Winter tyres fitted today
Discussion
Finally got my spare wheels and new vredestein winter tyres fitted. Wheels cost me £800 tyres where £596 fitting £40.
Dealer manual does not recommend them. Why?
Initial impression is that the ride has softened around 25%.
I have had winters on all my cars forthr last 4 years, but let's see if the manual is right or talking rubbish
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/yHSzH06P.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/hIFt9DdV" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/hIFt9DdV.jpg)
Dealer manual does not recommend them. Why?
Initial impression is that the ride has softened around 25%.
I have had winters on all my cars forthr last 4 years, but let's see if the manual is right or talking rubbish
To answer some of the questions.
I was very lucky with the wheels. Spoke to monkfish about recommendations and implications and they said it's fine to run with them. Said ideally I needed 19's to clear AP's. Suggest I call Brett who had the wheels now on my car.
Insurance company admiral knows all my cars have winter tyres and does not need to know when I swap them over. Their only interest is wheels are oem.
As for driving with them you fall in one of two camps:-
Those that have used them
And those that have not.
The difference is night and day. The best analogy that's car related is a F1 car on slicks when the rain is pouring compared to wets.
For me it's a matter of safety. I travel with both my kids and the winters in sub 7 degrees grip, corner and stop better then summers. In icy or snow conditions they are 1000% better. From 7-12 degrees there is not a huge difference and above this you can really start to feel the tread blocks move about, but you get a lot of tactile feedback so you know where you are grip wise. I have now done 100 miles of bedding in on the new tyres and today was around 14 degrees. On a slightly damp road they can take full throttle in second until about 4500rpm when they start to break away. I really don't think this is terrible.
The skeptics out there need to experience to believe, but once you have run on winters you will understand. I can assure you it's not marketing BS. I suggest you check out evo magazine where there is an article about winter versus summers using Bedford coveres in snow and a car jaguar. Chris Harris I believe was the journalist driving and this was my catalyst for buying.
James
I was very lucky with the wheels. Spoke to monkfish about recommendations and implications and they said it's fine to run with them. Said ideally I needed 19's to clear AP's. Suggest I call Brett who had the wheels now on my car.
Insurance company admiral knows all my cars have winter tyres and does not need to know when I swap them over. Their only interest is wheels are oem.
As for driving with them you fall in one of two camps:-
Those that have used them
And those that have not.
The difference is night and day. The best analogy that's car related is a F1 car on slicks when the rain is pouring compared to wets.
For me it's a matter of safety. I travel with both my kids and the winters in sub 7 degrees grip, corner and stop better then summers. In icy or snow conditions they are 1000% better. From 7-12 degrees there is not a huge difference and above this you can really start to feel the tread blocks move about, but you get a lot of tactile feedback so you know where you are grip wise. I have now done 100 miles of bedding in on the new tyres and today was around 14 degrees. On a slightly damp road they can take full throttle in second until about 4500rpm when they start to break away. I really don't think this is terrible.
The skeptics out there need to experience to believe, but once you have run on winters you will understand. I can assure you it's not marketing BS. I suggest you check out evo magazine where there is an article about winter versus summers using Bedford coveres in snow and a car jaguar. Chris Harris I believe was the journalist driving and this was my catalyst for buying.
James
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