Given the amount of snow, ice and general freezing conditions over the past 12 months i was thinking about the easiest and most cost effective way to keep the car on the road and negotiate some hazardous side roads safely. Major roads are fine, so chains and socks have been dismissed.

My thinking is whether it would be sensible to just buy 2 new winter tyres of the same size as the current summer tyres and get them fitted on the front wheels and then get them swapped back in the spring.

Is this practical (i.e. having two summer tyres on the rear and winter tyres on the front)?

Edited 1 December, 201015 yr by Shroud

Given the amount of snow, ice and general freezing conditions over the past 12 months i was thinking about the easiest and most cost effective way to keep the car on the road and negotiate some hazardous side roads safely. Major roads are fine, so chains and socks have been dismissed.

My thinking is whether it would be sensible to just buy 2 new winter tyres of the same size as the current summer tyres and get them fitted on the front wheels and then get them swapped back in the spring.

Is this practical (i.e. having two summer tyres on the rear and winter tyres on the front)?

Nope, it's not practical or sensible; the arse end will overtake the front, and that's bad news. Fit four or just keep the summer tyres on (I'm an advocate of winter tyres though). You don't want vastly different levels of grip front to rear.

I was going to get 4 for mine... just need to decide what winter tyres are best placed for me.... It makes sense to replace all 4, otherwise all sorts of dodgy things will occur (oh, hello tree/hedge/house/etc )

That is what in thought might be the case, but having never looked into them before, just thought i'd check.

I had noted elsewhere that with respect to snowsocks it is suggested you CAN just put them on the front wheels if you have a FWD car, which i didn't think would have been too much different in principle to putting two winter tyres on the front?

Winter tyres are likely to set me back over £400, so not really a cheap option. Just so hard to predict how much genuine use i will get from them once the current cold snap moves on.

That is what in thought might be the case, but having never looked into them before, just thought i'd check.

I had noted elsewhere that with respect to snowsocks it is suggested you CAN just put them on the front wheels if you have a FWD car, which i didn't think would have been too much different in principle to putting two winter tyres on the front?

Winter tyres are likely to set me back over £400, so not really a cheap option. Just so hard to predict how much genuine use i will get from them once the current cold snap moves on.

I figured that come colder months (say November) you stick on your winters and then run with them till the weather gets warmer and you switch back to summers. The cost of another set of alloys/steels very quickly covers the refitting/change costs of the tyres.

come join the hunt for 16' steelies!

come join the hunt for 16' steelies!

I was just going to use my Elegance alloys, and now have some L&K alloys to use for my summer tyres (once I clean them up a bit)

come join the hunt for 16' steelies!

Haha I have some sexual ones! Got some mint 16x6.5" VW steels and powdercoated them a nice gloss black. They look lovely now.

Only problem is that they are wrapped up in the corner of my bedroom, and not on the car!!

I can't find any decent 205/55R16 winter tyres for my car anywhere. I had planned on getting the Kumho KW27's at £50 a corner, but pretty much all winter tyres are out of stock now. Only the expensive and unpopular ones left now! Not much you can do about it. The UK sucks at winter. Zero supply chain for winter tyres.

I think they should make them a legal requirement on snow covered roads, like they do in Austria. It's a sensible approach. If you live on the motorway, then you don't need them really, but any covered lanes and it's compulsory.

I've had these wheels over a year now, and still not managed to get any rubber on them! I'm tempted to give up!

Might have to buy some tyres in Austria over the summer....

Haha I have some sexual ones! Got some mint 16x6.5" VW steels and powdercoated them a nice gloss black. They look lovely now.

Only problem is that they are wrapped up in the corner of my bedroom, and not on the car!!

I can't find any decent 205/55R16 winter tyres for my car anywhere. I had planned on getting the Kumho KW27's at £50 a corner, but pretty much all winter tyres are out of stock now. Only the expensive and unpopular ones left now! Not much you can do about it. The UK sucks at winter. Zero supply chain for winter tyres.

I think they should make them a legal requirement on snow covered roads, like they do in Austria. It's a sensible approach. If you live on the motorway, then you don't need them really, but any covered lanes and it's compulsory.

I've had these wheels over a year now, and still not managed to get any rubber on them! I'm tempted to give up!

Might have to buy some tyres in Austria over the summer....

I use 'All Weather' tyres on my VRS estate (with hatchback 17's). They were crap in the summer, but now with the wet weather and icey roads they make complete sense! They grip nearly as well in wet as they did in the dry!

come join the hunt for 16' steelies!

Not easy. My extended line of thought is to buy 4 winter tyres as direct replacements onto my VRS alloys, and then spend the next 3-4 months waiting to pick up a cheap(er) 2nd set of alloys for spring.

That way, all i need to do is find some decently priced winter tyres in stock

I'm looking for winter tyres can anyone help on locating some reasonably priced ones? Missed out on a set of riken's last week for £250 due to waiting to get my wheels first '

I was wanting some KW27s but they don't seem to be easy to find at the moment :-(

I'm looking for winter tyres can anyone help on locating some reasonably priced ones? Missed out on a set of riken's last week for £250 due to waiting to get my wheels first '

Not much about now I'm afraid.

Keep checking Camskill and BlackCircles websites, as they are the main online retailers. Other than that, ring round some indies and try and find some.

I've given up! I've resorted to leg power.

Haha I have some sexual ones! Got some mint 16x6.5" VW steels and powdercoated them a nice gloss black. They look lovely now.

Only problem is that they are wrapped up in the corner of my bedroom, and not on the car!!

I can't find any decent 205/55R16 winter tyres for my car anywhere. I had planned on getting the Kumho KW27's at £50 a corner, but pretty much all winter tyres are out of stock now. Only the expensive and unpopular ones left now! Not much you can do about it. The UK sucks at winter. Zero supply chain for winter tyres.

I think they should make them a legal requirement on snow covered roads, like they do in Austria. It's a sensible approach. If you live on the motorway, then you don't need them really, but any covered lanes and it's compulsory.

I've had these wheels over a year now, and still not managed to get any rubber on them! I'm tempted to give up!

Might have to buy some tyres in Austria over the summer....

I am on the hunt for some but I dont think they will be much use at the moment as the car is under 2 feet of snow! :S

Try Mytyres.co.uk

I think that they are actually a German company and the tyres come from Europe rather than just what ever is left in the UK. I got a pair of Vredestein Quatrac 3s for SWMBOs Fabia and they were despatched from Germany. Delivery was free and they took less than a week to arrive, but that was before the snow arrived, so they may take longer now.

My tyres have kuhmos in stock at the moment. I'm looking at the Kelly st's

I have been having a battle to get mine. I have a set of 4 steels waiting (15's), but the tyres have been a pain to get hold of. Hopefully 3rd time lucky!

My tyres have kuhmos in stock at the moment. I'm looking at the Kelly st's

Do you have a Tyre Exchange near you?

The one in Middlesbrough is a Vredestein agent and that's where I got the ones for my Octy from.

Do you have a Tyre Exchange near you?

The one in Middlesbrough is a Vredestein agent and that's where I got the ones for my Octy from.

Never heard of them so i don't think so lol

Decided to buy myself some tyre socks, as at £60 odd quid for a pair, they were the cheapest option and appear to be highly regarded. They won't benefit me for the current snow as they will not arrive till next week, but at least next time i'll be ready.

The winter tyres option would have been a better longer term solution, but it would have cost nearly £500 for 4 decent tyres from mytyres, which is not an affordable solution at this time of year. :|

I'm planning to go with the cheaper solution of using two winters on the front and keep my regular tyres on the back. Not ideal but is still legal and I know a number of people who do this every year without problems.

My plan is to get a second spare steel wheel to match the 16" spare in my vRS estate and then fit winter tyres to this and the existing spare wheel. I'll keep one winter wheel in the boot as a spare wheel duing the warmer months (still better than the space saver that most cars provide) and so will only have to store one wheel in the garage at any time.

The only problem is that I don't know where to source a spare wheel to match the existing one (width and offset). Can anyone tell me the size of the spare in an octy vrs estate and if this is just the standard VW 16" 5x100? If so, I guess I just need ot find a 16" wheel from a mk4 golf or the like.

Cheers,

iep

What we need is a group buy of winter tyres. Any of the decent retailers would sit up if we approached them with an order for 200 tyres!

Just ordered off mytyres.co.uk yesterday morning.

As mentioned in an earlier post, they are German outfit. They were dispatched this morning so expect them sometime next week. Works out 75 quid a corner inc del and fitting. Should have done it a few weeks ago when prices alot lower. BTW you can specify delivery redirection to a local tyre fitter of your choice when ordering from mytyres,which wasn't apparent until i was actually placing the order.

I just ordered some Cooper weathermasters, £287 delivered, my friendly mechanic's gonna fit them for £20. So i'm gonna have a full set of 16" winter wheels inc alloys for £347 which ain't too bad

Way gonna use mytyres but i don't really want to wait any longer so used click on tyres who just had a delivery today, they are gonna try and send them out today and the latest i'll have them is on tuesday

Edited 3 December, 201015 yr by Raf_75

Just been reading the posts. I have an Octavia Combi 1.8T 4x4. I've fitted my car with winter tyres and can say that it is the best thing that I did this winter. I bought a set of Audi A3 15" alloys with new tyres from ebay for £48. Looked at getting steel ones but couldn't find a cheap set at all. I also used Mytyres.co.uk to buy a set of Dunlop Winter Sport 3D 195/65/R15 cost me £50.20 each two weeks ago. Bought them on the Friday they were shipped from Germany and arrived on the Monday morning. Local dealer was looking at a week to get the tyres. Just looked on Mytyres and the tyres are now £70.90 ouch...talk about price fluctuation. I used the german ADAC winter tyre test to chose my winter tires and came out with the Dunlops. Other cost effective ones are the Semperit Speed grip £64.00 but you need to pay for fitting. Local tyre depot charged me £40 for fitting. So all in 4 winter tyres on alloys cost me a shade under £290.

I'd been considering winter tyres for this car as was running summer tyres and as the problems I'd had with previous cars and the snow where I live I thought winter tyres or all season tyres were the thing to have. I had the same problem as most people local tyre dealers didn't have the selection or the stock.

I'd spent some time in Germany in previous years and my hire car was fitted with winter tyres and not once did I get stuck and that was driving a two wheel fwd car. Last year I had Kumho all season tyres fitted to a Ford Focus and they allowed me to get home where others were faltering.

This year it's not been as bad with the snow but ice is horrendous on the side roads. The difference these winter tyres make when driving on ice is phenomenal. Where as the ABS would be going mad the extra grip means minimal ABS intervention and loads more control.