A while ago I posted in the Fabia forum how I got stuck in a wet, muddy field (that to the eye looked like a normal grassy paddock). I needed a tractor to get me out, as even a Range Rover could not get enough traction to get me out. So I am determined my next car will have 4x4 and the Yeti then is of obvious interest (the more I look at other 4x4s the better value the Yeti is looking).

The more you read up about snow/mud performance the more obvious it is correct tyre choice is as important as having 4x4. It's pretty obvious to change tyres for winter/summer, but getting into wet mud can happen any time of year. That's my worry, getting 4x4 and then still getting stuck in a muddy field. Although there's loads of great video clips on YouTube and the likes showing great off road performance, dig deeper and there's always clips of people also getting stuck in what would otherwise be capable 4x4s.

What are people's thoughts here? If going off into grass/mud is something I am likely to do from time to time, including in summer - which in the UK is guaranteed to be wet from time to time - are there tyres better suited to this designed for all year use?

What are the implications of running on winter tyres all year - is it they just wear out quicker in the summer or are they potentially dangerous in the warm? I wonder what tyres they use in all the Yeti PR stuff when they're charging across muddy tracks?

Edit - Just read in the snow socks thread a recommendation for "all terrain" tyres - again what are the downsides if any of running these on tarmac on a hot August day?

Edited 12 April, 201016 yr by PeteVRS

Hi,

Probably the best option if you intend to stick with the standard rims and tyre size would be the Goodyear Vector 4season My link

Regards,

TP

Pete,

oh, the joys of tyres and the friction it causes between owners!! My personal view is based on owning Freelanders for nearly 6 years and being involved in off-road driving for a lot longer than that.

As you have found, standard road tyres end up looking like doughnuts in mud. This is because the tread is designed to remove water and gets clogged up with the mud. I'm sorry to say that tyres like the winter tyre linked to will be little better. Winter tyres are designed to have slightly wider tread gaps, but are mainly "special" in that the rubber used is specially formulated to remain flexible at much colder temperatures.

There is only one true method of dealing with mud and that is to fit MUD TERRAIN tyres, which have a wide aggressive tread that "self cleanes"; as it spins it throws the mud out of the tread, and has a tread that is desined to dig into the ground. However these would be useless on a Yeti (or similar vehicle) as they can give a noisy and uncomfortable ride on tarmac, don't wear that well, and don't handle that well.

The best solution, and the one that I have used for all of my Freelanders, is using an ALL TERRAIN tyre. These are designed to have a slightly more aggressive tread pattern, with some "self cleaning" and an ability to dig in slightly. From experience I have found that they last as long as normal tyres and have just as good road holding, but are slightly noisier.

Looking at the Yeti, I think that AT's are the best option, but one of the problems seems to be getting them in all the sizes as fitted to the Yeti. They are certainly available in 16" but other sizes are much more difficult to find. Too aggressively patterned tyres may well actually do more harm than good. The Yeti traction control needs wheel spin to activate and too aggressive a tyre won't allow this to happen, so the car "bogs down", whereas an AT will allow some slip and therefore the TC will work.

I have been in situations where my Freelander has got through soft muddy areas because of the traction control whereas the Discovery's I have been with have got stuck. Having experienced to simpler Haldex system on the Freelander 2 I suspect that the Yeti should actually be very good in these situations. However the one thing I would say is that an aweful lot of it is down to driver knowledge, and knowing how your vehicle works.

Thanks for the replies, it's very interesting reading from someone with experience of driving in mud.

The depressing news it seems is that wet mud is well and truly evil stuff if you have experience of Discoveries getting stuck in it I wonder if I would be better actually buying a tractor I googled all terrain tyres and came up with this page http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/4x4 which explains the differences between them, exactly as you say really, mud tyres are the best but not designed for on-road to any extent, whereas all terrain tyres offer the best of both worlds at the expense of road noise. That page suggested this tyre: http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m64b702s230p12542&rs=gb I've never seen a tread quite like that before and it is significantly (and obviously) quite a bit more extreme than my Fabia tyres!! (These are the mud ones: http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m64b706s229p11214&rs=gb ).

I think quite a bit more research is needed into this, as you say to check availability for whatever wheel size I will be getting.

Llanigraham in your experience with all terrain tyres what are they like in snow/ice?

Attached photo shows what floored the Fabia, it doesn't look much does it? A Mondeo and an Aston Martin also got stuck near me, a Discovery and a Land Rover made it out OK. Do you think a standard Yeti would have made it?

Both AT's and MT's will do a good job is snow - better that so called "winer tyres". The opem tread pattern does the same self cleaning job as it does in mud and leaves teh open treads to "grab" at the snow.

on sheet ice nothing will grip, the the exception of studs, which are not an option. 2 WD, 4WD, 16 WD if you like - if the tyre cannot bite the surface there will be not traction so no go (or stop!!)

The various and many threads on Yeti Tyres seem to end up in a lot of confusion.

Let's start with the Yeti. It is a softroader, and that means a road vehicle, with SOME off road ability. It's not a tractor. It's not a Defender. It's more than the Autobahn lokomotives, that could never get their way out of a field with wet grass.

If you need to pay in the mud, you need a lockable 4WD vehicle, which cam spin all four wheels if required and chuck that mud behind as it hopefully progresses. If you seriously need to move off road, the same applies, but reduction transfer case to give you torque at very low speeds and full manual control is essential.

Most of it's time, the Yeti is expected to live on a road. On a road, summer tyres are best in summer, and winter tyres in winter. Winter does not mean a foot of snow on the road and an expectation of being able to drive "normally", but cold weather, risk of snow, ice and generally slippery condtions. In the UK, snow happens infrequently south of the Scottish border, but cold wether and slippery does happen.

Summer tyres are good for hot, mild and wet confditions. They need to be good at speed and in wet conditions as well as dry.

Winter tyres are good for cold, slippery and some snow conditions. They also need to bë good in cold wet conditions, and if OK in cold dry conditions, so much the better. They have a softer compound and a lot of sipes to present sharp edges to "wipe" the surface. THEY ARE NOT INTENDED FOR DEEP SNOW. They are not intended for real off-road work. They will not make your Yeti a snow tractor.

If you need to drive offf- road and in deep snow, then special off-road tyres with big chunky blocks are needed. These are also good for muddy situations - but they are a noisy pain to drive on a slippery, wet and icy road and also a real irritant on dry or wet roads at speed.

Chains are for the very infrequent times, when you are in mountains with more snow than is safe with either summer or winter tyres. Snow socks are tha same, but not as good as chains.

As for driving on winter tyres all year rond, their perfomance might suite you, but the summer wear will be very accelerated. All year tyres will be better than summer tyres in winter and better than winter tyres in summer. If the compromise is an economical one, maybe it might suit you - but hey will be worse than winters in winer and summers in summer.

My personal view is that for 99% of owners, a set of summer and another set of winter wheels will take care of most situations. The winter of 2009/2010 was extreme and may not re-appear for the life of the car. Winter tyres would have had you be able to get where yu needed to go, and chains are for the avid skiers, just in case. Northern Scandinavia conditions are different, but they know how to handle that.

If you have ambitions to play in the mud, then you need a third set of wheels with off-road tyres. If you just occasionally get into the mud, then you have to lern how to drive in it with what you have . As in many things, technique and understanding gets you a long way. Easy does it is a must in off-road work, and a bit of finesse can get you a long way.

Try to learn to drive on loose sand, you need only your summer wheels, as aggressive patterns are definitely out. NO pattern is in. Overdo it, and you dig yourself into a big hole.

Edited 12 April, 201016 yr by Agerbundsen

Thanks for the replies. Yes it's confusing to say the least and everyone has a different opinion

The problem as I see it, is that I do not know in advance if the venue will be muddy, I'm in the fireworks trade and venture out all year, including in the summer months which can still throw up wet muddy fields. I don't however need to drive down rally tracks, dunes, snow or plowed fields and annoyingly (in terms of car choice) the journey is 99% tarmac then off road at the end. I would have described it as "light off road" because it's flat terrain like paddocks, grassy fields, things that to the eye might look easy but have slippery mud underneath (I know my limitations and would not attempt to take anything over really bad terrain) but the more I look into this the more "slippery wet mud" seems to be a real 4x4 killer. I have lost count of the number of times I have nearly got caught out in the Fabia but recently it did catch up with me!! I never ever want the inconvenience of having to abandon my car in the dark and rain miles from home and come back the next day to find a friendly farmer

So having different sets of tyres whilst the best solution on paper would be no good and in any case I have nowhere to put them. I had hoped then either there was a specialist tyre that works in mud better than normal tyres yet can be worn all year (irrespectie of cost), OR Yeti owners would put my mind at rest they have been in wet mud with stock/summer tyres and did not get stuck thanks to the 4WD alone

I totally agree about driving style and experience, having none whatsoever in mud probably got me dug in deeper than someone who knew how to drive, I think the advice on getting some experience there is good. Looking back, experience would have alerted me quicker to the ground not feeling right, instead of carrying on, then panic sets in and you get stuck.

Am I flogging a dead horse here then with the Yeti and should be looking at a Freelander 2, X Trail or equivalent? That would be a shame, I really do want to stick with Skoda and I love the look of the Yeti. I thought the Yeti came with a button that limited power and was a better 4x4 because it can put any amount of power to any wheel (will no doubt be flamed by 4x4 owners for my lack of knowledge here).

Apologies for long post - please help me not get stuck in a muddy field this summer and all replies and opinions read with thanks

Some years back took my Octavia I 4x4 hatch across a waterlogged field (car park for a country park we were visiting), not churned up like in your photo but stepping out the car then you ended up with water coming through the grass and over your shoes. This was on the factory fitted Dunlop SP2000 Sport tyres. So I think a Yeti would have been able to extract itself from that field you vRS got stuck in.

Hope that's of help.

TP

I've been in worse than that field in my octavia scout on dunlop sp1's. it did just fine.

How about running normal road tyres and having a set of snow chains in the boot to put on if the mud is really bad? Snow chains work quite well in mud.

Looking at those photos, and with the Haldex system on the Yeti, I would say it would have little problem coping, especially if you can keep moving from the start. I've certainly been through much worse with the Freelander. Unfortunately I'm at work so can't post a link for you.

The BF Goodrich All Terrains you link to are considered the best there is. Mileage on them has been reported as immense, with really good road manners and quiet. Off road they are brilliant!! They are often mentioned in "around the world" type reports in the LR mags as brilliant. They seem to cope with everything you can throw at them, however they aren't cheap. I'd love to fit them, but have Kumho AT's which I am very happy with.

I agree with Agerbudson, the Yeti is not an "out and out" off road vehicle, but is in the same vein as the Freelander, Sportage, X trail etc. They are all designed to have some ability, but most owners will never use it to the full.

Pete, one thought.....as it is going to be a business vehicle, does Skoda have a "Business Section" that arranges loan vehicles? I know LR do, and they used to do loans for 48 or 72 hours.

I've been in worse than that field in my octavia scout on dunlop sp1's. it did just fine.

How about running normal road tyres and having a set of snow chains in the boot to put on if the mud is really bad? Snow chains work quite well in mud.

Mike, you don't want to mention snow chains in this section........there's history!!

Thanks again for the replies...

I read that snow chains don't work too well in the mud? (googled quite a lot when I got back from that field to try and find a quick solution). Has anyone here used them in the mud? Can you get "mud chains"?

What about those coiled/folded plastic grip tracks, you put under your wheels if you get stuck. The mondeo next to me tried to use his car mats for traction and that didn't work. So I did wonder, if there was a blindingly obvious solution you could keep in the boot - not that I would have room for in the Fabia. Or would that just move you forward a bit at a time? Maybe won't work at all with 4WD?

It's re-assuring to know some of you have been through mud OK. (I note that the Octavia 1.8T 4x4 or even the Scout on the VAT free offer is a fair bit cheaper than an equivalent Yeti I am looking at and might offer similar abilities with a lot more boot space).

So then a Yeti with 4x4 will probably cope, I have the option of those expensive but highly regarded tyres if I'm really paranoid, and I need to get some training/experience driving in those conditions. Plus keep something in the boot to give me traction if I do get stuck. Things are looking up.

Has the Yeti got a more modern/better version of the 4x4 system than the Octavia?

Edit - as a sole trader although I could buy a car through the business I think I looked into it and there are some disadvantages to doing so, rather than just buying it myself. However that might be worth investigating again. I'm not VAT registered for example so no gain there.

Edited 12 April, 201016 yr by PeteVRS

Has the Yeti got a more modern/better version of the 4x4 system than the Octavia?

Hi,

both the Yeti and the FL Octavia II use the Haldex Gen IV My link, the only difference being that with the Yeti you can get the off-road function (standard on Elegance, option on S and SE 4x4) (This is part of the electronic brake system My link ). The SUK brochure has a good description of how this function works My link

Regards,

TP

Edit - as a sole trader although I could buy a car through the business I think I looked into it and there are some disadvantages to doing so, rather than just buying it myself. However that might be worth investigating again. I'm not VAT registered for example so no gain there.

Don't worry, you are not missing out. You can not claim back the VAT on cars so not being VAT registered does not matter. It is pretty much the same with leasing. You can claim back a small amount but the bulk of the VAT can not be reclaimed.

I have fitted snow tyres to my Yeti 'S' and thus I have a set of 16" Goodyear Excellence summer tyres for sale (215 60 r16 95H). They are brand new (8 delivery miles only!) and will see them go for £189 for all four including shipping. Let me know if anyone is interested. At the price they're worth buying by any S or E owner and sticking them in the garage untl you need them!

Edited 13 April, 201016 yr by Abominable

PeteVRs,

The Yeti on normal tyres will be fine for popping in and out of fields in all but the worst field conditions. Just think a bit about the car in the terrain.

E.g. Wet field with a wet greasy top layer, on a slope with the exit at the top of the hill - Always park on the slope ideally facing downhill (even if you've got to walk an extra 10m!) so you've got somewhere to easily get to and should then have enough momentum to keep going back up. Never stop at the bottom! Drive gently, off the clutch to get started if it's a torquey diesel.

Height of summer, dry ground. Any car will do. Remember the grass helps bind the surface together.

If it looks absolutely Somme-like, walk, or if you really must aim for the firm bits only!

I was in a waterlogged (thanks to the thaw) field 6 weeks ago on "standard tyres", basically wanted to park off the narrow road for the inspection so drove straight in through the gateway and stayed on the high ground by the fence, through a big deep, gloopy muddy puddle too.

Carried on with the inspection of the land which included several fields, met the grazing tenant Farmer who gruffly said, "whose is the car, what's it doing there, you'll never get out" etc, etc. Assured him it would all be fine, he didn't look convinced.

Got back to the car, reversed straight out the way I had come without a problem (admittedly if I'd driven in the field further and turned down from the fence to do a U-Turn there was potential to look stupid and not make it all the way back up). As I was back on the road putting my wellies in the boot the Farmer came past on his Quad, tooted the horn, waved cheerily "wish I had a car like yours!" and shot off down the road!!

So just be smart about how you drive in the field and it'll all be fine.

Niall

The BF Goodrich All Terrains you link to are considered the best there is. Mileage on them has been reported as immense, with really good road manners and quiet. Off road they are brilliant!! They are often mentioned in "around the world" type reports in the LR mags as brilliant. They seem to cope with everything you can throw at them, however they aren't cheap. I'd love to fit them, but have Kumho AT's which I am very happy with.

I had these tyre on my Fourtrak and they were brilliant. The they had done over 30K when theFourtrak died and still had plenty of grip. Did plenty of field work but vast majority of mileage was on tar.