All season tyres or stay with Summer tyres?

[stabilio]

In the Spring, I picked up a 2018 Ranger Rover Sport to ferry us all about now the kids are getting close to adult size and as we live more in the sticks, I would say 40% of our journeys involve narrow country roads on broken surfaces and often having to pull onto verges to let other cars past in narrow spots and almost no motorway driving.
Right now the RRS is on Summer tyres which I've been really pleased with considering the size and weight of the car and theres a lot of tread left still.
With the weather now on the turn, I can't help thinking I should get a set of all Season tyres fitted (Pirelli Scorpian Zeros AS/ Pirelli Scorpian Verdes AS) but I keep reading mixed reviews how they grip in the wet and often have less wet grip than Summer tyres unless its much colder.

Can anyone chip in and suggest whether its worth the cost?
Wheels are 22" so won't come cheap and I don't really want to buy a set of Smaller 20" wheels, winter tyres (plus additional typre pressure sensors) as that will double the cost and have the hassle of storing them for 8 or 9 months of the year. The last couple of Winters haven't been that cold so Winter tyres may a bit overkill... but who knows what the weather will do this Winter.

[wyson]

Depends on what part of the country you live in. Tyrereviews recommends going for all seasons tyres in the winter and summer tyres in the summer for best performance in the southern UK. If you live at the northern tip of scotland, perhaps full winters will be better.

[Smint]

If the salting of your roads is suspect or missing when needed then quite likely the winter rated rubber could be justified, as you know its not just are you able to proceed (a RR on slicks would probably make it through anything but deep drifting snow) but AWD makes little difference when it comes to braking, and narrow roads means just that.

Only you can tell how the grip of your present tyres diminishes as the temperature drops and the roads are wet for days on end, if your present set are showing good grip it might be worth seeing how they go, on the other hand if they are a uniform set with decent tread then you could always flog them on once replaced.

Can't comment on your likely choice of all seasons.

[Evanivitch]

I didn't have all seasons on last winter. Couldn't get in our out of my side street at times.

If you've nowhere to be and can just wait till the melt then perhaps don't bother. If you think you'll need the grip just to get home, then they're probably worth it.

[charltjr]

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

[stabilio]

charltjr said:

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

Cross Climates 2's are excellent yes and had them on a couple of previous cars. They don't make them in the size needed though

[stabilio]

Evanivitch said:

I didn't have all seasons on last winter. Couldn't get in our out of my side street at times.

If you've nowhere to be and can just wait till the melt then perhaps don't bother. If you think you'll need the grip just to get home, then they're probably worth it.

True but its more about cold and wet conditions (below 7 degrees where Summer times drop off) rather than snowy conditions.

[Smint]

Further to my previous comment, my son bought and fitted a set of full winter tyres/wheel to his BMW estate, so alamingly poor was the wet grip that he took them off and ran the rest of the winter on the summer set of Firestone runflats which proved to be absolutely fine in all conditions.

If your present set don't start giving you squeaky bum moments on cold wet days i'd be inclined to hold fire and defer the decision until wear dicates obvious renewal, in the mean time keep researching what best for you and your car and keep an eye open (during summer especially) for an unmissable bargain that will hopefully crop up.

[A.J.M]

I’ve got the Scorpian verde all seasons on my freeby 2.

I’ve never had any problems with them and I’ve done 36k with them fitted to the car.
They are in 19 inch size for my car, when this set wears down, I’ll be replacing with another set.
My car came from Inverness and it had them fitted, so they are fine for the central belt of Scotland where I live.

[Bill]

stabilio said:

Pirelli Scorpion Verdes AS

IIRC Harry of Harry's Garage fame really rates these for year round use on a FFRR.

I'm in a similar rural situation, albeit further south and with a smaller AWD, and have gone for a summer tyre that was best rated in the wet on tyrereviews (?.com). On my D4 I ran winters year round for a while without issue but getting hold of replacements was a pain when I had a puncture in the summer, so went to summers Pirellis which were also fine.

[kambites]

Modern all-season tyres are very good - their warm-weather performance is a world away from where they were not long ago. We switched from using Eagle F1 Asymmetrics over to Crossclimates a while ago and the difference in summer grip felt negligible.

ETA: Ah I see you say they're not available in the right size. Not sure about the more cold-weather focused all-season tyres.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 12th November 10:03

[MustangGT]

charltjr said:

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

Both are the definition of an 'all-season' tyre.

No need for all-season and summer, just go all-season all year.

[Evanivitch]

MustangGT said:

charltjr said:

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

Both are the definition of an 'all-season' tyre.

No need for all-season and summer, just go all-season all year.

The point they were making is some tyres are derived from winter tyre compounds and design, but those two are (supposedly) summer derived.

[aeropilot]

I specced the Pirelli Scorpion Verde AS on my X5 when I ordered it, and am now on the the second set and I've got no complaints about wet weather grip or any other issue with them, and in the now 6 years I've had the X5, they have been equally great in +35C as in -5C.

I'm only on 19" rims though, so not sure how good they'd be on massive 22" rims...?

[Sheepshanks]

Smint said:

Further to my previous comment, my son bought and fitted a set of full winter tyres/wheel to his BMW estate, so alamingly poor was the wet grip that he took them off and ran the rest of the winter on the summer set of Firestone runflats which proved to be absolutely fine in all conditions.

That's pretty odd - is he driving everywhere at ten tenths?

I've had full winters year round on a couple of cars and they've never given a moment's concern. Michelin Alpin's on one of them, and they even look like summer tyres. Ran a Merc C Class estate (a model noted for beimg hopeless in slippy weather) with All Seasons and they made the car feel imperious.

I got a set of winter's for wife's 4Motion Tiguan as the dealers were selling them very cheap, but I was also thinking that it's be pretty embarrassing to have an SUV that got stuck in a bit of snow. I did have to do one cross-country journey in it on ungritted back roads after it snowed unexpectedly and it was brilliant just driving around everyone else. You do have to be careful not to get over-confident as the car pulled away like it was on dry tarmac.

[ChocolateFrog]

I'd go All Season.

I'd also downsize unless you just can't live without 22in wheels.

[aeropilot]

Sheepshanks said:

Smint said:

Further to my previous comment, my son bought and fitted a set of full winter tyres/wheel to his BMW estate, so alamingly poor was the wet grip that he took them off and ran the rest of the winter on the summer set of Firestone runflats which proved to be absolutely fine in all conditions.

That's pretty odd - is he driving everywhere at ten tenths?

I agree, seem very odd. I used to run full winters on my E82 135i, between Nov and April, even though only living in SE of UK, and even with 325hp, the car was perfectly fine whether dry or wet. In fact in wet weather, the winters were probably better than the P Zero summers.
However, many people fit smaller diameter rims with winter tyres, which in UK can make the car feel more squidgy in feel, but I kept same size rims for the winters, which I think is the better bet for UK conditions.
In more wintery areas with greater snow/ice than narrower and smaller diameter would be the way to go.

[A500leroy]

https://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/michelin-crossclima...

[MustangGT]

Evanivitch said:

MustangGT said:

charltjr said:

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

Both are the definition of an 'all-season' tyre.

No need for all-season and summer, just go all-season all year.

The point they were making is some tyres are derived from winter tyre compounds and design, but those two are (supposedly) summer derived.

Where is the information for this, I am very interested. My understanding was the compounds used for 4 season was not the same as either summer or winter tyres.

[aeropilot]

MustangGT said:

Evanivitch said:

MustangGT said:

charltjr said:

A winterised summer tyre like the crossclimate or Vector 4seasons sounds ideal for your use case.

Both are the definition of an 'all-season' tyre.

No need for all-season and summer, just go all-season all year.

The point they were making is some tyres are derived from winter tyre compounds and design, but those two are (supposedly) summer derived.

Where is the information for this, I am very interested. My understanding was the compounds used for 4 season was not the same as either summer or winter tyres.

Correct, compound is between summers and winters. Almost all 'summer' tyres start to struggle below 5-7C as they can get hard below that, although some are better than otehrs in this regard, whereas AS are good for below freezing.