Winter tyres vol 2

[Gad-Westy]

SAS Tom said:

I get that with winters etc they are fine and that other cars get stuck. It just always seems to be a disproportionate amount of BMW’s when I’m on the road or in pictures.

I’d imagine there are just more rwd BMW’s on the road than there are Mercs, jags, Lexus etc. I can’t see any reason why any would have a particular advantage. Big heavy cars, rwd, big fat summer tyres is just never going to work well on snow. As you say no issue on winters.

[E-bmw]

As above, it is one of the unfortunate side effects of perfect 50/50 weight distribution, wider wheels/tyres and higher power, which all affect BM/Mercs in varying proportions.

On top of that they are engineered to use winters in winter as that is law in several eu countries including parts of Germany.

[Haltamer]

redback911 said:

Cumbria was fun earlier this week.

That looks deep! Wouldn't want to be the first one down that on fresh snow, you'd probably lose the road

[Graveworm]

Good video just posted from Tyre reviews on snow chains etc.

[irc]

This week I had a few miles on quiet single track roads in Perthshire this week. Only patches of snow and ice. Still nice to have grip on reserve.

[SlimJim16v]

A new standard for winter tyres. The mountain snowflake is for acceleration, the new one is for braking.



https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45861084/winter...

[havoc]

E-bmw said:

As above, it is one of the unfortunate side effects of perfect 50/50 weight distribution, wider wheels/tyres and higher power, which all affect BM/Mercs in varying proportions.

The problems are:-

Wide (& summer-biased) tyres
Automatic gearboxes
High torque, in particular high rate-of-change-of-torque overwhelming grip suddenly
RWD
Sharp, short-travel DBW throttles don't help either


...so an automatic turbo-diesel Merc or BMW is not a great choice for snow & ice.

[E-bmw]

havoc said:

E-bmw said:

As above, it is one of the unfortunate side effects of perfect 50/50 weight distribution, wider wheels/tyres and higher power, which all affect BM/Mercs in varying proportions.

The problems are:-

Wide (& summer-biased) tyres
Automatic gearboxes
High torque, in particular high rate-of-change-of-torque overwhelming grip suddenly
RWD
Sharp, short-travel DBW throttles don't help either


...so an automatic turbo-diesel Merc or BMW is not a great choice for snow & ice.

You got it.

Although don't some have a winter/snow setting for gearchanges?

[Suspicious_user]

havoc said:

E-bmw said:

As above, it is one of the unfortunate side effects of perfect 50/50 weight distribution, wider wheels/tyres and higher power, which all affect BM/Mercs in varying proportions.

The problems are:-

Wide (& summer-biased) tyres
Automatic gearboxes
High torque, in particular high rate-of-change-of-torque overwhelming grip suddenly
RWD
Sharp, short-travel DBW throttles don't help either


...so an automatic turbo-diesel Merc or BMW is not a great choice for snow & ice.

Really. Had zero issues today in my Mercedes estate, neither did the BMW behind me. The only car that had an issue appeared to be the Mini at the front of the queue.

[Patrick Bateman]

Can someone remind me, for the wet portion of winter tyre tests, are these done in cold temperatures to be reflective of their ability or could they be done in 12 degrees?

[Gad-Westy]

Suspicious_user said:

havoc said:

E-bmw said:

As above, it is one of the unfortunate side effects of perfect 50/50 weight distribution, wider wheels/tyres and higher power, which all affect BM/Mercs in varying proportions.

The problems are:-

Wide (& summer-biased) tyres
Automatic gearboxes
High torque, in particular high rate-of-change-of-torque overwhelming grip suddenly
RWD
Sharp, short-travel DBW throttles don't help either


...so an automatic turbo-diesel Merc or BMW is not a great choice for snow & ice.

Really. Had zero issues today in my Mercedes estate, neither did the BMW behind me. The only car that had an issue appeared to be the Mini at the front of the queue.

That string of conversation was based on cars still on summer tyres. I'm assuming from that pic you were firmly on winter tyres! It's quite an interesting balance with winters. Once you have enough traction to get a smidgen of weight transfer, front engine and rear wheel drive can be helpful but it's less ideal when friction is really low. I must admit though I just really enjoy driving rwd cars on snow (with winter tyres at least). I love the adjustability and the way you can start to feed the power in out of corners without just washing wide and of course the slow motion WRC style heroics!

Re. Havoc's list though, I can assure I was getting stuck in BMW's long before turbos and DBW. In fact I remember getting totally stuck in a manual E36 328i with 225 tyres. I remember a colleague lecturing me about just knowing how to modulate the throttle while I was sat there with the wheels spinning in third gear at idle!

Edited by Gad-Westy on Monday 11th December 19:33

Edited by Gad-Westy on Monday 11th December 19:34

[Suspicious_user]

Gad-Westy said:

That string of conversation was based on cars still on summer tyres. I'm assuming from that pic you were firmly on winter tyres!

I was. There was a van which we caught up with that had some chains on, saw the poor driver taking them off in pishing rain.

[Gad-Westy]

Suspicious_user said:

Gad-Westy said:

That string of conversation was based on cars still on summer tyres. I'm assuming from that pic you were firmly on winter tyres!

I was. There was a van which we caught up with that had some chains on, saw the poor driver taking them off in pishing rain.

Can't stand snow chains but I guess they serve a purpose if absolutely desperate. The trouble with them is that you absolutely know the weather is going to be bloody freezing if you ever have to fit them and handling a tangle of frozen metal is never a fun experience!

Was interesting watching Jon's video on them linked above though. Snow chains still seem to be the tool of choice vs. the newer alternatives.

[Suspicious_user]

Gad-Westy said:

Was interesting watching Jon's video on them linked above though. Snow chains still seem to be the tool of choice vs. the newer alternatives.

If you look at the Auto Sock website there’s information about how the sock disintegrates and when it needs replaced. They expect holes to develop. I was surprised how poor they were on ice though.

My picture was from Switzerland yesterday, we were up at 1800 metres, but once we came down the snow turned to rain. There was still snow on the road but alternating snow then tunnels would have made chains/socks painful.

[mmm-five]

I originally bought 'snow-socks' as part of an emergency kit for my Z4MC because BMW said it wasn't suitable for fitting chains.

But I've had them sat unused in the boot for over 14 years, and have never needed to fit them...mainly because I'll leave the car at home if there's lots of snow as the ground clearance is crap anyway.

Got another set for the 320D for emergencies also, but then saw a cheap set of 18" winter wheels & tyres that I snapped up for £300 instead, so those likely won't be used unless I'm back on summers and we have a sudden snowfall. But I am planning on going for an all-season (probably Cross-Climate 2 or Goodyear Vector 4-Season) once the current winters are worn out.

[Downward]

Anyone in the highlands enjoying the snow ?

[Speed addicted]

Downward said:

Anyone in the highlands enjoying the snow ?

Aberdeenshire here, had to nip into Aberdeen for a present for the kid yesterday, about a 40 mile round trip.


The Michelin lattitude tyres on the pickup are still very decent even after about 30k miles use!

[Patrick Bateman]

Has anyone run different brands of winters front to rear?

Might be tricky for me to get matching Hankooks in the sizes I’m after unless using mytyres but the reviews on trustpilot suggest they’re not the best regarding deliveries.

[E-bmw]

Patrick Bateman said:

Has anyone run different brands of winters front to rear?

Might be tricky for me to get matching Hankooks in the sizes I’m after unless using mytyres but the reviews on trustpilot suggest they’re not the best regarding deliveries.

Personally, I wouldn't, have you tried asda tyres?

[Patrick Bateman]

I've looked pretty much everywhere, the more common sites have been quite poor.

Mytyres is the only place I can get front Hankook W330 winters. My rear options are limited and these Hankooks are brilliant value, my other premium options are 50/60/70+ quid more per tyre at the back.