2 hours ago, AwaoffSki said:

Best suggestion is do not go onto soft muddy fields in the wrong vehicle with the wrong tyres on.

Have the Haldex checked out if you think it is not functioning, but likely it was the lack of Mud tyres and locking diffs that was all that was wrong.

 

Even these might not have got you out.

Pretty sure I need mud tyres if I try it again. What make are these?

 

Fedima Sirocco.  

There are 5 For Sale but not Speed Rated for a Yeti.

On wrong wheels as well.

Road Legal but have 'Competition' on them. 

( will deliver in Scotland...)

 

Now i use Yokohama Geolander G012 AT-S, and i have had them on a Yeti.

Still might not get you out a soft muddy field but will give you a fighting chance.

 

They come without white writing as well.

 

Ariel Nomad come with Yokohama AT-S for road use and Muds for Off road.

Edited 8 December, 20178 yr by AwaoffSki

39 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

...Still might not get you out a soft muddy field but will give you a fighting chance....

Next best thing to tank tracks, but even tanks get stuck!  You have to choose your muddy field fairly carefully, I have found. 

If all four wheels were spinning haldex is working perfectly!

God almighty! 

What an anal post, from an owner who 'Needs' knobbly tyres to get round London .  

So why didn't you order the car with the tyres you wanted? 

Why did you assume that Skoda would see London driving as different to the requirements that the other 99% of Yeti drivers are more than happy with. 

For Gods sake..... Put your stocking up, get some knobbly tyres for Christmas, fit them, and use them to drive somewhere useful........ I could  make some suggestions! 

 

 

can,t really see the point in being part of a forum that appears to be an outlet for self opinionated loudmouths. Well done chaps another member gone.

16 hours ago, finebone said:

Ventured into a soft field in my Yeti for the first time since I fitted Michelin Cross Climates and soon got stuck.

 

All four wheels dug in a couple of inches and began to spin in mud despite off road button. Had to get pulled out by a tractor.

 

Not sure if the Haldex is playing up (the oil is due a change) or I need different tyres. Any suggestions?

Never had a problem in mine in that situation, and I don't even use that sort of tyre.

Biggest problem I have noticed is drivers not using the "system" correctly and easing off when they sense the wheels spinning, whereas you have to increase the power gradually and make it work.

I am a new Yeti owner (new to me) and have joined this forum hoping to get some useful information.  So, as one does, I've been looking through some of the posts although mostly my questions haven't yet been answered.  (And I do somewhat sympathise with holbeck's post above.)

 

Anyway, back to topic.  Here's my input because some of the posts seem a little wayward!

 

I have been running a Subaru Forester for the last ten years.  (And, prior to that, 85,000 miles in an integrale - but I won't even start on that because nobody who hasn't been in one could possibly understand!)   Subaru Foresters are all fitted as standard with Bridgestone Duellers.  They are M+S.  They are noisy, a bit skittish in the wet, but they last well.

 

An M+S tyre is so called because of the way the blocks are cut/moulded.  That's it, nothing else.  The sides of the gaps between the blocks are not vertical, they are slightly wider at the top than down at the base.  The concept is that if the tread gets filled with mud or snow the rotation of the wheel will throw out anything stuck in the tread.  You only have to look at a normal road tyre after it has run over some snow to see the difference - the tread pattern will be nicely highlighted by the white snow stuck in it.  And if there's enough compaction, and the snow is of the snowball sort,  the tyre will effectively be a slick.  That shouldn't happen on a M+S because of the outwardly tapering gaps.  (Maybe that should be 'inwardly tapering' but I hope I've explained it enough.)

 

So however people's Yeti's perform with standard road tyres they will perform better with M+S tyres if they are being used on snow, wet mud, sand, even fine gravel.  On anything else they won't because the design obviously means there's actually slightly less rubber on the road.

 

As an aside, I marshall when the rally teams test near me - Toyota this year.  It's quite eye opening to see how much effort they go to with Michelin to try and make sure the tyres pick up as little as possible from the stage surface, whether it's mud or gravel or whatever.  An empty tread pattern means more grip at the next flat out, 6th gear, 125mph corner on the loose.  Pure magic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is true for mud but I am sure I read that in snow you need to trap the snow in the tread as the best think to grip on snow was snow in the treads as it sticks together. Hence snow tyres have wide vertical slots to hold the snow and provide a good friction snow to snow?

Edited 8 December, 20178 yr by kenfowler3966

So that will be sticky snow on sticky snow, not slushy thawing snow on icy thawing roads, or black ice.

Or hot tyres on salted / gritted roads.

 

Like many types of snow, or of tyres including winter ones, ones that full of sticky snow get no traction, snow not always being like velcro,

& there are many many types of mud, soft, wet, sucking you in muds, even frozen mud with little traction..

Edited 8 December, 20178 yr by AwaoffSki

11 hours ago, aka_pseudonym said:

I am a new Yeti owner (new to me) and have joined this forum hoping to get some useful information.  So, as one does, I've been looking through some of the posts although mostly my questions haven't yet been answered.  (And I do somewhat sympathise with holbeck's post above.)

 

Anyway, back to topic.  Here's my input because some of the posts seem a little wayward!

 

I have been running a Subaru Forester for the last ten years.  (And, prior to that, 85,000 miles in an integrale - but I won't even start on that because nobody who hasn't been in one could possibly understand!)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, believe me, i’ve never been in an Integrale but I underatand PERFECTLY !!  Probably only bettered (in my eyes) by a Stratos !!

 

(Right, you can get back on tack now).....

7 hours ago, kenfowler3966 said:

This is true for mud but I am sure I read that in snow you need to trap the snow in the tread as the best think to grip on snow was snow in the treads as it sticks together. Hence snow tyres have wide vertical slots to hold the snow and provide a good friction snow to snow?

 

Maybe.  But I've read that all winter tyres are M+S by default, but not all M+S are winter tyres.  If that's the case then all winter tyres would also have the flared out tread.  The big difference with a winter tyre is the compound which remains flexible when the temperature drops.  Those Bridgestone Duellers I always had on my Subaru were terrible on ice - way too hard so it just slipped about wherever it wanted.

 

Needs a knowledgeable tyre technician's input!

 

 

 

Suzuki fitted Bridgestone Duelers in 205/70 R 15 for near 20 years and they are pure crap.

As they are on a Subaru and usually are available as take offs cheaply. I had a new Subaru Forester the a week just the other week and as usual the only issue was the tyres.

12 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

Suzuki fitted Bridgestone Duelers in 205/70 R 15 for near 20 years and they are pure crap.

As they are on a Subaru and usually are available as take offs cheaply. I had a new Subaru Forester the a week just the other week and as usual the only issue was the tyres.

 

But the new Forester is a big, soft, wallowy, Chelsea tractor type SUV.  My Subaru was the old style (up to 2008) Forester which were "Estate cars" or "Station Wagons" if you're in the US.  A totally different vehicle.  And why I now have a Yeti and not a newer Forester or XV.

 

As another aside - if you are in the US - you could tell me if SUVs still have to have a sticker inside saying "This vehicle could roll over if cornered too fast".  That used to be the case, same as they had stickers on the mirrors saying "things may be nearer than they look".  Even megabucks things from Range Rover, Porsche, BMW etc had them. The old Foresters never had the roll-over sticker because they were a Station Wagon.   And, for what it's worth, my take on my Yeti's suspension after only about 200 miles of driving it is that it's remarkably similar to my old Forester.  Stiffness seems about the same, body roll probably slightly less.  I like it!

 

 

 

I have had various right back to the original Justy and driven all the different models of Auto / CVT Subaru brought into the UK in the past 3 decades.

Amazing how bad tyres are fitted as OEM.  So different with decent rubber, or rubber to suit the use the car will be getting.

Edited 8 December, 20178 yr by AwaoffSki

22 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

I have had various right back to the original Justy

 

Brilliant.  With the big red 4WD button on the top of the gearstick.  Ready to be pushed, just for fun, when the next roundabout comes up.  And six foot of ground clearance and three inch wide tyres so you could go through anything without becoming a snowplough/mudplough.  Magic.  Where and why have Subaru/Fuji Heavy Industries lost the plot.  Sad.

 

 

For what it's worth, we had a lot of snow in this part of Scotland during the first two winters after I got my Yeti.

 

I found that my Yeti handled the snowy/icy roads effortlessly even with the original Dunlops, particularly with the off-road button pressed. I think the treads often filled with snow.

 

I subsequently got Nokian eNTYRES but never got the chance to try them on snow but found them a bit skittish in the wet.

 

That's why I changed to Michelin Cross Cimates which I have found great on dry, wet, warm and cool road conditions. Never had a chance to try them on serious snow yet which is surprising since many parts of the UK appear to have lots of snow atm, or are just about to get some!

 

Anyway, they are not great on soft fields although I admit that my technique might have been suspect. However, I did get unstuck a couple of times earlier in the same field but when I came back after dark, I managed to blunder into a particulary soft bit and got stuck!

 

Thanks for all the discussion and suggestions.

 

 

Edited 9 December, 20178 yr by finebone

3 hours ago, finebone said:

I changed to Michelin Cross Cimates which I have found great on dry, wet, warm and cool road conditions.

 

Thanks for that.   Mine has Vredestein Ultrac Satin on the front and Yokohma Blue Earth in the back so definitely nothing special.  But with the current weather and not knowing the car I really can't judge so they'll stay on it for now.  I am ordering a spare for it though - priorities first.

 

On getting stuck in fields - you can do that in a Subaru Forester too.  My local farmer gives me the odd fallen tree to cut up for firewood and then I pull a 7' x 4' trailer around to collect it.  But round here it's all jumbled mudstone and slate underneath with peat on top,  and it's very hard to judge a piece of ground as it'll invariably look green and lush due to the rain and the sheep's manuring.  So you can drive over one bit and all is fine and then suddenly you've sunk onto the axle.   Luckily the farmer is lovely and will eventually turn up with a tractor and drag you out.

 

Apparently the mudstone, slate and bracken - especially the bracken - are all yours.  I was told that in the last ice age they were all scraped off the tops of the Scottish mountains by the ice sheet and then dumped on Wales when the ice receded.  You are very welcome to come and take it all back.

 

 

 

 

Mud does come in many types, and depths.

3 hours ago, finebone said:

particularly with the off-road button pressed

 

Yes!  It has snowed a bit where I am and when I got back yesterday the track down to my house had enough on it that you couldn't see the stones.  It's maybe 75 yards and a 1:4 or 1:5 slope.  Steep enough that a bit of snow looks slightly worrying, although that said, it's actually quite rough, so if the tyres get through the snow there'll always be quite a lot of grip.

 

So as an ex-Subaru driver (of 3 days) I thought about it first in the Yeti.  My method had always been to put the gearbox into low ratio, put it in 1st, and let the engine do all the braking and hope it wouldn't need me to touch the brakes.  That was the Subaru method.  In the Yeti of course I pushed the off-road button, moved forward, the little car at a 45 degree angle started to flash, and off it went.  It's a bit un-nerving for the first 5 secs but after that you can just enjoy the view.  As the annoying display keeps telling me which gear I should be in, it would've been apt if it had flashed up a message saying "Relax, you're in safe hands, I'm driving not you."

 

Anyway I was really, really impressed.  And it did feel safe!  There didn't seem to be much engine braking going on, just a lot of balancing with the brakes and/or diff(?).  I don't know anything about the Haldex system so I need to learn.   It does seem a bit like my old integrale which was Torsen - you could feel what it was doing all the time, it talked to you.  Subaru's AWD was the opposite - no feeling whatsoever.

 

 

 

 

 

16 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

Mud does come in many types, and depths.

 

Is that some new form of motorsport where you have to dig a hobbit hole in a hill?

 

'Winch Challenge'.

For that vehicle google Tony Baskill Winch Challenge.

Or for Youtube maybe Tony Baskill Muddy Truckers 

Edited 9 December, 20178 yr by AwaoffSki

21 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

'Winch Challenge'.

 

Ha!  That's ridiculous!

 

 

I don't claim to know the difference between M&S and cold weather tyres but I put my "winter" wheels and tyres (Nokians)  on last Wednesday.

 

After a weekends winter weather in Oxfordshire I can report the following

at the end of the estate where I was staying the road rises very slightly to a set of traffic lights, ordinary hatchbacks, A3 and Focus had great difficulty pulling away on the 'polished' icy snow but our Yeti just treated it like normal Tarmac.

You don't need them very often in a year, but when you do, they're great!

I picked the right time to swap to the winters. The previous weekend, before the 6" of snow we got.

I am very impressed with the grip level on my 4x4 DSG.

Going down steep hills, with off road engaged, it just works.

Up steep hills, it just works.

 

One happy, safe bunny here.