Winter tyres in summer?

[HellDiver]

I'm due tyres on the Mondeo in the next month or so, so I'm considering putting winters or all seasons on. Considering we seem to be getting some miserable winters now, and summer is warm and wet, am I mad to consider running winters all year?

I don't do much mileage, 1 mile commute during the week, and a 150 round trip every other weekend on motorway and then slow moving A/B roads. There's also the occasional roadtrip (I'm talking 800 miles in 3 or 4 days sort of thing, just general touring).

I don't go more than 65mph on the motorway either, so high speed performance isn't a requirement. Besides it's a 1.8 Mondeo, so performance isn't really a worry.

Currently the car has Bridgestone Turanza ER300 and Hankook Ventus Prime on it. 205-55/16 91H is the size.

I'm considering the following tyres:

Nokian eNTYRE (a new 4-seasons tyre developed for N. America)
http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=99244&group...

Nokian WRG2 (full winters)
http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11899&group...

Bridgestone Blizzak LM30 (full winters)
http://www.bridgestone.eu/tyres/cars-suvs-and-4x4s...

What say the PH masses? Anyone else run winters all year?

[SystemParanoia]

winters will wear out ridiculously fast at temps over 7 deg c

just run 2 sets of wheels/tyres of thats the path youre looking to take

[HellDiver]

SystemParanoia said:

winters will wear out ridiculously fast at temps over 7 deg c

10k a year at worst? So 5k in non-winter temps, surely they'd survive that?

[SystemParanoia]

its possible.. but the rubber will go over its optimal running temps and handling may be worse as the blocks of tread wobble about.


its only £400 ish for a set of 4, so give it a try and report back in a year

[sawman]

HellDiver said:

, 1 mile commute during the week,

please tell me you have missed a zero off

I test drove a forrester last summer with winter tyres on, it squealed like a 70's cop movie around a roundabout

[OnTheOverrun]

Have a look at the Vredestein Quatrac 3. They are technically all-season but they are rated as a full winter tyre by the German TUV. I run them all year round on the Doblo and they are great. In the snow we had earlier in the year I'd rate them as 90% as good as a full winter (I've run several types of full winters on Chrysler Voyagers in Switzerland for comparison) and they work well even in the 25 degree C averages we've had here over the past few weeks.

[Bluebarge]

They will wear out fairly quickly and your braking distances will be longer, when used at temps over 7c. 4 season tyres are a better bet, but some have indifferent test results - Hankook Optimo 4s tyres seem to get good reviews, and are what I am considering fitting next to the family wagon. I expect you will only find them on Mytyres, esp. at this time of year.

P.s for your purposes, it may be cheaper to fit summer tyres, walk the 1 mile to work, and skip the 150 mile weekend trip if the weather's bad

[Deva Link]

I have a Merc and some MB forum members run winter tyres year round, and get better life from them than others do on summer tyres.

[Roo]

I put a set of winter tyres on one of my cars when we had the snow at the end of last year. Haven't bothered swapping them back.

As someone said, they squeal like an old American cop car when the weather is warm though. Given that it's on a Ford Crown Victoria it just adds to the realism.

[HellDiver]

Walking to work isn't an option, I car share with my other half who works in the same building, and we both may need the car during the day for personal or business reasons.

I'm thinking 4-seasons might be a better plan after all. The Hankooks and Quatracs do seem to get good reviews, though availability is a pain with both of those.

The Nokian Entyre might be worth having a go with. It's cheap, it's a new design, and Nokian know their stuff...

Edited by HellDiver on Monday 19th July 11:55

[F i F]

Having taken the dreadful nominally all weather Firestones off my mRs car and put on Nokian W+ I haven't got round to swapping them back. It's a low mileage vehicle 4k max per year.

Contrary to the opinion expressed above I can find no measurable wear on them in the recent hot weather. Neither tread depth nor rounding off the corners of the blocks. Clearly however the car is generally driven very gently and short distances, ie a 20 mile round trip is as far as it ever goes and then not every week.

The blanket statement that they (winter tyres generally) wear like bar stewards above 7deg C is frankly utter tripe. The tyre manufacturers will admit that the wear begins to increase above 10C.

Nokian WR G2s are used by some taxi firms ll year round, and while I wouldn't do that if high mileage preferring the two sets of rims and tyres route, for a low mileage car like our second car it's worth a risk, hence the trial this year with the W+ Nokians which aiui are similar in concept to WR which are not readily available in Europe. That may be your stumbling block, availability of these USA/Canada targeted tyres. Note I've not checked your profile to see where you are so I may be talking hollyhocks and you are over there already.

edited, just seen you are in UK, the only all weather I'd consider would be the Quatrac but availability can be a pain unless you source away from the winter tyre season. ie now.

Edited by F i F on Monday 19th July 11:56

[HellDiver]

Thanks for that post, FiF. We do get more than average snow here, so I definitely want something for the winter. Our estate is unsalted in winter too, and has quite a steep hill. Last year I was running Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme on my Lancer, which got up the hill no problems, past all the dead and stuck vehicles parked at the bottom. We also saw -10C for nearly a week.

Sadly, I still have the winter tyres from the Lancer, but they're 18" tyres - I think it'd be daft running 18" snow tyres on a car that normally has 16" rims.

[road_rager]

i still have winter tyres on my bmw, they seem fine to be honest, they dont seem to be wearing out any faster than normal tyres either

[OnTheOverrun]

HellDiver said:

Walking to work isn't an option, I car share with my other half who works in the same building, and we both may need the car during the day for personal or business reasons.

I'm thinking 4-seasons might be a better plan after all. The Hankooks and Quatracs do seem to get good reviews, though availability is a pain with both of those.

The Nokian Entyre might be worth having a go with. It's cheap, it's a new design, and Nokian know their stuff...

Edited by HellDiver on Monday 19th July 11:55

www.camskill.co.uk have the Quatrac 3 in stock in your size for £70 a tyre.

[neil_w]

I got vredestein wintrac xtremes on the front of my bravo in november and haven't bothered changing back to summer tyres, since then I've done about 18,000 miles and they still have 5/6mm tread left.

I can't say I've noticed any bad effects from using them in the summer, they grip better than the cheap tyres the fiat garage had put on the car and I've not heard any squealing noises.

[HellDiver]

I'm now thinking of getting a cheap set of 18" rims for the Mondeo, and transferring the Wintrac Xtremes I have (redundant as they were for the Lancer I don't have any more). £400 for a set of rims to reuse £620 worth of oddly sized winter tyres is probably a good plan.

[OnTheOverrun]

HellDiver said:

I'm now thinking of getting a cheap set of 18" rims for the Mondeo, and transferring the Wintrac Xtremes I have (redundant as they were for the Lancer I don't have any more). £400 for a set of rims to reuse £620 worth of oddly sized winter tyres is probably a good plan.

Are they roughly the same size as the existing wheel/tyre combo?

http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp

[otolith]

OnTheOverrun said:

Have a look at the Vredestein Quatrac 3. They are technically all-season but they are rated as a full winter tyre by the German TUV. I run them all year round on the Doblo and they are great. In the snow we had earlier in the year I'd rate them as 90% as good as a full winter (I've run several types of full winters on Chrysler Voyagers in Switzerland for comparison) and they work well even in the 25 degree C averages we've had here over the past few weeks.

I would echo that. They were great in the winter and they've been absolutely fine in the recent hot, dry weather too - and everything in between. Great tyre for a non-sporting car, IMO.

[Fittster]

Surely it's as bad to run winter tyres in the summer as it is to run summer tyres in the winter. They don't perform as well as tyres that are designed for the conditions.

Would your insurance firm pay out if you crash in mid summer and you're driving on tyres designed to work at less 7 degrees?

[HellDiver]

OnTheOverrun said:

HellDiver said:

I'm now thinking of getting a cheap set of 18" rims for the Mondeo, and transferring the Wintrac Xtremes I have (redundant as they were for the Lancer I don't have any more). £400 for a set of rims to reuse £620 worth of oddly sized winter tyres is probably a good plan.

Are they roughly the same size as the existing wheel/tyre combo?

http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp

They're 225-45-18, Mondeo runs 225-40-18 as standard. 4.4% difference in rolling radius, which is fine.

Some people still seem to think that winters will melt as soon as the temps go above 7C - they don't.