Decided to fit the winter wheels today.

I have Avon Ice Touring ST on 16 x 7 steel rims.

Summer alloys are now cleaned and polished and stones picked out of treads.

If anyone is interested remaining tread depth after 9,500 miles is 5mm front and 6mm rear.

I bought some wheeltrims off ebay for £24, about 25% of the cost of Skoda trims. The Skoda centre stickers are a bit tacky so I might get some better ones.

John

John,

Your thread wear fits my experience exactly. I switched them front to back and expect another 15-20,000 km till they need to be replaced.

Winter rubber will have to wait another month or so over here - although we do expect some frost in the morning.

John,

Your thread wear fits my experience exactly. I switched them front to back and expect another 15-20,000 km till they need to be replaced.

Winter rubber will have to wait another month or so over here - although we do expect some frost in the morning.

I know it's early but we've had a couple of days this week when the temperature has been down to 3.5 degrees and as it was good weather today I thought I'd do the job. In fact our cars were icy this morning.

It gave me a chance to use my new electric impact wrench as well!

I also thought I'd take the opportunity to get the alloys off the car and cleaned before the authorities start to grit/salt the roads.

John

I have my wheels now, just no vehicle to put them on. I went for Continental WinterContact TS810. Not quite sure what I'm doing yet re covering up the nuts/wheels yet.

Good to see you have used some of the ebay ones. I take it they aren't genuine Skoda ones, just some of the ones they sell with the skoda stickers, which would do the job nicely, and save lots of money. £114 for 4 Rif ones from Skoda.

You can pick up some skoda wheel badges on ebay for around a tenner which would look better.

Mike

I have my wheels now, just no vehicle to put them on. I went for Continental WinterContact TS810. Not quite sure what I'm doing yet re covering up the nuts/wheels yet.

Good to see you have used some of the ebay ones. I take it they aren't genuine Skoda ones, just some of the ones they sell with the skoda stickers, which would do the job nicely, and save lots of money. £114 for 4 Rif ones from Skoda.

You can pick up some skoda wheel badges on ebay for around a tenner which would look better.

Mike

You're right Mike, just ebay cheapies with naff stcikers. They'll do the job though.

John

I've got a set to fit to my superb ii 4x4 estate, but as I wanted to keep the look of the car, I acquired OEM 18" wheels and fitted Vredestine wintrac's. (225/40/18)

Will wait until mid November to fit me thinks

Al.

Coincedentally I fitted my winter wheels today also (16" steelies with Continentals Viking Snowtech 2's in 205/55 fitment). They certainly seem to make the car look a little less classy without any wheel trims in place so I think I'll take a look at these next. Thanks for the photos

Hi John,

those e-bay trims look pretty OK to me, ideal for winter driving What size tyres are you running; 205/55 :wonder:

Will wait a bit longer before switching myself; we've not had any frost here yet, which is were the Goodyears start to let themselves down (frost, ice & snow ).

Regards,

TP

Hi John,

those e-bay trims look pretty OK to me, ideal for winter driving What size tyres are you running; 205/55 :wonder:

Will wait a bit longer before switching myself; we've not had any frost here yet, which is were the Goodyears start to let themselves down (frost, ice & snow ).

Regards,

TP

Hi TP.

No the tyres are the 215/55-16s as on my Passat. Since my insurers don't see winter tyre fitment as a modification or performace enhancement and the 215/55-16 is actually a closer match to the standard 17 inch wheels according to the tyre size calculator, I'm taking the handbook as a guide rather than mandatory.

The 215/55s seem to run OK and there are no clearance problems that I can see.

John

Hi TP.

No the tyres are the 215/55-16s as on my Passat. Since my insurers don't see winter tyre fitment as a modification or performace enhancement and the 215/55-16 is actually a closer match to the standard 17 inch wheels according to the tyre size calculator, I'm taking the handbook as a guide rather than mandatory.

The 215/55s seem to run OK and there are no clearance problems that I can see.

John

Thanks John,

now you mention I've remebered. Bit fuzzy at the moment, had a some sort of cold for over two weeks now and the darn thing won't budge :S

Regards,

TP

Decided to fit the winter wheels today.

I have Avon Ice Touring ST on 16 x 7 steel rims.

Summer alloys are now cleaned and polished and stones picked out of treads.

If anyone is interested remaining tread depth after 9,500 miles is 5mm front and 6mm rear.

I bought some wheeltrims off ebay for £24, about 25% of the cost of Skoda trims. The Skoda centre stickers are a bit tacky so I might get some better ones.

John

Thanks John for the trims picture, I've just ordered a set of these for my Continental WinterContact TS 830's on 16 x 7 steel rims

Cheers

JP

What sort of prices are you all paying for your winter wheels/tyres? Any recommendations?

I know that there have been similar threads previously, but the general opinion was that prices were rapidly increasing as the colder weather got nearer.

Are you buying wheels & tyres as sets, or separately & having a tyre dealer fit 'em?

Skoda charge about £45 per steel wheel. Tyres depend on choice. You can pay as little as £50 each up to nearly £200 depending on make etc. I paid £112 fitted per tyre which I thought was reasonable for continental. Bought tyres from local store as cheaper than mytyres.

Mike

I've plumped for these after running a search on eBay for about a month or so, hoping for genuine OEM 16" trims. But they never come up as a set of 4 or are suitably discounted from dealer prices when they come up as singles. £30 inc postage isn't too bad. Better not mess up putting the stickers on!!

So...

Steel Wheels of've the bay - £1.70

"Natty" Trims - £30

4 x Cooper Weathermasters - £352 (from the local dealer who will store the alloys F.O.C. too)

Total - £384

Making the Scout a winter weapon - priceless.

Skoda charge about £45 per steel wheel. Tyres depend on choice. You can pay as little as £50 each up to nearly £200 depending on make etc. I paid £112 fitted per tyre which I thought was reasonable for continental. Bought tyres from local store as cheaper than mytyres.

Mike

Not sure if you are saying £112 was the total cost per tyre, including wheel? Which would be very good. My Continental WinterContact TS 830's on steel wheels cost £147 each from mytyres on special the other day, and of course delivery is £40 extra.

JP

Not sure if you are saying £112 was the total cost per tyre, including wheel? Which would be very good. My Continental WinterContact TS 830's on steel wheels cost £147 each from mytyres on special the other day, and of course delivery is £40 extra.

JP

No, tyres fitted only. Wheels extra from Skoda. Cost the same as you in total.

Mike

Not sure if you are saying £112 was the total cost per tyre, including wheel? Which would be very good. My Continental WinterContact TS 830's on steel wheels cost £147 each from mytyres on special the other day, and of course delivery is £40 extra.

JP

I originally ordered 7Jx16" steel wheels with 215/60 x 16" Vredestein Wintrac Extreme 99H XL from Mytyres (by credit card) and they confirmed the order. Three days later they requested I fax of utility bill to confirm my identity for data protection or pay by direct transfer to a bank.

I contacted their call centre (not a good experience at all). The wheel tyre combination had by then disappeared from their website. I think this was a delay tactic as they would not confirm stock or delivery times unless I paid. Never had such problems with a web order before and having looked at reviews for them on the web many other people seem to have has similar issues. I think this is because it is a call centre for UK dealing for a German company and I am not sure they are actually based in the UK either.

I found another supplier (Tyremen) and the same tyre was approximately £16 cheaper than Mytyres plus they also do alloy wheel and winter tyre deals.

In the end I got four 7Jx16 alloys (112x5x57 with ET45 as per the Plummer`s guide) fitted with Vdredestein Wintrac Extreme XL tyres (99H). They were delivered as promised in two working days by City Link as half the delivery price of Mytyres.

Tyremen are based at Hull and I found them extremely good to deal with (Phillip). Good response to both e-mail and telephone. Their website also has the option to show alloys on different models and colours of cars including the Yeti which is usefull in deciding how they would look.

In the end I paid £98 more but I did get good quality CMS alloys as opposed to steel rims from Mytyres. If I had opted for steel rims then wheel trims would have been added to the price so differential is much less. (Actually would have cost more if I had bought OEM Skoda Rif trims).

Regards,

Del.

I originally ordered 7Jx16" steel wheels with 215/60 x 16" Vredestein Wintrac Extreme 99H XL from Mytyres (by credit card) and they confirmed the order. Three days later they requested I fax of utility bill to confirm my identity for data protection or pay by direct transfer to a bank.

I contacted their call centre (not a good experience at all). The wheel tyre combination had by then disappeared from their website. I think this was a delay tactic as they would not confirm stock or delivery times unless I paid. Never had such problems with a web order before and having looked at reviews for them on the web many other people seem to have has similar issues. I think this is because it is a call centre for UK dealing for a German company and I am not sure they are actually based in the UK either.

I found another supplier (Tyremen) and the same tyre was approximately £16 cheaper than Mytyres plus they also do alloy wheel and winter tyre deals.

In the end I got four 7Jx16 alloys (112x5x57 with ET45 as per the Plummer`s guide) fitted with Vdredestein Wintrac Extreme XL tyres (99H). They were delivered as promised in two working days by City Link as half the delivery price of Mytyres.

Tyremen are based at Hull and I found them extremely good to deal with (Phillip). Good response to both e-mail and telephone. Their website also has the option to show alloys on different models and colours of cars including the Yeti which is usefull in deciding how they would look.

In the end I paid £98 more but I did get good quality CMS alloys as opposed to steel rims from Mytyres. If I had opted for steel rims then wheel trims would have been added to the price so differential is much less. (Actually would have cost more if I had bought OEM Skoda Rif trims).

Regards,

Del.

I paid by paypal, I got shipping notification and tracking numbers the next day as the the tires/wheels apparently are shipped individually, so might not arrive together. I did speak to the contact centre before placing the order and the girl was German and efficient. Nice to have the choice of alloy wheels, but for winter use I think I prefer the steel option. I've noticed that prices change both up and down daily on mytyres, as they must shift huge numbers of tyres. The Continentals were down around £50.00 each on a 'special' the day I ordered, so they must have acquired a large quantity of them at a good unit price.

Cheers,

JP

I've also fitted my winter tyres and tried them in deep mud. They are awesome. I have never got bogged down once, only problem now is how to fit them to my steel rims.