I have been reading so many threads about winter tyres, both from those (like me) who have fitted them and those who usually fall into the "I've never had a problem on my normal summer tyres" Got me thinking because up until last winter I'd got by with summer tyres even in the snow. Well having owned a 4x4 Octavia and before that an Audi Quattro of course traction was always better than those with 2wd. But then I thought back to my 2wd cars. Well these were equipped with what now we would consider as high profile narrow tyres, rated for speeds a lot less than the high performance tyres specced on even base model Octavias now! I think my old Santana (Passat saloon of its day) had 155/85R13. I also think from experience that ironically cheaper summer tyres whilst never as good at what they are designed for (summer wet / dry grip) are often better in the snow than quality summer tyres that give good grip in the summer!!

I guess the upshot is a tyre cannot be good at everything and the better high performance summer tyres get, the trade off is they get worse at winter grip. Its always the high performance cars that struggle first, in my street the neighbour with an old VW Polo are getting around fine. The new Jaguar is struggling.

If I had the time and money it would have been interesting to see how switching my Scouts 225/50 R17 to normal summer 205/55 R16 tyres improved winter grip. I guess nothing as good as my winter tyres have, but I'm sure there would have been an improvement. With that in mind some of you may have 205/55 R16 as standard hence not having as much problems in the snow as say a vRS on 225/40 R18.

So if you want the best grip you have to change tyre with the seasons

Scottishscout

I quite agree, simplistically tyres like most other stuff have got too specialized.

Though I did find my 205/55/16 Bridgestones uselss, compared to the 15" Achilles or Mohawk I was used too.

Cheers

M

Agree completely. A good quality, high performance summer tyre is just about the worst thing for snow/ice, and quite ordinary cars now have what would have been an extremely high performance tyre a few years ago. My cars have got progressively more toruble in the snow as this has happened, especially the last 2 (Fabia vRS and the Leon).

Absolutely agree - and also with the advent of so called "green" tyres where the rubber is harder.

Tom

Absolutely agree - and also with the advent of so called "green" tyres where the rubber is harder.

Tom

Much of the design of todays tyres are a fashion statement and "over engineered" for the actual requirements. My old top of the range Octavia was on 195/65/r16 more than adequate for the needs of both me and the car. Newer models have far too big a tyre resulting in a hard unforgiving ride due to low profile and poor traction in wet and snow.

I fitted a set of vredestein wintrac tyres to our VRS a few weeks ago.

Today I went to a wedding in Essex & had to travel 60 miles through the snow to get back this evening through heavy snow.

I was shocked at how easy the journey was...I was passing Range Rovers! I'd say it was probably the best £800 pounds I've ever spent. Traction & breaking were simply awesome.

Bingo!

To wit to "prove" the idea that a FWD on winters will out perform a 4*4 on non winter tyres, especially the (I imagine) foot wide low profiles on the Range Rover.

Cheers

M

Perhaps this is a warning of what happens on sheet ice with summer tyres.

Had the car less than a month and with only 800 miles on her. The annoying thing is that i have got a set of winter tyres and steelies on order. 10 mph into a 4x4!

Take care out there people, now time to lose 2 yr ncb and £750 excess

And here it was in all it's glory!

Perhaps this is a warning of what happens on sheet ice with summer tyres.

Had the car less than a month and with only 800 miles on her. The annoying thing is that i have got a set of winter tyres and steelies on order. 10 mph into a 4x4!

Take care out there people, now time to lose 2 yr ncb and £750 excess

Ouch.

Feel for you, I had mine less than 2 weeks before I pranged it last winter...

Edited 19 December, 201015 yr by Raglits

Bummer !!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys, i can't believe the woman i hit is claiming whiplash!!

I mean all it did was barely bump her and it did the damage hitting her spare wheel on the back of the 4x4. It just lost no speed at all on the brakes and slid for probably about 100m. I know if the winter tyres were on it would have stopped. So far its looking at a new bonnet, bumper and grill. Luckily no wing damage or head lights. Just crippled me now financially for xmas.

Tried ringing the insurance company and they had an automated message to ring back within 48hrs due to the high demand of phone calls! So i'm sure im not alone in this weather madness!

Bad luck :'(

Don't worry about the whiplash claim. Just ignore it and your insurance company will sort it out. The same thing happened to me. It's just ambulance chasers trying to make a quick buck. No wonder insurance is so high with all these rip-off merchants driving up claims.

Looks like you were mm's from knocking the xenon headlight.

Unlucky and lucky at the same time :S

Thread resurection!

I've had a few accidents in my time with 2 resulting in whiplash. Once was a nasty pile up being shunted from all angles but the worst was driving a 4x4 with a spare wheel on back. I was static & the guy who hit me did so from a standing start about 6 foot behind me so can't have been going that fast. As the rear door was reinforced to take the spare wheel there was no crumple zone at the rear & the jolt was unbelievable - I imagine like being kicked in the back by a horse. Damage to the other car was bad, possible write off. Plastic wheel cover on mine! I had back & neck issues after that for about 4 years. My initial reaction was to jump out of the car to make sure the other party was alright but within 10 minutes I was struggling to move myself.

I've only had 3 cars but of them by a country mile the best in the snow was my first. Hyundai Pony 1.5, no abs, no driver aids, 13" wheels with narrow balloons for tyres that were of the budget variety (I was a poor student at the time )

y 306 again was very good but winter performance dropped massively when I went from the 13" wheels to the wider 15" wheels off of the XSi version.

My Octavia on the other hand is a death trap and this year I made the decision to get some winter rubber for it. Haven't really had any slippery conditions this year yet but it can't be any worse than it was.

these " whiplash" claims suceed because its cheaper for the insurance company to pay out than to take it to court and its immpossible to prove or disprove and can be faked easily by reading a book anway why should they worry they will get the money back from your increased insurance. sorry for you though

these " whiplash" claims suceed because its cheaper for the insurance company to pay out than to take it to court and its immpossible to prove or disprove and can be faked easily by reading a book anway why should they worry they will get the money back from your increased insurance. sorry for you though

Exactly this. It is a complete joke :(

I heard that there is research going on that uses the monitoring of nerve impulses to show whether the person is actually experiencing pain rather than having to rely on "Oh y£s Doctor, it r£ally hurt$"

Hopefully then it will be up to the claimant to prove that they are suffering whiplash.

Fully agree, in the past I always thought winter tyres in the uk was a bit of a joke, with a change of jobs last year I now manage a fleet of John Lewis lorries and work 2 pm – 10pm so the possibilities of going out in bad weather is very high.

The investment in a set of wheels and tyres paid for its self last year as my VRS went out in some shocking weather with a driver who thinks he is a rally driver.

Perhaps this is a warning of what happens on sheet ice with summer tyres.

Had the car less than a month and with only 800 miles on her. The annoying thing is that i have got a set of winter tyres and steelies on order. 10 mph into a 4x4!

Take care out there people, now time to lose 2 yr ncb and £750 excess

And here it was in all it's glory!

That was unlucky, luckier than the BMW I saw during the week that had gone at speed through a hedgerow (backwards) though . . .

If it snows a bit, or is icy, I drive more slowly than in normal conditions. I bet the time I have 'lost' is less than the time taken to change 4 wheels!

If it snows lots you can only drive as fast as the slowest. So not a lot to gain.

If you crash due to ice or snow, you are driving too fast for the conditions..

No point in fitting winter tyres in SE England IMHO.

Edited 18 December, 201114 yr by bucksoctavia

You drive more slowly, meaning us with winter tires have to slow down because of you.

If it snows, you can drive as fast as being stuck behind you on summer tires, so waste of time for you and others.

If you crash due to ice and snow, it does not necessarily mean you are driving too fast, it could mean your summer tires have lost grip on a sheet of ice, some person like you is sliding all over the road and hitting you, etc etc.

No point in listening to this kind of advice, all who can afford should get winter tires, all who can't, use public transport on bad days.

Well said

Those who say they dont need them have never tried them

If you cant afford them, fair enough..Get the bus

If you can..Whats stopping you?

A fascinating thread .

Years ago in the Chilterns , with many steep hills , our varied collection of cars generally coped quite well if driven carefully on snow ( but not ice ) . Occasionally the best answer was to reverse FWD cars up hills , with the weight on the driving wheels - probably much frowned upon these days . With no traction or brake aids one has to conclude that tyre size played a big part . It also answers the question as to why my Mk1 Octavia 4*4 was so much more relaxing and fun in snow than my Scout , both on summer tyres , despite the technological advances ,often driven by looks and added value " over engineering " .

Our problem here in N Wales is that I live on an estuary in N Wales where , until the last 2 years , never even suffered from a frost in Winter and yet , if we need to travel to the North coast have to drive over the Crimea pass at about 1500ft which is often snow bound .

Winter tyres are not really an option for all and buses and trains are often not available in rural areas , whereas narrower tyres , would be cheaper and would provide a far better ride . We could then afford to have a legal limit for tyre tread depth of 3mm which would be far safer for twelve months of the year .

Steve W

I'm afraid youre falling into the trap that most people fall into...

Confusing the use of winter tyres with snow conditions and not with very cold and icey ones

Winter tyres are not just for snow.

They are designed to give much better grip in cold weather than conventional tyres will

Stopping distances are seriously reduced and there is more grip on sheet ice as well.

The tyre width is only a factor in snow, not on ice

In short the rubber stays softer in temperatures lower than 7C

The tyre pattern is also different with stipes that aid grip in snowy conditions

I heard recently, it might have been a MyTyres email, that a British tyre association or something tested winter tyres against summer tyres stopping from 60mph at 5 degrees C. The winter tyres stopped 5m shorter than the summer tyres.

Winter tyres have a different compound, not necessarily softer, from summer tyres. They also last quite well. Ok not all do, but the better quality ones I think last similar to summer tyres.

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