""Would appreciate your help as I am not getting answers from Skoda Customer Service or from Crawley Down Garage to web or emails we have sent concerning the inability of the top of the range Skoda Yeti to be fitted with either snow chains or substantial off-road tyres.""

Can you explain why you have added this piece about the tyres?

Off road tyres are not the same as WINTER tyres, and those are available at a suitable size for the relevant Yeti. You are asking about 2 seperate and totally different things.

""Would appreciate your help as I am not getting answers from Skoda Customer Service or from Crawley Down Garage to web or emails we have sent concerning the inability of the top of the range Skoda Yeti to be fitted with either snow chains or substantial off-road tyres.""

Can you explain why you have added this piece about the tyres?

Off road tyres are not the same as WINTER tyres, and those are available at a suitable size for the relevant Yeti. You are asking about 2 seperate and totally different things.

This thread has included reference to both off road tyres that I understand cannot be fitted to the Elegance with 17" alloy wheels and the WINTER tyres that may or may not be available from limited sources ( or are recommended for 16" wheels instead.)

All very confusing and I hope we all agree a utility vehicle such as the Yeti should be designed to take both WINTER and OFF ROAD TYRES as well as SNOW CHAINS or other equivalent systems

as some European countries require snow chains

Did we establish which countries (if any) these are?

Some have suggested purchasing a set of 16" steel wheels fitted with snow tyres for winter use but apart from cost and storage problems there would be need for a dealer reset of the speedometer and mileage instruments.

No there wouldn't - if you keep the rolling radius within a certain tolerance (which the availalble wheel/tyre combos would) then you're fine.

It is interesting that the Yeti has just received the "Winter car of theYear 2010" award from the Finish magazine Technics world and members of Briskoda wondered why the magazine had not stressed the differences between the cheaper Yeti (16" wheels) that they tested, capable of being fitted with snow chains and tyres and the more expensive Yetis (17" wheels)

Only you have done so, shortly before making this post.

WINTER tyres that may or may not be available from limited sources

They are freely available, and links have been posted to known sources.

I hope we all agree

Quite obviously we don't - just read back through the thread!

I think that Skoda is very misleading in its Brochures. It does say that winter tyres should be put onto 16" rims. However winter tyres can be fitted to the Elegance 17" rims of the same size as standard. It should also be possible to find profiles that allowed narrower tyres and keep the same approximate diameter.

I agree that it is a pretty poor show though, if one need to use snow chains, that one would need to purchase additional 16" rims, particularly as this vehicle is sold throughout the EU and displayed as a go anywhere type of vehicle. The speedo already over reads and fitting the recommended 16" with smaller rubber would amplify this deficiency. It should be possible to address this by playing around with the ECU but that is for Skoda to point out. The outlets for Spike Spider, an alternative type of chain, do claim that their product will fit on the Yeti with 225/50R17 wheels and tyres. They are expensive but are a very convenient product to use by all accounts. Certainly they appeal to me. Snow chains are an accepted way of driving in deep snow or ice. Their are places where snow chains would be very useful in the winter even in GB. In some Continental Alpine Regions I understand that chains may be a legal requirement or to have studs. I beleive that winter tyres are a legal requirement in some EU countries in the winter months but that no EU country in its entirety other than for specific regions has a legal requirement for snow chains.

I believe that we should support Y4YETI in his efforts to highlight the oversight of Skoda in some of these respects. He does have a very strong point. Only in one or two areas might he be inaccurate but that is hardly surprising as Skodas UK own literature has been very deficient and misleading as usual. I thank him for highlighting his concerns to Skoda UK and beleive that he should pursue this through the media but to make sure that all the facts are known first. Skoda UK or Skoda globally may address or write in response to this once the media has become involved. It is very poor form for them not to write in reply to him what ever in any case.

Edited 18 February, 201016 yr by Anthony 1

Edit:- This post was being written as Anthony posted his much more experienced and fair appraisal of the situation that appears above mine. Thank you Anthony

Vic

<snip>

Quite obviously we don't - just read back through the thread!

I am sure you have read every post carefully Sporky

Do you agree from the thread that Skoda have clearly failed in their design here in providing 17" wheels on the top of their range Elegant to which it is not possible to use snow chains?

Do you also agree from the thread that there is very limited choice of off road or winter tyres in the exact profile recommended in the Skoda manual?

It may be that some understand more clearly than others what has been written previously. Certainly downsizing wheels to 16" (where some state the speedometer/mileage instrument may need dealer adjustment to be necessary) is an expensive option to accommodate either snow chains or a wider range of winter or off road tyres in the correct profile.

Whilst enthusiasts might be happy paying twice for a set of wheels on a top of the range new car (the original 17" alloys supplied and then a second set of 16" steels ) this is certainly not so for users such as ourselves. We expect more from an relatively expensive utility vehicle against a cheaper 4WD hatchback!!!

Edited 18 February, 201016 yr by Y4YETI

Do you agree from the thread that Skoda have clearly failed in their design here in providing 17" wheels on the top of their range Elegant to which it is not possible to use snow chains?

Given the lack of any such requirement for 99% of UK buyers, no, I do not agree at all.

Do you also agree from the thread that there is very limited choice of off road or winter tyres in the exact profile recommended in the Skoda manual?

No - I didn't have any trouble finding some. And, as has been said several times, most people who bother with winter tyres have them on a separate set of wheels as they don't go through a set every winter!

Are you seriously saying that you'd intended to rip the summer tyres off the wheels each November and put winter/snow tyres on, only to rip them back off each Spring to put summer tyres back on? I find that very hard to believe.

Do you agree that only a tiny minority of people consider snow chains necessary? Do you also agree that only a tiny minority of UK drivers bother with winter tyres? Do you agree that choosing a correct size wheel and tyre profile results in no significant change in rolling radius (and that such combinations exist and are freely available to buy in the UK)? Do you agree that you've repeatedly failed to provide a list of the European countries you're claiming require snow chains?

I'm wondering why you didn't actually respond to any of my earlier points.

Edited 18 February, 201016 yr by Sporky McGuffin

Easy Sporky - or you might find yourself in "The Sunday Times" too !

Agree with what you're saying though. If you want an accurate speedo - get a gps. big deal.

If you want winter tyres / chains, get a spare set of steelies, as the alloys will be more prone to expensive damage. Plus you wont have to pay to have your tyres mounted / demounted.

And surely it can't be good for the tyres to be put on and off several times?

<snip>I'm wondering why you didn't actually respond to any of my earlier points.

We regard Anthony's post preceding mine as more than adequate answer to the points you have made.

We respect his views on this and his understanding of the confusion being caused to those who do not share his expertise.

Here are some extracts from the AA website on this issue:- http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safety/winter-tyres-and-snow-chains.html

Since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions. In practice this means most drivers keep two sets of tyres – 'winter tyres' for the colder months when many roads are snow-covered and 'summer' tyres for the remainder of the year. Summer tyres may not be used when there's ice or snow on the road.

Alternatively, German motorists may use so-called 'all-season-tyres' and leave them on the car all year round.

Having seen a large Japanese 4WD struggling ourside our property in only 20 cm of compacted snow we certainly feel that tyres all season tyres would help the Yeti to be a useful community support vehicle in adverse weather conditions.

However the AA go on further to advise:-

So as far as the law is concerned your normal tyres that meet UK regulations will be OK for a winter trip to Germany though you must take measures to ensure that you can make normal progress in inclement conditions.

In practice this means carrying snow chains and using them whenever conditions or local signs require.

Will now have to back track in this thread to see what has been mentioned about all weather tyres and their availability in sizes recommended by Skoda.

If we are truly European surely Skoda should have put all weather tyres on the version of their Yeti that cannot take snow chains?

Margaret and Vic

Edited 18 February, 201016 yr by Y4YETI

Will now have to back track in this thread to see what has been mentioned about all weather tyres and their availability in sizes recommended by Skoda.

If we are truly European surely Skoda should have put all weather tyres on the version of their Yeti that cannot take snow chains?

Margaret and Vic

Hi,

refer you back to My link for an all season tyre being used by some Scout owners, also a link in there to the official Skoda Germany tyre/rim size and approval document for all Skoda's including Yeti.

Regards,

TP

"Since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions. In practice this means most drivers keep two sets of tyres – 'winter tyres' for the colder months when many roads are snow-covered and 'summer' tyres for the remainder of the year. Summer tyres may not be used when there's ice or snow on the road. "

Usually this means a set of steelies for the winter, and save the nice alloys until all the crud has disappeared.

Recent trip to Sweden confirms - saw virtually no alloy wheels when I was there (and very few hubcaps either - is Stockholm twinned with Liverpool I wonder....!?).

Hi,

refer you back to My link for an all season tyre being used by some Scout owners, also a link in there to the official Skoda Germany tyre/rim size and approval document for all Skoda's including Yeti.

Regards,

TP

Thanks for this link and have posted information and query there regarding whether or not a W rating of 160mph/270kmh is the best compromise tyre for UK and European use and a SUV needed to deal with snow, ice and off road conditions. (not forgetting the wheel size of 17" to which snow chains cannot be used)

Vic

Edited 18 February, 201016 yr by Y4YETI

I have just been Skypeing my brother-in-law who lives in Switzerland, about something else, and asked him about tyres over there. He says that it is compulsory for them to fit winter tyres from November onwards. Failure to do so can result in heavy fines. About the only people he ever sees with chains are the "high farmers and everyone else copes perfectly adequately, including being able to access all the ski areas around Zug and Mount Rigi. He drives a Nissan 4x4 and has 2 sets of wheels, alloys for the summer and steels for the winter. In the garage area of their apartment block there is an area with tyre racking where all the residents keep their "spare" wheels. His winter tyres are 1 size narrower than his summer tyres as this is what is recommended by Nissan SZ. It makes no difference to his speedo readings. He also stated that the same rules apply in Germany and Northern Italy, where they often drive to ski.

I have again checked checked tyre availability in reference to All Terrain tyres in this country. These are NOT snow/winter tyres, but a semi aggressive off-road tyre, such as I have currently fitted to my Freelander. They are easily available in 16" sizes for the Yeti, but are more difficult to find in 17", but not impossible.

I do however question the need for them. I would expect that 90% of Yeti owners fall into the same band as Freelander owners and are most unlikely to ever take their Yeti seriously off-road. It is most likely to be used for towing the caravan from a wet pitch or driving out of a muddy car park, and of course during inclement weather. It is only some of us who will ever use it off-road to any great degree. For most owners the standard tyres together with the car's "brains" will be more than adequate and will do the job perfectly. Certainly the Freelander Club have proved that overly aggressive tyres actually limit the ability of the vehicle, because, like the Yeti, the off-road controls are not activated until "slip" is measured, and aggressive tyres do not allow this slip to occur.

Graham

There may be some confusion with this whole winter tyres & snowchains issue here. They are related but not the same.

Winter tyres (recommended in just about all countries where low temperatures are common):

The Yeti standard tyre sizes (215/60 R16 and 225/50 R17) both have good winter tyres available for them in these sizes AFAIK . That to me is not the problem.

Snow chains (mandatory in very few places but useful in high snowfall regions):

I think Skoda only recommend that snowchains to be used on tyre sizes of 205/55 R16, otherwise I assume there will be interference with suspension elements or braking components or bodywork etc. However 205/55 R16 have a significantly smaller rolling circumference than the standard wheel / tyre, and that is definitely not a good thing.

So the issue to me is not 17" rims versus 16" rims, but if you want the option to one day use chains, you need to drive with a smaller diameter wheel / tyre than is standard. This will affect fuel consumption, recorded speed, recorded miles travelled, service intervals, etc............

Edited 19 February, 201016 yr by rand

There may be some confusion with this whole winter tyres & snowchains issue here. They are related but not the same.

Winter tyres (recommended in just about all countries where low temperatures are common):

The Yeti standard tyre sizes (215/60 R16 and 225/50 R17) both have good winter tyres available for them in these sizes AFAIK . That to me is not the problem.

Snow chains (mandatory in very few places but useful in high snowfall regions):

I think Skoda only recommend that snowchains to be used on tyre sizes of 205/55 R16, otherwise I assume there will be interference with suspension elements or braking components or bodywork etc. However 205/55 R16 have a significantly smaller rolling circumference than the standard wheel / tyre, and that is definitely not a good thing.

So the issue to me is not 17" rims versus 16" rims, but if you want the option to one day use chains, you need to drive with a smaller diameter wheel / tyre than is standard. This will affect fuel consumption, recorded speed, recorded miles travelled, service intervals, etc............

That more or less sums it up and some of my thoughts also rand . It is unfortunate that the car was not designed from the outset to have better wheel arch clearances, particularly as it is a duel propose type or crossover vehicle but there it is. Their is a manufacturer of snow chains that claim they will fit on the Yeti with 225/50R17. The Spike Spider or Spider Spike. They come in various forms depending on how aggressive one wants them to be. They attach via a plastic hub which can be bolted on to the wheel with wheel nuts once winter starts and then the chains just snap on. No need to rotate the wheel as the chains just move into position as one drives away. They are easily removed also. This makes them very convenient to use. The only drawback that I can see is that they are not cheap.

http://www.roofbox.co.uk/snow-chains/

Videos

Good Video showing Spider Spike Sport/Alpine it gives a good view of how this particular model looks like and the ease of fitments.

Edited 19 February, 201016 yr by Anthony 1

So the issue to me is not 17" rims versus 16" rims, but if you want the option to one day use chains, you need to drive with a smaller diameter wheel / tyre than is standard. This will affect fuel consumption, recorded speed, recorded miles travelled, service intervals, etc............

The point is that if you go from 215/50 x 17" down to 205/55 x 16" the rolling circumference of the 2 tyres is almost the same, (less than 2.5% difference), so it makes NO difference to consumption or recorded speed, etc. The ONLY difference is that the width of the tyre tread is 10mm narrower. The difference is actually probably no more than from a new to old tyre!!

Many manufactures actually recommend the same typical reduction in width when fitting winter tyres. I believe that SAAB actually used to recommend an even greater reduction in width.

The point is that if you go from 215/50 x 17" down to 205/55 x 16" the rolling circumference of the 2 tyres is almost the same, (less than 2.5% difference), so it makes NO difference to consumption or recorded speed, etc. The ONLY difference is that the width of the tyre tread is 10mm narrower. The difference is actually probably no more than from a new to old tyre!!

Many manufactures actually recommend the same typical reduction in width when fitting winter tyres. I believe that SAAB actually used to recommend an even greater reduction in width.

Where did you get a 215/50 R17 size from, I didn't think this was a Yeti tyre size at all?

Yeti standard 16" tyre: 215/60 R16 = 664mm dia

Yeti standard 17" tyre: 225/50 R17 = 657mm dia

Conclusion = close enough, within about 1% of each other in diameter.

Yeti recommended winter tyre: 205/55 R16 = 632mm

Conclusion = 32mm smaller than the standard 16" tyre, which is over 5%. That to me is a lot!

The point is that if you go from 215/50 x 17" down to 205/55 x 16" the rolling circumference of the 2 tyres is almost the same, (less than 2.5% difference), so it makes NO difference to consumption or recorded speed, etc. The ONLY difference is that the width of the tyre tread is 10mm narrower. The difference is actually probably no more than from a new to old tyre!!

Many manufactures actually recommend the same typical reduction in width when fitting winter tyres. I believe that SAAB actually used to recommend an even greater reduction in width.

Sorry Graham, i think that you have made a typo error the Yeti 170 CR elegance runs on 225/50R17 not 215/50R17. I am not sure which size you did your % calculations on. In any case the difference will exacerbate the already fast reading of the speedometer. Personally I am not looking to down size tyres in diameter but would rather the other way around but can see that this is not likely to be successful. I would be happy with narrower tyres, that is no problem. I noticed that you were posting and may have missed my link for the chains as it would not link up so here

Rand, sorry typo error, HOWEVER, read my posting again. You have used the diameter of the tyre where I stated CIRCUMFERENCE.

From this site (http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html)

215/60 x 16 = diameter 664.4mm circumference 2087.3mm (Stock)

225/50 x 17 = ~ 656.8mm, ~ 2063.4mm (23.9mm smaller

205/55 x 16 = ~ 631.9mm, ~ 1985.2mm (102.1mm smaller than stock, 78.2mm smaller than the 17")

I'm sorry but I just cannot see that this is really going to make any difference to when you get your car serviced or even to the fuel consumption or even the accuracy of the speedo. The percentages of difference are just too small to matter, plus what no-one has taken into account is the difference in sizes between manufacturers. I know that 195/80 x 15's from Kumho are bigger than the same size from Goodyear. How? Because I've had both fitted and had greater ground clearance with the Kumho's by a measurable amount. Did it bother me? Not one bit! in fact I was pleased as I had less chance of cloating the bottom of the car in the ruts.

I have to agree about tyres of a nominal size can vary significantly from one manufacturer to an other and even between specific tyre types from the same manufacturer. I never like to mix tres on a car prefaring always to keep the same manufacturer and the same designated tyre, that is always have the same tyres on all four wheels. this is even more important on four wheel drive cars and even modern cars with ABS sensors and other chassis management controls.

I wonder exactly what is suposed to or may come into contact with chains if one does not downsize? Is it a theoretical clash with what ever or that their aught to be a minimum specified clearnace and it just gets a little close?

The thing is, regardless of what reduction the in tyre size, I believe that it is a very poor show that in order to fit chains, one needs suposedly to fit different wheels and that their is no option to swap them at the build stage or even at the dealers at no extra cost or a cost reduction if steel wheels are bought instead. It is very poor.

Edited 19 February, 201016 yr by Anthony 1

We still going on about the chains but I notice no-one has yet provided details of anywhere in Europe that has made it mandatory to have them. Everywhere seems to say "Winter tyres OR chains" and it appears from my investigations that fewer and fewer people are fitting them now as the standards and capabilities of proper winter tyres improves.

We still going on about the chains but I notice no-one has yet provided details of anywhere in Europe that has made it mandatory to have them. Everywhere seems to say "Winter tyres OR chains" and it appears from my investigations that fewer and fewer people are fitting them now as the standards and capabilities of proper winter tyres improves.

Snow chain Requiremnt

My link

My link

Their is in fact a Compulsory Sign for Snow Chains German "snow chains compulsory" sign.

Tyre company reference to where chains re compulsory and winter tyres with and without spikes

My link

My link

I am sorry I have not found any government web sites for the relevant countries and wikipipedia is strangely quiet about anything to do with snow chains. I have seen various references on the links above to being fined in some places if snow chains are not carried or are not used when requested. In some countries the police can force drivers to use them if they think that the conditions warrant it.

I have no idea if snow chains are use less frequently or more frequently in GB than at any other time but that would be besides the point. Just stand inside any supermarket or motorway toilet and see the number of men who do not wash their hand even after doing a No.2 disgusting as that is, yet I am sure no one here is calling for an end hand washing facilities at these places. ( What have I admitted to. I cringe waiting for the comments )

Even winter tyres can struggle for grip in some situations like ice. I have used chains and they just go on gripping even at very severe angles of incline and off road in these conditions also.

In some countries winter tyres all but translates into studded tyres as this is what motorist there fit, we just hear winter tyres but it needs to be differentiated.

Thanks Anthony, at last a list of countries that does specify!!

one aims to please

Skoda's primary winter fit for both the Yeti and the Superb is the 6J 17 'Flash' alloy wheel running with 205/50 R17 93H tyres (approved for chains). They also recommend the 205/55 R16 as an alternative on 7J or 6J rims. The German's who obviously view tyres with some importance, only state these two tyre sizes for winters for the Yeti My link

As I am familiar with driving on 205/55 R16 tyres and this size is one of the most common winters available, I decided to take that option. Cost also played a major part too: four steel rims were at the time the same price as one 'Flash' alloy :S

TP