Winter tyres vol 2
Discussion
Cold said:
Well now, that's disappointing. 
Got this repaired first thing this morning. It appeared to be one of those flatpack furniture assembly screws. Popped in to my local guy who was only doing walk-ins for a couple of hours before painting the workshop floor.
It cost ten quid in the Christmas box and six mince pies.
Am I the only one not to change over as yet?
Have my set of Michelin Alpin A4 gathering dust since last April, they are getting on a bit now being made in 2014 and 5/6mm thread depth.
I do have other alternatives as the other cars are shod in CrossClimate's and Vector 4 Seasons.
Maybe it's because I am using this car less and it's a pain to get the trolley jack out?
Maybe I am just lazy?
Have my set of Michelin Alpin A4 gathering dust since last April, they are getting on a bit now being made in 2014 and 5/6mm thread depth.
I do have other alternatives as the other cars are shod in CrossClimate's and Vector 4 Seasons.
Maybe it's because I am using this car less and it's a pain to get the trolley jack out?
Maybe I am just lazy?
We got hit by 6 to 9 inches of snow in November. We are normally very good with snow in the NE US but this was very early and very fast. It took only an hour to go from dusting to 6 inches. I saw a guy blow his engine up going up a very slight slope. So slight that I hadn’t noticed any issues and couldn’t understand what was going on. For reference that was a golf.
This is when I’m relieved I had all season tyres put on. I have continental DWS06 295x35x21 on my car. Compared to the previous set they are incredible. I drive them all year and see no real world impact in the Summer due to the crap roads we have here.
For the fellow Porsche owners here, Porsche US couldn’t care less about the tyres on my car. Not even mentioned when I went in for warranty work.
This is when I’m relieved I had all season tyres put on. I have continental DWS06 295x35x21 on my car. Compared to the previous set they are incredible. I drive them all year and see no real world impact in the Summer due to the crap roads we have here.
For the fellow Porsche owners here, Porsche US couldn’t care less about the tyres on my car. Not even mentioned when I went in for warranty work.
Following on from Porsche not caring, the Mrs' Skoda always got a comment about the winter tyres. Which was a surprise the first time them saying "you do know it's got winter tyres on?"
I could have understood that comment in June, but this was in a February with a fair bit of snow less than a week previously.
I could have understood that comment in June, but this was in a February with a fair bit of snow less than a week previously.
I ordered four winter tyres from an online supplier. The confirmation email indicates tyres below a certain size can be batched into one consignment. Above that level and up to another size-point, they will be batched in pairs and above that upper limit, they will be sent individually.
Guess which option my 295/40-21 tyres fell under.
DPD, in their massive wisdom, decided to ship three of them to me towards the end of last week, delivering them on Friday. The fourth has been sat in a local (to me) warehouse all weekend awaiting delivery some time this week frustrating me because I had time to get them fitted over the weekend and now I do not.
To put me under a bit of pressure, one of my conventional tyres punctured some ten days ago. It cannot be repaired - I appear to have driven over a Stanley blade which has slashed the tyre in the tread, not the sidewall (if it were the sidewall I would suspect foul play). I cannot replace that tyre alone because all of them are pretty worn so having one new one would be wrong.
So, until my fourth winter tyre turns up, and I can find the time to go and get them all fitted, I am driving around in a Merc GL with a space saver on the rear. It looks comically sad.
Guess which option my 295/40-21 tyres fell under.
DPD, in their massive wisdom, decided to ship three of them to me towards the end of last week, delivering them on Friday. The fourth has been sat in a local (to me) warehouse all weekend awaiting delivery some time this week frustrating me because I had time to get them fitted over the weekend and now I do not.
To put me under a bit of pressure, one of my conventional tyres punctured some ten days ago. It cannot be repaired - I appear to have driven over a Stanley blade which has slashed the tyre in the tread, not the sidewall (if it were the sidewall I would suspect foul play). I cannot replace that tyre alone because all of them are pretty worn so having one new one would be wrong.
So, until my fourth winter tyre turns up, and I can find the time to go and get them all fitted, I am driving around in a Merc GL with a space saver on the rear. It looks comically sad.
Sounds pathetic but it's time constraints really - it's only a temporary issue but I have only time to visit the tyre place once in the next couple of weeks. Fortunately in that time, I don't need to travel far but I do hate having the space saver on the car, as much for incompleteness of the car-spec as much as the lack of any further contingency for punctures (only my third in 32 years of driving).
Anyway, the last tyre turned up over lunch. I'm booked-in to swap them over on Thursday.
Separately, I wish to increase my negative camber because I habitually wear the outer edge of my tyres and I want to do it now because I'm fitting new tyres to the car. The process for this involves replacing the front lower wishbone bolts on each side with a "special" notched bolt that I bought from Mercedes directly, and then matching the movement of the front bush by sliding the rear bush outwards accordingly (to bring the caster back to standard). The tyre place will fit tyres I have sourced myself but won't fit parts they don't supply. I could do the work myself but the car is really heavy so rather than trust my jack and stands (bought to build and maintain Caterhams), I'd rather pay to have this done but it looks like I'll have to find somewhere else when I have time.
Anyway, the last tyre turned up over lunch. I'm booked-in to swap them over on Thursday.
Separately, I wish to increase my negative camber because I habitually wear the outer edge of my tyres and I want to do it now because I'm fitting new tyres to the car. The process for this involves replacing the front lower wishbone bolts on each side with a "special" notched bolt that I bought from Mercedes directly, and then matching the movement of the front bush by sliding the rear bush outwards accordingly (to bring the caster back to standard). The tyre place will fit tyres I have sourced myself but won't fit parts they don't supply. I could do the work myself but the car is really heavy so rather than trust my jack and stands (bought to build and maintain Caterhams), I'd rather pay to have this done but it looks like I'll have to find somewhere else when I have time.
Pica-Pica said:
ATM said:
I'm sure I heard somewhere that England has the wettest weather of all of Europe and yet we buy more convertibles. If that's true then I'd guess we have more crashes due to standing water too. I got caught out in a slight dip between a left and a right. I think water was running into the road from the verge but I can't be sure. I went into the services to wait for the truck and some lads working there told me that it happens a lot there. I did well to keep the car facing forward. The front was fine...
I am sure NI, West Wales, and (West) Scotland has more rain than England, not sure about convertibles though!the Algarve on the other hand gets more rain than england, despite it not raining much at all for 6 months of the year.
add sand, oil and diesel and it's quite dramatic when the first rains arrive after summer.
not many convertibles in the Algarve. TOO sunny.
The Goodride winters on our family bus are down to 4mm and the car is downright dangerous, it keeps trying to spin off the road on corners. The replacements have been ordered - Nexen N Blue 4-Seasons. I'll report back once they're on and have been scrubbed in a bit. To be frank nothing could be worse than what's on there at the moment. The car is lethal!
I've had Falken Winters on my 3 ton Boxer campervan for 18months now & 20k plus miles, just swapped fronts to rears as fronts were about 1/2 way, rears were still like new. Have been mighty impressed with them to date. Brilliant in the snow & good on ice & no issues at all in the wet, bit squirmy when fresh but that is fine & as expected, its no sports car. Well impressed with the wear rate too, they should do 50k miles maybe a tad more if I can time the last of them down to the summertime.
Still rubbish on wet grass though been stuck more than a couple of times lol, if only they did van winter knobblies in the right weight limits.
Still rubbish on wet grass though been stuck more than a couple of times lol, if only they did van winter knobblies in the right weight limits.
I had 4 Bridgestone A005 tyres for my car in November. They replaced the Michelin Energy that the car was fitted with from new. They had about 32,000 miles on them, the fronts were down to about 2mm and there wasn't much wear on the rears, both pairs were showing signs of cracking from age.
Obviously I can't compare the Bridgestone to a new set of Michelin Energy, but so far they have been a revalation. The car had 6,400 miles or so when I bought it, so the tyres were good, but it was always rather understeery, but now it is totally different. It has never felt so sure footed. Clearly we haven't had any snow, but we have had some cold, wet weather and the tyres have excelled.
They seem to ride slightly better as well and they were very reasonably priced, the only slight downside is the car does seem to be using a little more fuel.
If you are umming and arring about buying winter/all season tyres then just get some, they're miles better.
Obviously I can't compare the Bridgestone to a new set of Michelin Energy, but so far they have been a revalation. The car had 6,400 miles or so when I bought it, so the tyres were good, but it was always rather understeery, but now it is totally different. It has never felt so sure footed. Clearly we haven't had any snow, but we have had some cold, wet weather and the tyres have excelled.
They seem to ride slightly better as well and they were very reasonably priced, the only slight downside is the car does seem to be using a little more fuel.
If you are umming and arring about buying winter/all season tyres then just get some, they're miles better.
I put new Dunlop Winter Response 2's on my car around the end of November. Granted the temperature here has probably averaged about 7/8 degrees during the day since then, a few warmer days and a few colder days sure, but I have noticed a difference. Anything around 9.5/10 degrees or warmer, and they start to get a bit squirmy above 65mph. However, below 8 degrees and they feel "normal", however what really impressed me was the wet grip. Not long after fitting them, we had some serious rain and caused a lot of standing water patches. Hit one or two slightly faster than I would have liked while on rural roads at night, but the car didn't even flinch. It didn't even pull to one side, it simply stayed tracking straight ahead, whereas the Goodyear Efficient Grips that it wore during the summer would have either pulled the car or given a sense of impeding momentary loss of grip.
Looking at the forecast ahead by 7 days, looks like the temperature is dropping and a sprinkling of light snow may occur.
Looking at the forecast ahead by 7 days, looks like the temperature is dropping and a sprinkling of light snow may occur.
M4 owner here - After getting caught out and stuck a few times last year, I bought myself a set of winters and had them fitted last week. Been snowing for the last few hours with a few inches lying, so it was a good chance to go out and have a play. What a difference, I'm quite amazed tbh. A few steep hills around this way which I'd usually have no chance to get up and end up turning round, but have just navigated them with zero issues! I'm a convert after dismissing them for years. Tyres are the Vredstein Wintrac Xtreme's.
Usually dread taking the M out in this stuff, but bring it on!
Usually dread taking the M out in this stuff, but bring it on!
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