I've been a user of winter tyres and a proponent of their use in the UK for a few years now. I ran 16" Avon Ice Touring STs on alloys and later 18" Kumhos (can't remember which model) on alloys on my Octavia vRS. Prior to running winters I'd just relied on chains.

 

In the summer I bought a second hand set of steels fitted with Continental WinterContact TS830s for our Yeti. I fitted them a couple of weeks ago and I'm really pleased.

 

Firstly, I was astonished how heavy the Origami alloys were when I took them off. Even for a chunky OEM alloy, they felt incredibly heavy for a 17". The winter tyre / steel combo felt half the weight.

 

Wow, what a difference to the handling. The Yeti was always a comfortable very well handling car, but I love it with the 16" steels on. The extra sidewall and the massive reduction in unsprung weight makes driving on damaged roads much more pleasant. It feels much spritelier too. Grip pulling away in a standing start in the dry / wet is noticeably impaired however and I've had a few unintended bouts of wheel-spin. Road noise is slightly reduced.

 

I had cause to drive up a couple of steep, untreated, ice covered roads that other cars wisely weren't attempting at the weekend. The relatively light fronted 1.2, shod with the TS830s coped admirably well. I'd certainly recommend Continental's winter tyres.

Is your car 4wd or fwd Nick?

I, too, have Conti WinterContacts,  though mine are on alloys (Skoda Spectrums),  and the car feels like its glued to the road;  the tyres are also quieter than my summer Contis.  I'd recommend them to anyone.  

Funny how they claimed alloys gave a lower unstrung weight......seem like another example of style over substance.

Is your car 4wd or fwd Nick?

 

1.2's are all front wheel drive.

Funny how they claimed alloys gave a lower unstrung weight......seem like another example of style over substance.

 

They haven't claimed that for years!

....a lower unstrung weight.......

 

Just like my harp! 

 

(Well, someone had to comment!)

When I fitted my winter wheels I took the opportunity to weigh the 17" Annapurna alloys with original dunlops to compare with my 16" VAG steels with Nokian winters:-

 

Annapurna - 22.8kg

Steel - 18.9kg

 

A total difference of 15.6kg for four wheels.

When I fitted my winter wheels I took the opportunity to weigh the 17" Annapurna alloys with original dunlops to compare with my 16" VAG steels with Nokian winters:-

 

Annapurna - 22.8kg

Steel - 18.9kg

 

A total difference of 15.6kg for four wheels.

 

Interesting. I'll try and weigh my Origamis. Felt like a bigger difference than that.

Just gotten in from helping all the soft roaders on summer tyres get back down our hill after they finally realised it was hopeless. It's always the 4wd soft roaders that are the problem. RWD people don't even try and most fwd people seem to have more sense. I watched 3 reasonably hard collisions and one astoundingly lucky bit of occasionally controlled sliding from a Disco 4 through an obstacle course of a Q3, CRV and RR Sport.

 

I found old rubber boot liners were a really useful tool for reversing people safely around other stuck cars. We drove back from Taddington to Sheffield in the thick of it with no problem in the Yeti, overtaking a dozen or so crawlers and several stuck vehicles.

Edited 27 December, 201411 yr by Nick P

Sometimes a lower powered vehicle is easier to drive under conditions of marginal grip.

So many are power happy and don't know how to adapt, and find 'grunt' difficult to handle.

I know I'm a dinosaur but one of the best vehicles I've had for dealing with snow was a 1937 Austin Ruby!

The combination of skinny tyres, reasonable ground clearance, light weight, low power and poor brakes kept me going when others were falling about all over the place.

With hardly any throttle, if a rear wheel started slipping a quick grab of the handbrake stopped the slip and regained traction. If I got stuck in a drift a quick gear change between 1st and reverse across the well worn gate "rocked" me out of trouble and if all else failed a push from my sturdy girlfriend of the day (not my wife I have to add!   ) did the trick.

It's not really surprising these vehicles formed the basis for Trials cars for so many years.

 

Fred

Told my insurance company today that I have fitted my winter wheels to my new SM

Had a fairly bizarre conversation with the agent who asked a lot of worrying questions i.e

" Were the wheels fitted professionally?

Reply, "No I fitted them myself"

Q "Are the tyres and wheels the same size as the originals?

Reply," no but they are an allowable combination for the vehicle according to the handbook etc etc

So I thought I should email them as follows to clear up any ambiguity:

Saga Insurance by the way.

re policy number $$$$$$$

Following a conversation today re updating yourselves that I have fitted a set of winter wheels I must admit to a sense of unease engendered by the questions you asked me. So to clarify the situation I would like to supply the following information: Winter tyres fitted: Avon Snow and Ice size 215x60x16 Fitted on VAG group 16" steel wheels with plastic hub covers. This wheel and tyre combination are fitted to lower trim level Skoda Yetis and give the same effective diameter as low profile tyres on the standard alloy wheels. They are also an allowable combination in the vehicle handbook. I have swapped the wheels over myself following the vehicle handbook instructions to the letter including using a torque wrench [120nm] to secure the wheel nuts. For your info the standard wheel/tyre as fitted are 225x50x17 Could you please confirm this as acceptable and would not effect the validity of my policy if I am in the position of making a claim? Thanks again

Professionally fitted by a chimp with an Impact Gun and no idea what torque its set at.

If I said yes then I would expect to be refused a policy :no:

 

 

I'm not bitter I just drink plenty of it. :beer:

Edited 29 December, 201411 yr by RickT

 

Professionally fitted by a chimp with an Impact Gun and no idea what torque its set at.

If I said yes then I would expect to be refused a policy :no:

 

 

I'm not bitter I just drink plenty of it. :beer:

it will be fine if it was done by a smart chimp like the one above as he would of used a torque wrench to check it was torque to 120nm

^^^^^don't like HIS torque wrench! :-))))

It's a Monkey Wrench.

It's all torque!

Ok... I'll go find the naughty corner too!"