Winter tyres vol 2
Discussion
I'm off work this week and have just got back from the corner shop.
On the way I passed a guy swapping back to summer tyres on his Subaru Legacy and we got chatting.
He tells me he swaps to winters in September and back to Summers in March usually, and swears by them as he proudly told me he has never got stuck, not once.
That's great, Fair play to him.
Thing is, we live in Berkshire, and despite driving a rear wheel drive saloon on all season tyres, I've never been stuck either. I lived in the North East up until six years ago, and although the winters were generally harsher, I never got stuck there either.
In fact, in almost 20 years of driving, I have never not been able to complete a journey because of the weather. Mainly due to being sensible and driving to the conditions.
We've just had an incredibly mild winter, so unless we are about to have the worst Spring, I remain unconvinced about the requirement to swap to winter tyres in most parts of the UK.
On the way I passed a guy swapping back to summer tyres on his Subaru Legacy and we got chatting.
He tells me he swaps to winters in September and back to Summers in March usually, and swears by them as he proudly told me he has never got stuck, not once.
That's great, Fair play to him.
Thing is, we live in Berkshire, and despite driving a rear wheel drive saloon on all season tyres, I've never been stuck either. I lived in the North East up until six years ago, and although the winters were generally harsher, I never got stuck there either.
In fact, in almost 20 years of driving, I have never not been able to complete a journey because of the weather. Mainly due to being sensible and driving to the conditions.
We've just had an incredibly mild winter, so unless we are about to have the worst Spring, I remain unconvinced about the requirement to swap to winter tyres in most parts of the UK.
I also live in Berkshire and use Winter tyres on my 3 series. I should also add that I live in the countryside amongst miles of untreated roads, and it's not uncommon on my daily commute on a snowy day to find a road that's not been driven on at all. Obviously Winter tyres help there, but it should be noted that they're an awful lot safer in general cold and wet conditions. I'd say they're definitely worth it, but not an essential (I've managed in a variety of RWD cars on summer tyres in the snow, but winters are far safer). You can forget the cost of the tyres, because you're always wearing tyres out, regardless if they're winters or summers, so it's just the cost of the wheels that matters. I got my wheels secondhand from E-Bay (identical wheels to my oiginal fit BMW ones) and paid £60 each to have them refurbished, plus there's always a secondhand value for common wheel styles and sizes, especially with winter tyres fitted to them.
We run them on one car. It very rarely snows enough to matter here, but they do grip appreciably better in cold weather. Comparing Eagle F1 Asymmetric summers to Avon Ice Touring winters on the Octavia, I'd say the change over point in terms of grip levels on dry roads is somewhere around the 3-5 degree mark but the summers tail off significantly faster below that number than the winters do above.
Having said that, the winters have started to feel a bit out of their depth the last few days when the temperatures have been in double figures. Since the car gets mostly used in the afternoons and evenings (when the road is warm) I'll be changing back to summers soon. In practice we run around 3 months a year on winters and 9 months on summers; the downside of this is that I'll be replacing the winters this summer despite the fact that they still have plenty of tread left on them because they're getting too old.
Having said that, the winters have started to feel a bit out of their depth the last few days when the temperatures have been in double figures. Since the car gets mostly used in the afternoons and evenings (when the road is warm) I'll be changing back to summers soon. In practice we run around 3 months a year on winters and 9 months on summers; the downside of this is that I'll be replacing the winters this summer despite the fact that they still have plenty of tread left on them because they're getting too old.
I have winter tyres on the M135i and normal all season on the Range Rover and yes I do find the winter tyres better in cold weather.
It's not just about snow, in cold normal tyre compounds are very hard whereas winters give much better grip in cold and wet winters.
I don't view it as an increased cost as you are just spreading the wear out over 2 sets of tyres.
It's not just about snow, in cold normal tyre compounds are very hard whereas winters give much better grip in cold and wet winters.
I don't view it as an increased cost as you are just spreading the wear out over 2 sets of tyres.
They are winter tyres, not snow tyres.
I finally got my 180SX back on the road this weekend and drove it into work this morning. I was about 1°C this morning and the car felt lovely on the winter tyres. I recall a similar journey in my last one with normal tyres on and traction wasn't as good.
In reality for cold weather performance there is little difference until you need to stop quickly or make a quick get away. Normal driving probably won't notice much. I like the extra margin of safety and it works out not too different in terms of costs as each set of tyres costs the same as the other (+/- a little bit) and last roughly twice as long as a single set of tyres.
I finally got my 180SX back on the road this weekend and drove it into work this morning. I was about 1°C this morning and the car felt lovely on the winter tyres. I recall a similar journey in my last one with normal tyres on and traction wasn't as good.
In reality for cold weather performance there is little difference until you need to stop quickly or make a quick get away. Normal driving probably won't notice much. I like the extra margin of safety and it works out not too different in terms of costs as each set of tyres costs the same as the other (+/- a little bit) and last roughly twice as long as a single set of tyres.
bertie said:
I don't view it as an increased cost as you are just spreading the wear out over 2 sets of tyres.
Only true if you cover enough miles to actually wear them out before age kills them. The average car in the UK does about 10k miles a year and the average set of tyres lasts, what, 30k miles? So if you split that 10k 50/50 between summers and winters, the tyres will be six years old before they run out of tread. You don't have to do much less than an average mileage to push that beyond the age I'd be happy keeping tyres.
Edited by kambites on Monday 2nd March 10:09
lbc said:
Keep the winter tyres on all year, then you don't have to worry about ageing.
Many people do this without any problems.
Far more people run summers in the winter without any problems than winters in the summer. If I had to choose one, I'd go for summers all year 'round for where I live (Southampton). The drop off in grip levels of the winters with road temperatures edging into the teens over the last few days has been marked. I really wouldn't want to be driving on them when the road is 40+ degrees. Many people do this without any problems.
I drove a car from here to Bulgaria on winters in the summer a few years ago... never again.
Edited by kambites on Monday 2nd March 10:23
yes and no
the first year i got them we had a huge amount of snow and they where brilliant, it was like driving on a damp road
the last 2 years it has been so warm in the SE that I have only had to scrape ice of the car a couple of times so they have not been worth fitting, they are positively dangerous when it gets warm (10c+) as the car will not stop
the first year i got them we had a huge amount of snow and they where brilliant, it was like driving on a damp road
the last 2 years it has been so warm in the SE that I have only had to scrape ice of the car a couple of times so they have not been worth fitting, they are positively dangerous when it gets warm (10c+) as the car will not stop
lbc said:
kambites said:
Only true if you cover enough miles to actually wear them out before age kills them.
Keep the winter tyres on all year, then you don't have to worry about ageing.Many people do this without any problems.
2. The car drives significantly worse on winter tyres than on summers. My wife actually noticed it this December from the passenger seat. Personally I can't wait to get the summers back on for the improved handling. ETA: I think it's the softer sidewalls compared to my runflats in summer, as there's quite a big delay in steering response from the front end and everything feels much more vague, plus the overall damping (i.e. the whole system, not just the physical dampers) at both ends of the car is looser, which again is probably down to the change in tyre sidewall stiffness.
Edited by RobM77 on Monday 2nd March 10:43
I swapped the winters back to summers this weekend ... the winters were starting to get a bit lairy in the warmer weather.
I live near London, and this year they were pointless. Really was no need. I've left them at the local tyre place (for free - which is nice) and I'll put them on next winter if the weather dictates, I wont bother putting them on "just because its December"
I live near London, and this year they were pointless. Really was no need. I've left them at the local tyre place (for free - which is nice) and I'll put them on next winter if the weather dictates, I wont bother putting them on "just because its December"
Gassing Station | Suspension, Brakes & Tyres | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff