Yeti Tyres

[Freshacre]

The original post in this thread was a whine about an "expectation" that was wrong. End of story!

Yetis come with normal (not winter, not M'n'S) tyres.

Accept it. Get over it. Move on, and we can all move on too.

[Llanigraham]

Winter tyres = tyres designed to be used when the ambient temperatures are below 7 degrees. They are designated by a mountain and or snow symbol on the sidewall. They contain addition silica and have more snipes in the tread to aid grip and water clearance.

 

THEY ARE NOT DESIGNED AS AN OFF ROAD TYRE!!!!!!!!!!

 

I give up!!!

[docc]

So - we're agreed that Yetis arrive with normal tyres.  Nothing you can do about that.  But are there any recommendations for an alternative tyre to be fitted by the dealer (as an extra, obviously) when the new 1.2 arrives next Feb/March?

 

Not looking for something that needs changing twice a year - just something more grippy but suitable for leaving on all year without wearing too heavily.  A compromise tyre.  Not for off-road use.

 

Any suggestions please?

Edited 5 November, 2013 by docc

[oldstan]

So - we're agreed that Yetis arrive with normal tyres.  Nothing you can do about that.  But are there any recommendations for an alternative tyre to be fitted by the dealer (as an extra, obviously) when the new 1.2 arrives next Feb/March?

 

Not looking for something that needs changing twice a year - just something more grippy but suitable for leaving on all year without wearing too heavily.  A compromise tyre.  Not for off-road use.

 

Any suggestions please?

 

 

Hesitate to suggest anything on this particular thread, in case I get my head bitten off but IN MY OPINION (and that of others here, and elsewhere) who have them I'd say look at Goodyear Vector 4Season "All Season" tyres. 

 

I bought a new small hatchback and fitted them from new and sold the original standard Hankook's.  Very happy with them.  I also have proper winter tyres on the Yeti (clearly not everyone's cup of tea, judging by some comments,) but am equally pleased to have the security they offer (even if I don't often get to sample the benefits at  the extreme).

[octavia55]

Sorry to go on but in my original post I never mentioned off road tyres, I stated I was surprised it didn't come with all season m & s tyres.

I am fully aware of the various types of tyre and agree 99percent of yetis would never need them, however I still maintain all season m&s tyres would be a better choice for the manufacturer to fit to a 4x4 vehicle with a off road button and hill decent control fitted. They obviously intend the vehicle to be used on more than tarmac in the summer.i

[gcp]

Sorry to go on but in my original post I never mentioned off road tyres, I stated I was surprised it didn't come with all season m & s tyres.

I am fully aware of the various types of tyre and agree 99percent of yetis would never need them, however I still maintain all season m&s tyres would be a better choice for the manufacturer to fit to a 4x4 vehicle with a off road button and hill decent control fitted. They obviously intend the vehicle to be used on more than tarmac in the summer.i

Since "All Season M&S Tyres" (like the Vector 4Seasons mentioned above) are not "off-road" tyres, then how would fitting them be more compatible to "a 4x4 vehicle with a off road button and hill descent control fitted" than normal sumer tyres? We are still talking about road tyres, albeit more versatile in terms of the temperatures and conditions used. They are by no means more conducive to off-road driving.

 

If anything, having just fitted Vector 4Seasons to my Yeti, I am probably more worried about doing any serious off-roading in rough terrain in them rather than in my summer tyres (snowy conditions excluded). It feels to me that the summer tyres have stiffer sidewalls -and definitely a harder tyre compound- than that protect slightly better against tears from planted rocks and such. The "all-season" tread provides no added advantage in off-road conditions other than when needing to tackle snow or ice. I would be very suprised if they made any difference in mud, as you would need treadblocks able to "clean" the tread which is something that all-season tyres do not possess.

[ejstubbs]

last year was very mild indeed compared with 2010 & 2011.

 

Hmm, I'm not sure I'd have described last winter as "very mild".  At least in Edinburgh it was quite cold enough for winter tyres between the clocks going back and springing forward again.  In fact IIRC I actually delayed putting the summers on for a few weeks - spring was very late this year all over the UK.  There might have been one week in February or March when I began to think that the summers could go on, but then it turned really chilly again for several more weeks.

 

What we didn't get last winter was lots of of snow & ice.  There was a less precipitation than in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 (though we still had some hard frosts).  But then, winter tyres aren't just for snow and ice!

[Freshacre]

They obviously intend the vehicle to be used on more than tarmac in the summer.

 

"THEY" don't intend ANY use for the vehicle - whether that be tarmac, or sand, or mud, heather, gravel or your own ruddy front drive.

 

The use the car is put to depends purely upon the person who buys it.  

 

And each person buying a Yeti with your hallowed 'off road button' and 'hill descent control' (note corrected spelling!!) has the choice to fit tyres that they choose for the use they choose to put 'em to.

[Jimbo55]

I aggree that most of the time it will be used on tarmac, but i paid extra for 4 whhel drive and an off road button to give me better Traction when taken off road and in snow.

Why not pay extra for the tyres you think you need and the problem is solved. Why wine about it now when you could have brought it up while you were ordering the car? I bought my Yeti in the full knowledge that if I wished to explore and receive the full benefit of what the 4 wheel drive system would give me, I would need to change the tyres. You should have done a little more research before your purchase I think. Better still, If you are that concerned about traction in bad conditions why don't you buy a tractor!

 

  If you had (obviously didn't ) researched the off road button all, you would find that all it really does is provide little more than an 'idiot' button to take some of the thinking away from the driver. The yeti 4x4 does most of it anyway as standard, just not as quick. Admittedly it would benefit inexperienced drivers. If you really researched winter tyres you would also have found that winter tyres fitted to a normal two wheel drive car can out perform a 4x4 of the same make with summer tyres in winter conditions, so you may not have needed 4x4 in the first place. With the money saved you could have bought several sets of specialist tyres to suit your every need.

 

Peace and love and all that, but you really need to man up and admit you made an error of judgement in not specifying the tyres you wanted at purchase 

[gcp]

I have recently gone through the whole "what tyres should I fit" mental exercise, so maybe my experience could be helpful in giving some perspective.

 

I have bought the Yeti as a family car which -unfortunately due to having to work 5 days a week- is driven in an urban environment for about 80% of the time. We do, however, try to get out of the city as much as we can on weekends, which involves a lot of high-speed motorway cruising and quite a bit of off-roading when in the mountains. In the winter, a fair amount of snow driving is also to be expected, though nothing too extreme. I chose the Yeti exactly because it combines the characteristics that allow me to make good progress and have some old-fashioned driving fun while on tarmac, while at the same time allowing me to venture off road far more than I would be capable of with a common saloon.

 

I would obviously enjoy having a more "agressive" tyre for off-road use when I am actually on dirt / mud, but this involves driving 150 miles or so before actually getting to the location of said off-roading, and another 150 miles back. For the rest of the time, the car is being driven on tarmac -and in a quite "spirited" manner- for which any sort of A/T tyre is totally incompatible. I had briefly considered the Yokohama G012s, but then realised that I would need to put up with all the rumble, loss of steering feel accuracy and inferior on-road performance for the 5% of cases where I could have gone a bit further off-road. And even then, I think that the Yeti is limited off road by ground clearance and angles of attack and departure way before any loss of traction due to not having A/T tyres fitted (muddy terrain excluded).

 

I finally decided on fitting Goodyear 4Seasons for the winter, which are supposed to have excellent wet-weather performance and provide some added safety in snowy conditions. Fitting proper winter tyres would be overkill given the temperatures we typically have in the winter, and would only consider them if I were still snowboarding every weekend and expected to encounter snowy conditions regularly.

 

Come springtime, I will go back to my summer tyres which should fare better in the 40degC summer heat and save the -softer- Vectors for next winter.

 

I too often see CR-Vs, RAV4s and the like fitted with "knobblier" tyres and always wonder how much of the added off-road capability of these tyres is actually used by their owners, or whether they would be better off with a smoother, quieter and all-around more suitable tarmac-oriented tyre for the vast majority of their trips. Each to his own of course, but I can't help but doubt whether most of them could tell the difference anyway...

[Llanigraham]

Well said, Jimbo!! :thumbup:

 

I note the OP hasn't explained why he thinks he needs a 4x4 in London.

[JCP]

I have now had 2 ytis with dunlop tyres which are entirely fit for purpose and have spare wheels and tyres with Nokian winter tyres for the part of the year when I expect to drive in ambient temperatures below 7c. The yeti has surprisingly good off road ability but is a road vehicle. If the o/p thought it was an off road vehicle that is his problem. For tarmac use the tyres are perfectly competent and give a high safety margin in terms of tarmac grip.

[Vectis]

The tyres fitted to landrovers are not aggressive paterns except for the defender and all the landrover experience centres run rhe cars in standard trim with normal road tyres just to show just what they are capable of in normal road trim.

[oldstan]

The tyres fitted to landrovers are not aggressive paterns except for the defender and all the landrover experience centres run rhe cars in standard trim with normal road tyres just to show just what they are capable of in normal road trim.

 

 

Not quite what it says on the Landrover website..........

 

http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/lr/freelander-2/explore/s/   Wheel Options

All terrain capability is at the heart of all Land Rover products. The tyres have been specifically engineered to provide outstanding performance at all times, in almost all conditions.

As the all-terrain experts, Land Rover have gone ‘above and beyond’ in testing and development to ensure that the right tyre is provided for maximum traction.

Tyres have an ‘all season capability’, whilst specific tyres have a balance of attributes that may affect their performance in certain circumstances. The size of the wheel and tyre chosen also has a bearing on the vehicle’s performance. Please bear in mind the intended usage of the vehicle when choosing wheel and tyre combinations.

[g6zru]

Don't keep feeding the Troll!

 

Fred

[Llanigraham]

Perhaps it is another reincarnation of the tuneless one!

[fastestlouigie]

I can't really understand why people are giving octavia55 such a hard time here, given that he was making what seems to me like a reasonable point. Makes me feel like I don't want to follow these forums any more.

[Llanigraham]

No one is giving him a "hard time".

 

What we are trying to do is explain exactly why he is incorrect in his views about tyres, their definitions and useage. Unfortunately he does not seem to appreciate that he has got some of his facts very wrong, and that some of us have a lot of experience in this field and know what we are talking about.

 

Or perhaps he's Offnote!!

[wakev]

 If you are that concerned about traction in bad conditions why don't you buy a tractor!

 

  

 

But   which tyres will it come with, cross ply, radial, flotation, industrial,  two or four wheel drive.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK i'm going to clean Bob's corner                                                                                

[docc]

Back to Yeti tyres, sadly the recommended Goodyear 4Seasons aren't available in 225/50 R17 94W (standard FL Yeti wheels).  V is available, but I see insurance problems down that route.

[wakev]

Back to Yeti tyres, sadly the recommended Goodyear 4Seasons aren't available in 225/50 R17 94W (standard FL Yeti wheels).  V is available, but I see insurance problems down that route.

Dealer fitted them to mine, (to cold and dark to go out and look but )  they are the same spec  as fitted at the factory or slightly higher.

 

 

The speed rating for 

 V: this tyre is approved for speeds up to 240 km/h !! (130 mph+)

[octavia55]

Let me clear a few things up, my user name is Octavia55 because I had a 2005 Octavia when I joined. At that time I lived in London but worked in the counties, even people who live in London need 4x4's, That was eight years ago, I now live in the middle of Cambridgshire, does that now qualify me to comment, when living in London doesn't. Unfortunately people comment on things when they really don't know what they are talking about with comments such as Land Rover do not fit M & S tyres as standard or Goodyear Wrangler tyres are not all season, Just where do this get this information from. When I joined this website in 2005 it was a place where you could have a discussion or give an opinion without being shouted down by self opinionated experts. I suppose the problem is some people move in very small circles and think themselves the only expert in the village, never get challenged by anyone else and end up thinking anyone with a different opinion must be wrong.

Having been driving for 40yrs, towed caravans for 25yrs, driven a bus in London for 7yrs, Actually taught Motor Vehicle Engineering and enjoyed having had two Police driiving courses, I do feel qualified to have an opinion.

I will now bow out and leave the so called experts to their own devices.

[octavia55]

"If driving off the beaten track appeals, at the mere push of the off-road button, the Yeti turns into a highly capable off-road vehicle. It is adept at climbing slippery slopes, descending steep hills and maintaining control on difficult terrain using the very latest 4x4 systems".

 

Copied from the Yeti Brochure, Clearly Skoda themselves see the yeti 4x4 as an off road vehicle so was expecting it to come with all season M & S tyres so off the wall.

[aerofurb]

I think it would make the world a slightly friendlier place if people didn't respond to questions in such a seemingly (to me) harsh manner.

 

Not everyone has been involved with the Yeti or this forum since it began and even trying to do searches doesn't always come up with the thread or answers that you want. And not everyone is an off-road steely-eyed killer.

 

I really can't believe that just because it says 'Location: London' an explanation is expected as to why said person should own an off road button.

 

Bizarre.

[Sporky McGuffin]

I'd add that suggesting someone must be offnote just because of a contrary opinion is pretty tired now.