Hankook Evo V12's seem very sure footed in these conditions. Also, I can't get my head around why switching off ESP in icey conditions could be a good idea !!

Your brakes could overheat if you leave ESP on as it keeps braking the drive wheels as you spin them up.

My Focus ST has a warning in the manual that a temp sensor will turn it off for you if it thinks the brakes are red hot

I got stuck near my house in February and I forgot about turning the ESP off and i could see/smell the brakes were hot

I've not taken mine out. Far too many richards on the roads at the moment. First sign of ice and they floor it until they dig a hole before lurching forward when the tyres bite.

I will be looking for Snow Socks in the summer though.

Can confirm Primacy HP's on the vRS are ****e too..............but..............

Last saturday drove out to get food, came back and couldnt get up the small incline to our estate. Wasnt gritted etc, just compacted snow that had a good half inch of ice underneath. Soon as the wheels spun you could see the shiney ice underneath.

Tried three times to get up, some neighbours tried a push and all failed. Went back to the bottom of the estate to try and get the towing eye on the front but couldnt work out how to do it and my brain was freezing it was that bloody cold. My plan was to get as far up the uncline as possible, dump it where it was and then walk the 50 meters to get the Freelander and tow it back to the house.

As I said, couldnt get the towing eye on, so I had a brain wave. Last attempt....dropped the tyre pressures down to about 18 to 20 psi at the front, waited for no traffic and headed back through the estate and up the incline. Went straight up at the same speed, couldnt go too fast as cars parked either side and virtually no wheelspin at all, didnt flinch.

So, in this weather, carry an air pump and a gauge and drop the pressures down if you get stuck or struggling.

Also, remember, 99% of tyres fitted in this country to mainstream cars are just summer tyres. They are only any good to about 4 degrees, after that, they are too hard to be of any use.

Has been quite funny this last couple of weeks while been out at work in the Freelander watching the new school run 4wd's struggling in the snow. The drivers scratching their heads wondering why they arnt going any further than anyone else. Its the tyres, large rims, low profile tyres, summer only tyres..... whereas the freelander has AT tyres on with an M&S rating..... hardly flinches!!

Steve

check out this, vid of summer, all season and winter tyres simultaneously tested on ice in identical cars

on ice

in snow

mixed winter tyres(ie winter tyres only the driven wheels)

I have prestivo tyres on the front and F1s on the rear.

Thats why my furby hasnt been out in the snow at all.

These tyres may as well be smooth for the good they are

to me in these conditions. The fronts are shockingly bad just in the wet

never mind the ice. Mine wheelspins at 50mph in 3rd gear in the wet.

The trouble is I just can't justify buying new ones as the prestivos are nearly new...

Nearly new and utterly rubbish. Take my word for it folks. NEVER buy these for a furby vrs!!!

Edited 9 January, 201016 yr by grr666

kumho 205/40/17 ecsta on a 07 suzuki swift 1.3 i have managed up untill today when there was no way i could get off the street,the hill in front of the house has seen many victims over the past couple of weeks and up until now the swift hasn't been one of them,today it was beaten,so i had to go out in the snow and swap the fronts for my winters,and no problems at all now!!!!

Have had our Octy 55 plate Elegance now for 4 years and have never attempted to use the dsg in manuel, i wanted to control my speed down a slope, result was the Bridgestone tyres and the so called bottom gear was as good as a chocolate teapot.Also i could not even get up the slight slope on our driveway.In 1963 i had a 100E Ford van and my son was in Epping hospital with a broken femur, the snow was anything from 1-3 ft deep in place and we had to travel 7 miles to him. we always managed to see him each day. Was it rear wheel drive /weight of van or what.

I have prestivo tyres on the front and F1s on the rear. Thats why my furby hasnt been out in the snow at all. These tyres may as well be smooth for the good they are to me in these conditions. The fronts are shockingly bad just in the wet never mind the ice. Mine wheelspins at 50mph in 3rd gear in the wet. The trouble is I just can't justify buying new ones as the prestivos are nearly new... Nearly new and utterly rubbish. Take my word for it folks. NEVER buy these for a furby vrs!!!

Last February I had wheels spin at 40-45mph in 6th about 1500rpm. with the F1 GSD3s. I have no idea what my T1-R are like as I haven't used my car since the Brisky Whitby meet on 27 Dec and is now buried under 12 inches of snow. I have read on the Furby section that as they are a softer compound they are not too bad.

First outing for my new Nokians today. Drove up a country road on the way hone that hasn't been ploughed in three weeks and has had more or less daily snowfall. Octavia cruised uphill and down with no problems.

i have goodyear eagle f1 in 225/40/18 on my oct mk2 vrs , and they are the worst tyre ever , i completly hate them , my wifes1.4 clio will beet me on even a mildly damp road never mind snow and ice !!

Dunlop SP Sports 245/40/18 even with 4 wheel drive there not much good

Must be the Canadian in me

He's a lumberjack & he's OK, Works all night & he works all day....................... :rofl:

Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres are rated 1 star for winter and ice, the lowest rating. But they are great in other conditions. A good snow tyre is unlikely to be a good tyre the rest of the time. Accept it.

He's a lumberjack & he's OK, Works all night & he works all day....................... :rofl:

I sleep all night, and post on Brisky all day

I sleep all night, and post on Brisky all day

Canadian Eh?

I have to say I've been quite impressed with how the Toyo T1-R's have done this last week or so. (vRS TDi). I've haven't had to stop on any hills or anything, mainly through thinking and planning ahead, and driven mostly on flat roads. But taking it easy and I've had no major issues.

Fundamentally I still maintain that snow isn't the big issue, it's the ice in this country.

I have to say I've been quite impressed with how the Toyo T1-R's have done this last week or so. (vRS TDi). I've haven't had to stop on any hills or anything, mainly through thinking and planning ahead, and driven mostly on flat roads. But taking it easy and I've had no major issues.

Have them on the back of my car at the moment cant wait to get them off.

Really dont rate them at all. my front vreds are in another league in comparison.

They are not to bad in the snow TBH, not great but not as bad as id have expected

Went back to the bottom of the estate to try and get the towing eye on the front but couldnt work out how to do it and my brain was freezing it was that bloody cold.

It's a LH thread, anticlockwise to screw in. I had a practice while the weather was good.

As I said, couldnt get the towing eye on, so I had a brain wave. Last attempt....dropped the tyre pressures down to about 18 to 20 psi at the front, waited for no traffic and headed back through the estate and up the incline. Went straight up at the same speed, couldnt go too fast as cars parked either side and virtually no wheelspin at all, didnt flinch.

So, in this weather, carry an air pump and a gauge and drop the pressures down if you get stuck or struggling.

Good tip! AFAIK they use that trick in the Dakar too when stuck in sand

My Toyos were pretty useless on snow today. It took me 1 hour just to get out of my drive! Having said that the drive changes to a slope and I think the car was bottoming out and at one point I had one wheel on clear concrete and the other on wet snow not going anywhere. I either need a proper LSD diff and or winter tyres. :wonder:

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Jim H

I was suffering of Michelin Alpin A3 two years back...they were absolute crap. Only good on dry roads, but then terribly noisy - developed an extremely bad sawtooth after some months.

Currently I drive Hankook Icebear W440s , which turned out to be very good in all situations...

Well the Vredestein Sportrac 3's on the Octy seem pretty good (although it does have the benefit of 4x4) and the Vredestein HiTrac's on the Fabia also seem to be coping well. It may be that they both have a directional V tread pattern and fews circumferential sipes (grooves).

I agree with this.

I have Dunlop SportMaxx on the front of the Octy (Vred Ultracs on the rear) and really struggled for any grip (4.5mm on the front tyres). I had problems getting going even in second gear and ASR off with the Dunlops. I could feel the front sliding all over the place but the Vreds on the rear kept it in Check.

The wifes Furby has SporTrac3s all round and I have been out and about with no problems. The SporTrac3s cope amazingly with slush and reasonably well on sheet ice. I didn't get stuck anywhere in it

I think the Vreds cope reasonably well becuase of the fact that they are Dutch and the Dutch have a lot of snow to contend with.

I will be picking up some alloys/steelies cheap over the summer and gradually get me some winter tyres. I want them next year as we will have a small baby and think it is safer to have them in the winter with the cold weather. Plus it'll keep the mileage off my expensive Ultrac tyres

Hi Nathanio

You can never compare different tyre sizes and different tyre speed indexes.

Therefor your comparison between the Octis Dunlop and the Fabias SporTrac isnt right.

Has a lot to do with compounds and carcasses but not with thread pattern.

My Dunlop Winter 3D isnt directional and doesnt have a V-profile, looks pretty dull and std in my opinion. But the tyre, compared to other winter tyres, rocks.

And I was born in Holland and lived there most of my life. We dont have that much snow. In fact I recon Vredestein more in the average tyre makers part of the whole.

Hi Nathanio

You can never compare different tyre sizes and different tyre speed indexes.

Therefor your comparison between the Octis Dunlop and the Fabias SporTrac isnt right.

Has a lot to do with compounds and carcasses but not with thread pattern.

My Dunlop Winter 3D isnt directional and doesnt have a V-profile, looks pretty dull and std in my opinion. But the tyre, compared to other winter tyres, rocks.

And I was born in Holland and lived there most of my life. We dont have that much snow. In fact I recon Vredestein more in the average tyre makers part of the whole.

You're right, I couldn't possibly make a comparison of two cars with not dissimilar power outputs running similar profile and width tyres on the same road in the same conditions shortly after one another.... :wonder:

I can make observations about how the cars behave and how they felt when I drove them as the conditions where the same (less than an hour between driving each vehicle) and they would be valid.

The cars may not have been identical but you can still make a decent assesment of their performance. It was hardly like I was comparing a 1275 mini tyres to a Range Rover Sport! :| 225/45/17 versus 205/45/16, 140 verus 130BHP, 236lb/ft versus 230lb/ft, 1400kg vs 1300kg.....

Vredestein aren't a mid-range tyre brand; they are definitely sitting up there in the high performance market and offer incredible performance/£