Hi

I've now owned my 2.0 TDI Yeti 4x4 for just under a year. It's a fantastic vehicle and cannot really fault it in any way. I've just covered over 10000 miles but it's never been tested in the snow. I'm thinking of fitting winter tyres but would appreciate any comments on the normal dunlops and how they performed on snow and ice.

I coped with the Dunlops, but looking at where you are I would say go winters!

As Graham said - you should get about a lot better having 4X4.

I really strugled in the 2 snowy winters we had with the Dunlop summer tyres (2WD) so I bought a set of Falken Eurowinter tyres and the Yeti was able to drive from a standstill up the snow covered hills around here, braking was fantastic too. Worth investing in a set of winters in my opinion.

looking at where you are I would say go winters!

+1

Good summer tyre , good wear (not a Dunlop strong point in the past), noise average to good, but nothing special on snow/ice.

I am not a great fan of the Dunlops on Yetis - as Kibby says, they are fine as a summer/fair weather tyre, but once you get on a muddy track or on snow/ice, they are not much use. Considering the Yeti is designed to have good off-road ability, it seems a silly tyre to fit as standard. I ran Hankook winter tyres on my 140 4x4 Yeti last wnter, and they coped really well on the few days of snow that we had here in East Anglia. I made the mistake of swtiching back to the Dunlops before we headed off to Snowdonia in the week before Easter, only to get caught out by a blizzard on the Llanberis pass - the Yeti got through OK (unlike various BMWs, Audis etc. on their supercool low profile wheels that slithered to a halt in front of us- we had to help push a couple of them back onto the road), but the Dunlop were struggling for grip a few times, when I am sure the Hankooks would have sailed through the slush and snow. I think when the Dunlops are worn down (not much wear on them yet after 10,000 miles), I wil put Goodyear 4 seasons on the 17 inch alloys, as a good all-round compromise

Pete

I live up here in the far north of Scotland and have had my Yeti 140 Tdi 4x4 for coming 3 years.In my experience the behaviour of Dunlops in anything other than minor snow cover is pretty poor-- I would say its not only Dunlop but any other tyre of a similar pattern-- youve only got to look at the tread pattern to see that they cant possibly have good grip in snowy conditions. From october onwards I fit 16" steels with Wintrac Extremes and the grip difference is incredible. OK its a bit of an initial investment but your Dunlops will last longer and if you intend to keep your Yeti for a few years its well worth it

I did the winter before last on the standard tyres and got on ok, but while that was far better than the FWD Avensis I had before it was still slippery in places, notably trying to slow down while descending a hill.

Last winter I had winter tyres on, and while the snow wasn't anything like as bad the whole car felt much better attached to the road - on that basis I think the winter tyres are well worth it. Also they make the car amusingly bouncy compared to the Dunlops.

Thanks everyone for replying. Looks like I'll be getting 16" wheels and winter tyres.

Looks like I'll be getting 16" wheels and winter tyres.

Good choice!