Winter tyres in Europe at this time of year?!

[Pet Troll]

We are planning a trip down through France into Italy next week and coming back via Switzerland. As far as I can tell in all the countries we will be going in winter tyres are only 'advised' rather than required. (Swiss required chain to be carried).

I have some winter tyres I can put on the car, the only reason I don't want to is the ones I have are marked M & S but feel VERY soft compound, so doing a lot of miles on tarmac rather than snow seems like it will wear them out very quickly, especially if there are any twisties.

We aren't planning on going over any passes in Switzerland as I assume they will all be shut, but will the less elevated roads be likely to have snow or not? Is there any way to get a Euro weather forecast?

[Pet Troll]

Hmm, sounds like I should probably fit them, I'm just worried about them being too soft and wearing out (they're new) before we get back due to all the non-snowy driving.

I am mega busy before we go away but might see if I can fit them tomorrow and see how they cope on a couple of 50 mile trips over the weekend.

[Pet Troll]

davepoth said:

They are a different compound of rubber and designed to be flexible at much lower temperatures (i.e. about the same as a tyre sat in a shed), which will explain the difference. They'll be absolutely fine, and even in the weather we're due to have this weekend you'll probably get more grip than you would with summer tyres.

Thanks for the advice, they are currently sat on top of the dishwasher in the kitchen and at room temperature they are so soft and squidgy it has just worried me a little that any slightly exuberant driving will result in instantly shredded tyres.

The alternative is to go with what is on the car at the moment which is hankook 'something or others' with about 5mm of tread. If the Hankooks are all weathers (I'll check tomorrow) should I stick to them?

Edited by Pet Troll on Friday 5th December 00:32

[Pet Troll]

I was hoping to get them put on today to have a trial driving them in non- freezing conditions to see how they fare but sadly I didn't get a chance, been no stop all day. I'm busy all day tomorrow so it will have to be Sunday morning that I fit them as we are planning on catching the tunnel in the evening.

I've come to the conclusion that if they do wear extremely fast on the non-cold sections of the trip then I can buy another set of winters out there and still have my current tyres to come home to so no big deal.

[Pet Troll]

Time to update as I'm back from this little jaunt.

I probably didn't need the winter tyres as it 95% of the trip was above 7 degrees. However I wanted to see how good they were on snow so whilst in Switzerland I made sure to drive up towards the Furka pass (which was closed) and did some driving on snow covered roads, I was amazed at how good the tyres were, it wasn't far off driving on a wet road. Excellent braking performance.

I didn't want to mention the make of tyres before going for fear of being ridiculed but having seen how well they perform I am happy to admit that they are 'no name' retreads that cost me £130 delivered for a set of 4. They were perfectly fine in the warmer driving, even with plenty of spirited driving on the twisties and have only work about 1mm over 3000 miles.

Overall I am very impressed!