The Official Winter Snow Thread 2014/2015

[NRS]

benjj said:

FreeLitres said:

Has anyone had any experiences of really cheap winter tyres?

I would have to buy the steelies/winters out of my own pocket for my company car. I don't want to spend much but I REALLy don't want to be driving around on my current summer tyres with low tread.

I know they will not perform like the top brands, but are cheap winters like these a total waste of time?-

Goodride SW608
Tristar S210
Nankang Snow SV-2
Rotalla S210

I put a set of the Nankang Snow SV2 on my wife's car - Mk4 Golf TDi. 195/65/15

They were properly cheap, less than £200 fitted. I left them on between years so they did winter - summer - winter. I guess she got about 18,000 miles out of them. They were very good in proper snow, ice, standing water etc. Pretty noisy in the dry or at speed compared to the normal Falken summer rubber I put on her car. Basically they work better the worse the weather.

All in all no complaints really. If I lived above the midlands I'd probably use them on a snotter. Below that line I'd probably go for a set of Rainexperts or Vredestein Quattrac (or any other decent 4 season tyres) etc.

By comparison I run Falken HS439 on my car (E39 BMW) and have done for years. They're excellent tyres.

I think generally winters (and particularly cheap ones) have issues with standing water due to the design of the tread to produce as much grip as possible if I remember right? I have spiked good winter tyres and mostly only snow/ ice so not sure of them in the UK style winter.

[benjj]

NRS said:

I think generally winters (and particularly cheap ones) have issues with standing water due to the design of the tread to produce as much grip as possible if I remember right? I have spiked good winter tyres and mostly only snow/ ice so not sure of them in the UK style winter.

That's the opposite of what I've found. These are the specific (UK available) winter tyres I've had experience of:

Falken HS439 Eurowinter (on 2 different BMW E39s)

Superb tyre, excellent in snow, on ice and particularly standing water. I use them winter after winter and love them.



Nankang Snow SV2

As discussed above, had these on my wife's Mk4 Golf and found them to be perfectly acceptable. Noisier than the Falkens, especially when the temp is ablve about 10 degrees, but overall perfectly good for the cash.



Yokohama W Drive

I use these on my old Porsche rally car. Absolutely superb V rated full winter tyre. These got me up to the top of the world in December on the LeJog rally. Absolutely bang on.

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

Please can we not turn this thread into a winter tyre thread
It's all about the weather.

[schmalex]

Agreed. The winter tyre thread is -------------> that way

[andy-xr]

BBC weather seemingly going against what others are saying with a wet and windy October vs a sunny/warm October then a descent to cold

[benjj]

Fricking weather geeks

Noted, winter tyre st ends here.

[mcelliott]

Hopefully autumn continues along the same vein as today.

[Jasandjules]

andy-xr said:

BBC weather seemingly going against what others are saying with a wet and windy October vs a sunny/warm October then a descent to cold

Well due to all the Pension Funding the BBC are unlikely to say it will be cold over Winter.. I mean, we should be out in shorts and T-shirts due to all the Global Warming.

[Puggit]

Snow has arrived on the Cairngorms!

https://twitter.com/MarkVogan/status/5183156846618...

[jimmyjimjim]

And it's pink!

[Wills2]

I was in Barnes on Thursday it was stupidly hot for October I was even looking for shade, it's even warm and sunny in the grim north today.

[DJRC]

It must be winter folks... The DJRC winter travel travails have started!.
Hammer it through a rainstorm to Heathrow to catch the dawn red eye to Rome. 20mins sat on aircraft and pilot announces the engineers have told them the plane is fked.

Here we go again

[Rosscow]

v8250 said:

Well Boys and Girls, I thought it's about time to kick this off. Last year's thread started 27.08.13 so we're even ahead of schedule.

What's sparked this off in my mind is that I'm picking up a new set of winter wheels for the FXT and have been researching winter tyres...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Nokian's are looking good at the moment.

So, Puggit, Schmalex and all the other time tested PH forecasters...what do you think; snow or no snow?

Just for your information OP, I use the Nokian WR A3's on my A6 and they are superb.

[madbadger]

101mph wind gust on Caingorm yesterday.

Bracing.

[83AndyJ]

I changed employers recently and should be covered for winter motoring. Company cars now consist of Ford Focus and Land Rover Defender. Bring the snow!

[J4CKO]

Time to get slicks fitted then !

http://www.signal1.co.uk/on-air/blogs/chris-bovair...

[schmalex]

The jet stream is currently slightly south, which is a good thing if you like cold. A loooooong way to go before anything can be called accurately, though.

[Wills2]

J4CKO said:

Time to get slicks fitted then !

http://www.signal1.co.uk/on-air/blogs/chris-bovair...

Yep as that does seem to be the usual suspects saying the same stuff they said last year around this time, expect a daily Express "Thousands to die in worst snow ever!" headline soon.

[Blue Oval84]

Wills2 said:

J4CKO said:

Time to get slicks fitted then !

http://www.signal1.co.uk/on-air/blogs/chris-bovair...

Yep as that does seem to be the usual suspects saying the same stuff they said last year around this time, expect a daily Express "Thousands to die in worst snow ever!" headline soon.

Am I missing something here? The following Express link was from Oct 2013 and appears to be word for word as per the article linked to above...

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/436170/Worst-wint...

[red_slr]

We (my company) sell rock salt in the winter and this is the first year in a while where we have decided not to stock it this year.... time will tell! Still have a bit left over from last year just in case the SHTF but I cant see it myself.