I have noticed a lot of members swap over to winter tyres when the temperature drops. After seeing a surprising video comparison between a 2WD with winter tyres and a 4WD on regular tyres I am tempted.

The following on e-bay looks good value. Rims and winter tyres for the price of a new set regular tyres, and the tyre review seems OK.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360798309569?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I do about 8/10,000 miles per year, so should get my money back after a few years, judging by owners comments on tyre wear. Is this the correct route to go, or would it be best to buy the rims and tyres seperately. Would I need different wheel bolts as my present rims are alloy and the winters are steel? I ask the last question as I know on caravans you need to swap due to the different thickness of the wheel material and the conical angle of the head being different.

 

Colin

On mytyres you can get four steels with GoodYear Ultragrip GW3's (215/60/16) for £555 delivered. A few pounds more for a far better tyre.

Providing you use OE wheels then the bolts are the same for alloys and steels.

 

I can’t understand the logic in spending that sort of money on budget winter tyres and steel wheels though, you can pick up new or nearly new alloys and premium tyres for that sort of money (especially if you intend to run wheel trims on them)

I am at the bottom of the learning curve on this one and open to any advice.

 

Colin

It is still early enough to scour eBay for some OE VAG alloys in the following sizes:

 

5x112 PCD 

7” ish wide

57.1mm centre bore 

as close to ET45 as you can get 

 

Yeti, Superb, some Octavia MKII, Audi A4 etc will be fine

 

Then go onto Oponeo, mytyres etc for some decent winter tyres

I am at the bottom of the learning curve on this one and open to any advice.

 

Colin

 

I was in the same position last year. Lots of information on this forum - use the search box for "Winter tyres" - and eventually I decided that for my needs all-season tyres will probably be the best compromise - improved performance in winter albeit not as good as full winter tyres but not having the problem of trying to store whichever set of wheels and tyres isn't on the car. If you read up on the various threads you might decide this is something you want to consider as an option. (My original tyres will soon be coming to the end of their life, so that will be the time to switch).

bought from mytyres some yrs ago 4 rims+good*** something tyres, can t check, they're a la frog I'm UK, but less than 100 a corner, my view was use the said tyres for a season, proved excellent or replace em, now approaching the 3rd winter, handled the bad winter of 2013 in Brittany without a murmur - just my sixpen'ith

I am at the bottom of the learning curve on this one and open to any advice.

Colin

Hi Colin, try your local main dealer - mine were able to supply x4 OEM steel rims and suitable winter tyres for less than all the usual online retailers.

This left no doubt as to compatibility when buying second hand rims etc

Good luck, as from my personal experience they are well worth it.

Hi Colin, try giving  Rainworth Skoda a ring they did me a deal last winter 4 x VAG 16" steels with Hankook winters for under £500 delivered.

 

Think the chap I dealt with was Jonathan who I found very helpful with advise on what I needed, had several items off them since and found them very competitive

 

They are based at Mansfield phone 01623 623400 .

I can’t understand the logic in spending that sort of money on budget winter tyres and steel wheels though, you can pick up new or nearly new alloys and premium tyres for that sort of money (especially if you intend to run wheel trims on them)

 

But steels, without trims, look totally gangsta.

But steels, without trims, look totally gangsta.

 

Really 

 

If I had wanted it too look a few grand worse I would have bought an ’S’ and ripped the trims off.

 

Each to their own but personally I can’t live with the car looking crap for almost half of the year, especially when you can get some OE alloys for as near as damn it the price of steel wheels!

The point of steel wheels with winter tyres is that if you do happen to swipe a kerb (which is more likely in the winter than the summer) a steel wheel will tend to bend whereas an alloy (especially a cold one) might crack. A bent wheel could get you home, a cracked wheel will not.

Last autumn I was looking for tyre replacements and plumped for all-season tyres in the end; I got some Goodyear Vector Four Seasons from mytyres.co.uk. After about 9 months and 8,000 miles they still have 5-6 mm of tread on them.

On a tangential note, I also bought my motorbike a pair of tyres just last week, again from mytyres. Great prices and quick delivery.

I would wait to get the tyres until early October, you should get freshly made tyres and the prices then creep up through the winter.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

You seem to forget though that with winter tyres on you have MUCH less chance of touching the kerb in the 1st place... providing you are driving sensibly.

 

The point of steel wheels with winter tyres is that if you do happen to swipe a kerb (which is more likely in the winter than the summer) a steel wheel will tend to bend whereas an alloy (especially a cold one) might crack. A bent wheel could get you home, a cracked wheel will not

Hi Colin, try giving  Rainworth Skoda a ring they did me a deal last winter 4 x VAG 16" steels with Hankook winters for under £500 delivered.

 

Think the chap I dealt with was Jonathan who I found very helpful with advise on what I needed, had several items off them since and found them very competitive

 

They are based at Mansfield phone 01623 623400 .

 

This is where mine came from - highly recommended

Really 

 

If I had wanted it too look a few grand worse I would have bought an ’S’ and ripped the trims off.

 

Each to their own but personally I can’t live with the car looking crap for almost half of the year, especially when you can get some OE alloys for as near as damn it the price of steel wheels!

 

IMO the "steel wheel look" (without trims) actually suits a white Yeti (especially an Urban with the extra black trim). 

If your looking for good quality but inexpensive new non Skoda alloys (have these for our Spaceback) try;

 

http://www.wheels.oponeo.co.uk/alloy-wheel/alutec/grip/skoda/yeti/suv/i/2-0-tdi-4x4-103kw

 

would go for the 7Jx16 ET48, as the standard rims are 7Jx16 ET45

 

 

You might still be able to get 'new other' 16" Skoda Moon or Spectrum alloys from;

 

http://www.tyremen.co.uk/product/91765/16-skoda-wheels--skoda---yeti

 

 

Tyres then try these;

 

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-details/hankook-icebear-w-310-215-60-r16-99-h-xl#69291269

 

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-details/nokian-wr-d3-215-60-r16-99-h-xl#69006032

 

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-details/uniroyal-ms-plus-77-215-60-r16-99-h-xl#69290438

 

 

TP

I have noticed a lot of members swap over to winter tyres when the temperature drops. After seeing a surprising video comparison between a 2WD with winter tyres and a 4WD on regular tyres I am tempted.

The following on e-bay looks good value. Rims and winter tyres for the price of a new set regular tyres, and the tyre review seems OK.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360798309569?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I do about 8/10,000 miles per year, so should get my money back after a few years, judging by owners comments on tyre wear. Is this the correct route to go, or would it be best to buy the rims and tyres seperately. Would I need different wheel bolts as my present rims are alloy and the winters are steel? I ask the last question as I know on caravans you need to swap due to the different thickness of the wheel material and the conical angle of the head being different.

 

Colin

 

I wouldn't go for those tyres, they are cheap Chinese ones.

 

Typically, the cheaper chinese brands are very poor in the wet - and in the winter months this will be most of the time.

 

To get a feel for which tyres perform well, have a read through all the European tyre tests, this is a good place to start:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre-Tests/#winter

 

Also, have a read of this page:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2013-Winter-Tyre-Overview-Braking.htm

...and see typically where brands like "Goodride" (as in the Ebay ad) come out, it's not good - much longer wet braking distances and "Please note: Auto Bild considered places 24-50 so dangerous they did not test them in the snow."

 

Remember not to just consider performance in snow. The majority of your driving in winter will be on cold wet roads, snow will probably only be a problem for a handful of days (if at all), so while cheap winter tyres might help in snow, for the majority of the time the poorer wet performance of chinese cheapies could well reduce your overall safety...

 

I've used Goodyears, Continentals and Nokians over the last few years and have been most impressed by the Contis (TS850).

I bought a set of steels with tyres for the Yeti off someone on here a few months back, they've got Hankooks on, will see how they perform. This is the first year I've had 4wd so am really looking forward to lots of snow

I bought Goodride tyres and steel rims last winter.  

 

They're reasonable tyres - pretty good in the wet, but as we had a very mild winter last year, I can't vouch for their performance in the snow!  I did about 8K miles in them and they wore about as much as I expected.  

 

Handling with that setup (I used 16" rims) actually seemed to be slightly better than with the standard 17" summer alloys.

I had continentals and now have Nokians. I had never heard of Nokian but read enough to get over my normal reaction which is to only rely on tyres from major brands and reject the unknown. The apocryphal "ling-long ditchfinder" represents for me the risk of buying cheap. Jock seems to have had a good experience. I am as yet unsure about "goodride" and think I'd prefer a known name-if they don't grip well in the wet as in having a 5 metre worse stopping distance I can't help thinking of the difference between stopping just short of someone elses accident and joining it!

I think I'm going to get a set of black steels online and then source some decent rubber locally.

Need to get sorted in the next month or so before prices start to creep up.

I think I'm going to get a set of black steels online and then source some decent rubber locally.

Need to get sorted in the next month or so before prices start to creep up.

Sometimes it's cheaper to get the wheel/ tyres complete from the likes of Mytyres, than to try and source separately.

The point of steel wheels with winter tyres is that if you do happen to swipe a kerb (which is more likely in the winter than the summer) a steel wheel will tend to bend whereas an alloy (especially a cold one) might crack. A bent wheel could get you home, a cracked wheel will not.

 

Interesting, I haven't heard that one before. Despite my best efforts, I've not managed to crack an alloy because it was cold.

 

I had continentals and now have Nokians. I had never heard of Nokian but read enough to get over my normal reaction which is to only rely on tyres from major brands and reject the unknown. The apocryphal "ling-long ditchfinder" represents for me the risk of buying cheap. Jock seems to have had a good experience. I am as yet unsure about "goodride" and think I'd prefer a known name-if they don't grip well in the wet as in having a 5 metre worse stopping distance I can't help thinking of the difference between stopping just short of someone elses accident and joining it!

 

Nokian Tyres invented the winter tyre. And having driven on various FWD/AWD/RWD cars with various winter tyres, I'm sticking with the Nokian Hakkapeliitta's, even though they are not actually cheap at all up here where they come from...

Bought Vredstein Wintrac Extremes from Mytyres on 16 " rims for my last Yeti and will put them on to my new Yeti in November time so they are soon to begin their 4th winter. I have found that they give excellent grip in snowy/icy/slushy/ wet conditions and also wear well, the only downside being that they throw amazing amounts of water onto the windscreen which I suppose is a reassurance that they are doing their job . I live in the far North of Scotland so probably have to deal with somewhat more extreme weather conditions than most of the members but would thoroughly recommend them.