Winter Wheels

[sez]

Having been reading about the benefits of winter tyres, I am considering buying a set for my estate. Does this look reasonable?

http://www.skodaparts.com/product/new-octavia-a5---new-superb-16-inch-winter-tyres-and-steel-wheels-38275

I have been told the tyres are Uniroyal MS PLUS winter tyres.

I realise that maybe buying in the middle of winter is not the best time, but having recently experienced some sliding on wintery roads, I am hoping switching to winter tyres would be of benefit. I would prefer to purchase new rather than look a secondhand options.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[fluffmeister]

For 16's their offer price seems to be on or around the money, and they are using OEM steelies. Have a browse through the auto express winter tyre tests and see how the uni royals perform.

I'm a fan of Nokians when it comes to winter tyres and have done plenty of miles up and down to Inverness from home in Warrington on WRD3's without any issues or complaints.

Edited 2 February, 2015 by fluffmeister

[sez]

For 16's their offer price seems to be on or around the money, and they are using OEM steelies. Have a browse through the auto express winter tyre tests and see how the uni royals perform.

I'm a fan of Nokians when it comes to winter tyres and have done plenty of miles up and down to Inverness from home in Warrington on WRD3's without any issues or complaints.

Thanks for the reply. I will take a look at the auto express winter tyre tests.

[silver1011]

I know you mention that you are looking at brand new, but don't dismiss a set of used alloy wheels rather than steels.

 

When the tread depth gets too low for decent winter grip I plan to keep my winters on until they are down close to the legal limit, at least using alloys means the car looks OK in the summer too.

 

I picked a set of Audi TT alloys up for around £200, not far off the cost of four steel wheels?

 

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/296872-audi-winter-alloy-wheels-fitted-today/

[sez]

Thanks for the reply silver1011. I agree the alloys look better and that's a good point about wearing them down to the legal limit, once the tread is a bit too low for winter.

I have been back to enquire about the availability of any alternative tyre brands. I have been offered Goodyear Ultra Grip 9 for an extra £100. Anyone think this would be worth the extra? My initial thoughts are probably not, but I am certainly open to any opinions from those who are more knowledgable than me!

[JakeBlade]

Pre-owned can see significant value. My 17" after-market black alloys came off a Merc, were shod with 6-7mm of Vredestein Winrtrac Xtreme, which I got for under £250 delivered. The alloys were completely unmarked.

You only really need to worry about getting wheels that have a PCD of 5x112. That means most used wheels from VAG group, and also many Mercs.

[HoneyMonster65]

I also picked up a set of Audi alloys and had Nokian tyres  fitted.and winter grille cover.

[scottalej]

Off topic sorry, but did the winter grille cover make any difference to how quickly the car warmed up? I'm thinking of fitting a lower one as it would be easy to do on my Outdoor with strip of plastic.

[HoneyMonster65]

I think it does, whether placebo effect or not i dont know

[sez]

Thanks for all the replies. I had a look to see if I could find any used alloys. Couldn't see anything reasonably local/reasonably priced. If I had thought about this a bit sooner, I could have taken my time to find some. For convenience, I am going with steel wheels. Friday I could feel the car slipping a few times in the snow (despite driving slowly) and this morning I had trouble getting parked back on the drive, so the sooner I have winter tyres on the car the better! No idea why I didn't consider them years ago!!

My local dealer has agreed to match the price offered by Skodaparts, so I will save on the delivery cost and they will fit them for me too. I know this is not the attractive option and if I waited I could probably find some decent alloys for a similar cost but both hubby and myself are keen to get winter tyres ASAP on my car (quite a lot of my driving is with our four year old son in the car). I can live with the steel wheels.

I rang my insurance company (Direct Line) this morning to check there would be no problem with the change. I had read some people had experienced problems with them but they were fine. Said to confirm when put them on and then when taken them off but there was no change to my premium.

Hopefully I will have winter tyres on my car by Thursday. Once again, thank you all for taking the time to reply.

[JakeBlade]

The other option open to you would be to swap your summer tyres for winter tyres: keeping your alloys on the car year-round.

[Coops]

Bit steep for winters: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/342255-thermisto-alloys-x-4-for-sale/

[sez]

The other option open to you would be to swap your summer tyres for winter tyres: keeping your alloys on the car year-round.

.

Yes that was a consideration too. Although probably the increased cost for 18" tyres and the cost to get them swapped over twice a year would probably be more costly than this route. From what I have read the 16s will probably cope better with all the pot holes that are appearing in the roads around here than 18s would?

What is the best way to store the summer wheels? Some sort of tyre tree? Or something else?

[JakeBlade]

Best way to store your summer wheels on their alloys is to load them onto something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B008CDPHQY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1422793374&sr=8-3π=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=wheel+rack&dpPl=1&dpID=31hju9jurxL&ref=plSrch

You can also keep them upright, but you would need to turn them every few weeks to prevent flat spots on the tyres.

I also bought some wheel storage bags (I went a bit OTT), which are handy for keeping the dirt off the wheels, and also for moving the wheels back and forth to the wheel fitter - keeps your boot clean: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00AQM8GDA

I also had some stiff bubble wrap sheets, which I cut discs out of to protect the surface of the alloys when in transit and storage.

Edited 3 February, 2015 by JakeBlade

[Wile7]

Having been reading about the benefits of winter tyres, I am considering buying a set for my estate. Does this look reasonable?

http://www.skodaparts.com/product/new-octavia-a5---new-superb-16-inch-winter-tyres-and-steel-wheels-38275

I have been told the tyres are Uniroyal MS PLUS winter tyres.

I realise that maybe buying in the middle of winter is not the best time, but having recently experienced some sliding on wintery roads, I am hoping switching to winter tyres would be of benefit. I would prefer to purchase new rather than look a secondhand options.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

We have a set of Uniroyal winter tyres on my wifes FWD citroen and I have to say they are brilliant. The car is going past 4x4s that are struggling...partly because the Swiss drive like muppets but also because the light citroen works sublimely on snow and ice with these tyres. We have had a few feet of snow around us with black ice and so far the tyres have proved their worth. Very impressed.

[Napier]

Thanks for the reply silver1011. I agree the alloys look better and that's a good point about wearing them down to the legal limit, once the tread is a bit too low for winter.

I have been back to enquire about the availability of any alternative tyre brands. I have been offered Goodyear Ultra Grip 9 for an extra £100. Anyone think this would be worth the extra? My initial thoughts are probably not, but I am certainly open to any opinions from those who are more knowledgable than me!

I run Goodyear Ultragrip 8's and well impressed with grip, noise and ride. Wearing well too!

[sez]

Local dealer called yesterday to say they couldn't get steel rims. So I am back to probably getting them from Skodaparts. Just one other question please. My spare tyre has a speed rating V. Skoda are saying these winter wheels are supplied with H rated tyres. From what I can see this may be slightly under the quoted max speed. Have read somewhere that it is ok to drop down one rating in the speed with winter tyres? Should I pay a little bit extra and just get wheels and tyres separately and stick with 94Vs instead of getting 94Hs? I am getting a bit confused by all of this and just want to make sure what ever I do is right and not going to cause an issue with insurer.

Edited 5 February, 2015 by sez

[psycholist]

H speed rating is fine for winter tyres as far as I can find out, but I can't get anything absolutely definitive on this. The H speed rating is still good to 210 km/h (130 mph), which is a little more than you're allowed anywhere outside bits of the German Autobahn anyway. Some Superbs will do a little more than that depending on the engine - I believe the 3.6 litre one may do a lot more :P. Make sure you get the 94 load rating though - that isn't negotiable. I'm running H speed rated winter tyres at the moment, though for the summer I'll get at least V rated tyres.

 

Also when you're buying take a look at the noise figure for the tyres - I went from 73 dB Kumhos to 70 dB Avon Ice Touring STs and the drop in road noise was massive.

[JakeBlade]

Sez, take a look at the steel and after-market alloy winter tyre packages on mytyres. Some very competitive prices on there at the moment. Some of the alloy and tyre packages aren't much more than the price of the tyre. By "not much more than", I mean that a set of 17" alloys for example would cost you less than £200 if you back-calculate it. 17" dezent re: dark + Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme 94V came to about £650. I looked at this package, as that is what I have on my car. You could get a local firm to come out and fit them for you for less than £20 for all 4.

Edited 5 February, 2015 by JakeBlade

[sez]

Thanks psycholist. Yes I was struggling to find a definitive answer and saw lots of conflicting advice too. I would assume H would be ok if a a skoda dealer is offering that, but wanted to make sure first! Yes, 94 load rating will definitely not be negotiable. Thanks for comments re road noise too. I will certainly check that out.

[redscout]

I've been getting mixed messages from Skoda dealerships, some of whom say 'H' is acceptable. I spoke with Skoda UK and they say that a 94H or a 91V is acceptable on a 16" wheel. If my car wasn't going back to the dealers  I'd be fitting 94V I think just to be on the safe side of insurance companies. I currently run Continental TS850s on a 1 series BMW and they've been fantastic so I'd be sticking with them (no pun intended). The Nokian WRA3 or WRD3 get good reviews though and are a cheaper - both are available with alloys (6.5J recommended) at Mytyres for around £550 delivered all in- I had some ordered but have subsequently cancelled until I find out whether I'm keeping the car.

[Scusbucked]

I run 16' moons with Nokian Hakkapellitä 8, which has spikes on them. We have the option to have winter tyres without spikes or with, but I prefer to go with since I mostly drive in an urban setting where there is often ice. Sure the down side is the increased noise, but with the added safety I would choose them each time.

[Scusbucked]

Oh a small FYI once temparatures drop below 8 degrees winter tyres have better grip than summer tyres

[Gizmo]

I run 16’ moons with Nokian Hakkapellitä 8....

 

Have you tried Nokian ‘summer’ tyres?

 

I’m a convert on Nokian winter rubber and wondered what their summer rubber was like.

[Scusbucked]

@Gizmo68 no I haven't. Rolling in the summer on 18' with different tyres, but have heard good things about them.