A number of weeks ago, I asked if any members had any specific comments about the use of winter tyres as opposed to summers on fields, tracks etc.

The reason was that I am a point to point enthusiast and often have to reach and then park on fields on slopes for the event in December- March of the year.

Little feedback then but as winter tyres are now in vogue perhaps there's more experiences out there.

The concern is that I've changed my Audi A4 Quattro for an L&K Octavia TSI but have NOKIAN winters on now.

Do you think they'll compensate for the loss of AWD on sloppy surfaces in the cold.

Yes they are better. Mainly due to the chunkier tread. How much better will depend on your exact circumstances. But not better than 4wd.

Winter tyres have a different compound and grip pattern that work best below about 7^oc for normal road surfaces - they will not be any better on mud, grass or tracks etc. they also have more sipes to help get rid of water and slush.

My other "car" is a Land Rover. You basically have a choice of road tyres, all terrain tyres or mud tyres. Winter tyres are separate altogether and resemble road tyres. Mud tyres are knobbly things that are awful on road, road tyres are generally quite poor on off-road situations (although more capable than you may think). I've run mine on all terrains for years which are mixture of both road and muds.

Chappers I don't think sips work by getting rid of water and ice, don't sips work by opening up and causing a suction to get grip. I remember reading years ago about how they came about. Think it was a slaughter man that invented them as the floor at his work was frozen so he cut the ( sips ) into the soles of his boots, and there named after him. Could be wrong

I have all seasons M&S (Mud & Snow) so I assume they would have some benefit on mud over summers since they say it on them. Don't fancy trying them on mud though it makes the car dirty!

Probably depends on the tread pattern as much as anything else. The Scenic is wearing Falken Euro Winters that effectively have a road tyre tread pattern. My Scout is on Cooper Weather Masters with a much more aggressive pattern. I have found them to be very good in Mud BTW I don't seem to be able to insert new lines with the Return key anymore (IE10 Desktop Windows 8) so apologise for it looking weird! Niall

I have all seasons M&S (Mud & Snow) so I assume they would have some benefit on mud over summers since they say it on them. Don't fancy trying them on mud though it makes the car dirty!

I think the 'M&S' marking is German for 'Slush & Snow' (Matsch und Schnee) and has no bearing to any performance advantage in mud.

Edit 10/12/2012: Seems like I was incorrect, sorry about that. Although I was sure I'd read/been told that M+S was German for 'Slush and Snow' I can find nothing other than 'Mud and Snow', even when looking on tyre manufacturers websites.

However, I agree with Niall that tread pattern probably has more of an effect than the lower temperature compound that winter tyres are made of, and if winter tyres have a more open and deeper tread pattern than summer tyres they must be better, although not as good as a specialist off-road tyre.

The block pattern means they will probably be better than a 4x4 car wearing normal summer road tyres.

Of course a 4x4 with proper tyres would be better still.

Guys, M+S markings on a tyre (pretty much all winter and all-season tyres are M&S,M+S etc) means they have a minimum void area throughout the tread and open grooves of a minimum width through the shoulder blocks.

These make them far better in mud and grass than summer performance or economy tyres and the like which don't have as open tread pattern, especially on the corners.

Chappers, using your rating system, winter tyres are closer to all-terrain than road (highway terrain) tyres. All terrains are generally great on sand and gravel and okay in snow.

Vredstein Snowtrac3 have a very open tractor like tread pattern

Chappers, using your rating system, winter tyres are closer to all-terrain than road (highway terrain) tyres. All terrains are generally great on sand and gravel and okay in snow.

That was kind of my point. The all-terrain tyres fitted to my Landy are great on greenlanes, tracks, gravel etc and are actually very good in snow (they are M+S rated and have a snowflake logo which I think is something to do with North America/Canada), they are not great in mud though as the tread blocks get clagged up very easily - which is a problem that the OP will likely to get if he is on wet/soggy fields over winter. There are times that my Landy will struggle. That said, the A4 Quattro is not known for it's off-road prowess as the system is designed for on-road use, so it may well be that a two-wheel drive vehicle driven properly will be almost as capable as the A4 was.

At the end of the day, realistically, when was the last time that anyone on here really got stuck in a 2wd car?

Thanks for contributions which were very constructive. I get some reassurance that cold weather tyres would be of some use in overcoming wet grass, puddles and worn surfaces. Ice and snow are not problems because horses would not be racing and the event would be off!!

In answer to Chappers I was once badly stuck at one race meeting as the cars coming in had come down a wet slope wearing it away. On going back up the surface was everywhere like rice pudding and there was no choice of route to overcome this. Even Land Rovers were unable to get traction as they tried to get through a 6 feet gate.

My only way out on the level was through another gate with 6 inches of mud between stone posts - credit to the Audi Quattro as it huffed and puffed to pull its way out of the mud the gate in a nearly straight line. Ever since that day I've been wary but do agree that in a normal grassed field its usually possible to take a choice of routes across.

I also run A/T's most of the time on my solihull product, but last year I picked up a set of second hand japanese winter snow tyres for it. These are a less aggressive tread pattern, but as we all know different compound and have a lot more sipes.

It was a pretty dire snow season last year, but I did get up the mountain once. This entails driving through gravel, then mud and slush at the snowline and finally into snow.

The winter/snow tyres did far better in the mud and slush than the BFG A/T's I normally run. The more sipes and more flexible tread blocks didn't clog up with the mud. I usually fit chains on my A/T tyres to get to the same point.

Swap the L&K luxuries and get a 4x4!