Diverted on the way home to see how good they are.

Answer = very.

Very interesting... Assum your Yeti is 4WD?

Have you got steel rims, or just swapped the tyres over. Either way are you running the same sizes as the 'summers' and how long do you keep them on for - E.G November through to March or just pop em on when it snows if you have steels. If your running them throughout the winter how many miles do you estimate they'll do

Just asking because SWMBO has a seat she drives to work everyday and as she intends keeping it for at least another 3 years winters seem a sound choice. With your experience how does the car handle when it's not snowing with the winers on, e.g. in the rain, in the dry and when the temp is above 10 degrees too if you use them then. so many questions as usual.....

Cheers

Ade

Cheers for spotting my error- I meant winter tyres. I'm obviouly suffering from 'snow blindness'!

Ade,

You've dropped into the common misconception!

BF has WINTER tyres. They are not snow tyres, but are tyres specifically designed to deal with all conditions that may be found during winter months, when the average temperature is below 7 degrees. At that temperature most modern "summer" tyres start going hard and this can affect their capability.

Very interesting... Assum your Yeti is 4WD?

Have you got steel rims, or just swapped the tyres over. Either way are you running the same sizes as the 'summers' and how long do you keep them on for - E.G November through to March or just pop em on when it snows if you have steels. If your running them throughout the winter how many miles do you estimate they'll do

Just asking because SWMBO has a seat she drives to work everyday and as she intends keeping it for at least another 3 years winters seem a sound choice. With your experience how does the car handle when it's not snowing with the winers on, e.g. in the rain, in the dry and when the temp is above 10 degrees too if you use them then. so many questions as usual.....

Cheers

Ade

Hi Ade,

I've first put winter tyres on my Superb 3 years ago, and I think they are one of the best buys you can make. When I got the Yeti this year I did baulk a bit at the cost, but ended up going for steel wheels, rif wheel trims and winter tyres. In normal driving you don't notice much difference: winter tyres are a bit noisier but that's about it. In the wet they're impressive, and in the snow they shine. To give you an example, I spent much of this morning helping to push 2wd cars out of our church car park. Even 4wds on summer tyres were struggling with the sheet ice on an uphill hairpin corner out on to the lane. My 2wd Yeti was the last car to leave, and I didn't even feel the wheels spin as I left with no problems. What you do have to remember is that they don't make you invincible. You need to be sensible, not attempt any ludicrous heroics, and still treat the snow with respect. And also remember that having winter tyres won't help you if the road gets blocked by others getting stuck. I think they should be compulsory though, that's how good they are.

Hi Patrick,

Cheers for this- did you get the same sized winter tyres as the normal ones or are they thinner, plus which ones did you buy please?

The Altea isn't bad in the snow TBF with the 1.9 TD lump over the front wheels and the low down grunt of the PD engine. SWMBO uses it for work and Travelling into Brum from Worcerstershire the roads she has to use to get to work can be treacherous as there's a reasonable difference in the height above sea level between the two- She's a teacher so if the school is open she doesn't have the benefit of being able to book the day off so invariably has to give it a go, which she did on Friday only for the school to close at lunchtime.

Any advice will be gratefully recieved

Hi Ade,

My winter tyres are the Hankook I*Cept Evos and they are narrower than the summer tyres: 215/60 R16 as opposed to 225/55 R17 for the summers, hence the steel wheels. On the Superb I had the same size winters and summers - the winters were Marangonis. Like summer tyres you will probably get better performance from "proper" brands rather than budget tyres, but even with the budget tyres I've used the difference is remarkable.

Hope that helps

Very interesting... Assum your Yeti is 4WD?

Have you got steel rims, or just swapped the tyres over. Either way are you running the same sizes as the 'summers' and how long do you keep them on for - E.G November through to March or just pop em on when it snows if you have steels. If your running them throughout the winter how many miles do you estimate they'll do

Hi, yes my Yeti is a manual 4x4 model.

I bought a 2nd set of alloys for my winter tyres, which is a bit of a frivilous expense, but I like how they look.

There is a special edition Yeti which comes on dark grey alloys with a diamond cut face, so I went for those as I think they look good.

I am running the same tread width as the summer tyres, 225. But I went up a little with the sidewall from a 55 to a 60 profile, which is biggest I could fit before rubbing. Mainly because it gives a little more clearance and I wanted something that filled the arches a bit more.

I'll do about 25k miles per year in the Yeti.

The winter tyres go on when it looks like it's going to be 5c or less for a few days (around late November) and come off when the worst of the weather has gone, so I'm thinking late Feb or March. I usually do between 7k and 8k miles on them.

This is the third year I've had winter tyres on various vehicles.

Ade

When you put then on depends where you are. I tend to put them on when temps drop below 7 consistently, normally at the start of October, and then keep them on til April. We've had snow in early April every year since I got them

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Patrick/Richard,

Thanks for the info-this is really helpful to me. Think I'll be looking to get a set of steels and put them on those, rather than mess about having them taken off/put back on etc as I can easily stick the spares in my garage (plus if the weather went really mad it's easy to swap them back again). Interesting comments from Patrick re premium vs budget, which reflects what the which reports said overall about budget winter tyres compared to 'normal' ones. What is also intesting is (according to which below) the price comparison between the top and bottom isn't that great, which makes the case for the premium tyres stronger I guess.

Dom,

I'm a southern softie compared to you guys so probably as per Richard I'd probabaly be putting them on November time, but thanks for the reply as it helps identify when the best time to swap them over is

cheers

Ade

Unfortunately, the Avon Ice Touring winter tyres that several of us have fitted don't seem to appear in the various comparisons. I'm guessing that they'll end up somewhere in the middle of the table, but I really don't know and wish they were included.

Don't forget that for the Yeti, you need to buy XL (extra load) tyres with a 94 to 99 load rating because of the vehicle's weight.

Edited 20 January, 201313 yr by speedsport

Unfortunately, the Avon Ice Touring winter tyres that several of us have fitted don't seem to appear in the various comparisons. I'm guessing that they'll end up somewhere in the middle of the table, but I really don't know and wish they were included.

Don't forget that for the Yeti, you need to buy XL (extra load) tyres with a 94 to 99 load rating because of the vehicle's weight.

The Avon Ice Touring ST appeared in a winter tyre test by Touring Club Schweiz in 2009.

At the time, it was the best of all the 18 winter tyres tested for comfort and noise, and very good (not quite up with the best) in wet-road adhesion and braking. Its dry-road adhesion and braking, on the other hand, came 17th out of 18 and so did its snow performance. Its wear rate was a lot worse than any other tyre tested, even the East Asian junk. In the final scoring it came 15th out of 18, where two of the tyres below it were East Asian, hence not serious contenders, so effectively it came bottom of the Western tyres bar one.

This was against opposition like the Goodyear UltraGrip 7+, the Conti TS830, the Michelin Alpin PA3 - in other words, tyres that are old now. The bar has been raised a lot since then. In 2009 the TCS verdict on the Avon was 'barely recommendable' and now no doubt it would be 'avoid'. On the other hand ride comfort and silence are very pleasant qualities, and the tyres should give confidence on wet roads. Just watch out in the dry and don't expect too much in the snow.

Edited 20 January, 201313 yr by r999

If you have the Avons on at least you have a bit of satisfaction in that they are made in the UK, although the company, alas, has been taken over by the Yanks.[Coopers] The company took over the company founded by the Moulton family, and the tyres were used for years on Rolls Royces. Alex Moulton, who died last year, was responsible for the design of revolutionary rubber suspension on the original mini and of course for the first commercially available full suspension bicycles

There are other more complimentary reviews available for Avon Ice touring tyres them online, if you are into that kind of thing.

I tend to go for a reputable brand of tyre, that I have heard of--it does help I never drive near the grip limit, intentionally anyway.

Been out in mine today in the most horrible slushy snow--came back up our lane at about 1 in 5 gradient, I slowed right down to give them the opportunity to slip, if they were going to--nothing, no drama at all. Just pulled steadily up the bank.

Edited 21 January, 201313 yr by yetiscot

I'm a southern softie compared to you guys so probably as per Richard I'd probabaly be putting them on November time, but thanks for the reply as it helps identify when the best time to swap them over is

They don't come much more southern and softie than me - I live in Kent! I generally swap in October/November when the mornings start getting cold, and change back around March time. Interesting that the price difference between my Hankooks and the Ultragrips is so small. I only got the Hankooks because they were the ones the dealer had and the reviews were OK, but I would certainly consider a premium brand next time at that price.

Thanks R999 & Yetiscot.

Those reports don't really surprse me. The tyres are wonderfully quiet when cruising, but dry roadholding is not brilliant, to the extent that even at modest speeds on roundabouts, you do find yourself slowing more than you normally would because some slight understeer is detected. And whilst I don't normally hang about, I also drive well withing the car's limits.

They don't seem to be wearing however (8,000 miles now & still 8mm all round), and what little snow use they've had had been very impressive. The Goodyears may well be better still, but I've got Avons now & will have to wait until they wear down to 4mm before I even start thinking about changing them.

I was offered all sorts of makes I didn't recognise when I bought the Avons, but went for them because all the other well known makes were out of stock and unlikely to be obtainable for the rest of that season (Late Jan 2011). Avon was the only reputable name I recognised. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Well,

The snow's gone for now and I'm still (winter) tyreless, well SWMBO is anyway. Did all the research, asked you guy's what's best, came up with a plan.....suggested it to SWMBO. Red card!

Looks like I'll have to play the waiting game...I was set on getting some Goodyear ultragrips online (no 'premimums' availalble locally), steel rims, fitted, balanced good to go, but noooooo! Ah well the seed is sown. If the weather gets grim between now and spring I'll regroup when she moans about the drive into work and give it another go. Prices might be a bit better too and the credit card might me breathing a bit more easily.

Cheers all, and drive safely

Ade

More snow forecast this weekend

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