Hello everyone,

I'm planing to buy winter tires but I have some doubts:

1. I heared that by replacing the tires from the wheels, we are demaging them bit by bit, so it's advisable to buy a new set of wheels. Is that true? What is your experience?

2. Since I have standard 15" aluminum wheels, I was thinking to buy another kind (17" or 18") but not sure what are the performance of such wheels on snow/ace covered roads. Any advice? What is your experiense with iron ones?

3. Any recomendation for the type (brand) of tires?

Thankfully yours,

Hogar

My summer wheels are 17" but I always have 15" for winter use.

Conti Viking Contact 3 is an exellent choice, the best tyres I ever had on snowy roads ( and icy surfaces to!)

never ever seen the need to bother with winter tyres. no point in this country as the weather is not that extreme IMO.

never ever seen the need to bother with winter tyres. no point in this country as the weather is not that extreme IMO.

Depends where you live :D:D

I have Vredestein Wintracs on my car - they are better in snow, but more importantly the rubber compound is more suited to winter temperatures :)

This is a question I've wondered about a lot. I'm in Manchester and we get about 3 snow days a year, and the local authority are pretty good at clearing it. I can't decide of it's worth changing to winter compounds, i.e. buying the extra wheels and tyres for just the winter. How much difference does the winter tyres make at low temperatures?

Also, when checking for winter tyres the Fabis'a sizes don't register, so I guess it's a different wheel/profile size to make the same overall diameter??

If you have decent tires with a good tread and right pressure then you should find you can operate in most winter conditions.

If snow conditions are really bad then drop your tire pressures a few pounds this should give your a reasonable grip, but remember to put them back up once snow has gone.

Sports tyres are bloody awful (funnily enough) as they put down too much rubber and have channels optimised for clearing water.

If you dont what the hassle of swapping wheels / tyres over, try and get ones with a more open blocky tread.

I depends where you live really, but we had horrendous weather in March this year and had feet of snow lying.

Im just glad I had access to 4x4's and tractors......

"Normal" tyres are generally designed for temperatures above 7C. Winter tyres are not just for snow but for temperatures below 7C. They are made of a rubber compound that is soft at low temperatures where summer tyres are rock hard. The end result is better grip. On the continent ADAC (German AA) do tests of winter tyres. Some are better in snow, others on ice, others are better in the wet, etc. Therefore you should choose a tyre that is best for your conditions. i.e. if it only snows 2 days in the year but is icy most mornings, then you should focus on the icy results.

It is important to note that winter tyres significantly increase the stopping distance in cold conditions. We are talking in terms of metres at 100km\h-120km\h. In Germany, if you have an accident and they find out that you do not have winter tyres and they "would of helped" you are liable - even when there isn't snow, etc. At the moment in the Dutch Skoda forum there is a big debate whether winter tyres are better than ESP and they are on a couple of pages of debate.

German ADAC winter tests: Winterreifen

The Alpin is a popular tyre. I have Good Year Ultra Grip on the Leon FR. Important points are: 1-Make sure the tyres are not noisy 2-Remember that you can go for narrower tyres

David

The skinnier tyres the better. But, this is only if you're expecting lots of snow of course.

never ever seen the need to bother with winter tyres. no point in this country as the weather is not that extreme IMO.

Got to disagree on this point - it all depends of where you live. S.E of Englandshire at 100ft above sea level - no problem. live or regularly travel in the North of UK or on high roads and modern tyres are totally useless in the winter, not just on snow but on really wet roads too. They are far to wide and have far too "tight" a tread to get any "bite".

An Austin Maestro on 135's would leave any modern car for dead!!!