alloys on a vRS, heh heh.

Hmm

My fabia 1.9tdi drives slightly better on cheap tyres, than my fabia VRS does on decent tyres - but that might be down to my aggressive technique of "redline every gear" in the vrs?????