What snow tyres?

[reedman]

I've bought a Freelander to spend the winter in France.

My problem I will need some snow tyres its running on 215/65/16.
They're just normal road tyres.

Any thoughts
JR

[grand cherokee]

Vredestein Wintrac 4Xtreme - job done

run my RR on these - you will be amazed at their performance

best price i got was from Tyremen - search on web

only about £10 delivery for 4 RR tyres

edit - checked their web site - only £10 delivery for 4 tyres!

i'll be honest, i was dubious about the 'claims' of winter tyres until about 4 years ago when i had the Grand Cherokee - was at the garage and the forecourt was solid ice about 100m x 100m - i'd slid all over the place on my normal tyres

another customer came in driving far too fast and simply hit the brakes - stopped in a straight line without the slightest 'twitch' - convinced as tests don't take into account coming round a corner and finding a sheet of ice!

Edited by grand cherokee on Sunday 9th December 13:52

[Sarge 4x4]

Agree......big Vredestien fan. Well worth a look is the General Snow Grabber.

Love rubber, I wonder why.

[David911RSR]

I have Vredestein Wintrac 4Xtreme fitted to our D4. They are excellent

[David911RSR]

I have Vredestein Wintrac 4Xtreme fitted to our D4. They are excellent

[superlightr]

just ordred some Pirelli Scorpian ATR for wifes D3 - hopefully get them next week. First foray into all weather tyres but good write ups for snow/ice. I though the standard fit Pierlli Scopion M+S were good but after reading their write up for ice/snow and the ATRs should be miles better.

[Coolbanana]

I've also got Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme's on my RRS in 275/40/20.

Not had the opportunity to use them yet since I haven't needed to use the car since they were fitted but heard good things about them.

I used General Grabber AT's on my previous D4 which were good too.

[bogie]

same here, been running the Vred Wintrac for 2 years now, fine in summer too, I never change them on the RR and 30K miles later still plenty left on them

[Sarge 4x4]

superlightr said:

just ordred some Pirelli Scorpian ATR for wifes D3 - hopefully get them next week. First foray into all weather tyres but good write ups for snow/ice. I though the standard fit Pierlli Scopion M+S were good but after reading their write up for ice/snow and the ATRs should be miles better.

Waste of time as once it's down to zero they don't work anything like a winter tyre, maybe a tad better than the Scorpion, they have a good sidewall which they need in slippy conditions as they will slide.

After all the OP stated "What snow tyres".

Great fan of the Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme's.

[chappj]

Currently running Goodyear wrangler 255/60/18's on my D3 which need replacing in the next week or 2. Can you run the WINTRAC 4 XTREME's all year?

[Sarge 4x4]

To get the best out of Wintrac's it's best to changeback march/april to summer but we have many, many customers running these all year with no problem. On D3 customers are getting 40,000 miles out of them and are happy to run all year.

I would rather be on a winter tyre in the summer than a summer tyre in the winter, always drive to the conditions of the weather and the roads.

Winter tyres are getting very popular and not just on 4x4's.

[superlightr]

Sarge 4x4 said:

superlightr said:

just ordred some Pirelli Scorpian ATR for wifes D3 - hopefully get them next week. First foray into all weather tyres but good write ups for snow/ice. I though the standard fit Pierlli Scopion M+S were good but after reading their write up for ice/snow and the ATRs should be miles better.

Waste of time as once it's down to zero they don't work anything like a winter tyre, maybe a tad better than the Scorpion, they have a good sidewall which they need in slippy conditions as they will slide.

After all the OP stated "What snow tyres".

Great fan of the Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme's.

Understand where you are coming from and will trust your expertise. Thought an all season tyre may be a good option for us seeing the zeros need changing and should be a bit more capable the the zeros for the D3 in the winter.

So hopefully not a complete waste of time !!


Any views on the Alpin PA4s for a merc as considering changing over from summer although the man maths may mean getting back into Defender with the OE conti AT. Used to have a G4 and loved it. sad to have sold it now.


http://www.pirelli.com/tyre/gb/en/car/genericConte...

Edited by superlightr on Friday 14th December 00:04

Edited by superlightr on Friday 14th December 00:08

[asgard]

I have Pirelli ATRs on my D4 and all I can say is they were fantastic in the snow last year (Kent) and are a favoured tyre by many. Clearly not billed as a pure winter tyre though, but far from being a 'waste of time'.

[Sarge 4x4]

Maybe I was a tad harsh on the AT/R......... good all round tyre but an All Terrain, so a jack of all trades but master of none, they do work well and we sell quite a few but "not a winter tyre", not everyone want's to run two sets of tyres so will go for next best so All Terrain fits the bill along with other AT tyres on the market.

All Season tyres are maybe best for the UK in my opinion and we are seeing more and more customers going in that direction.

Lots of winter tyres on the market and all leading makes give a good account of themselves but you don't have to have your pocket raped to find great tyres at proper money and I do think this is where the Vredestein fits in very well, very good tyres, I could fit any make on our 4x4's but choose the Wintrac's which are also a tyre that does not suffer from poor summer use.

The Pirelli AT/R has been around for a long time now and has a big following but the 19" is no longer an official UK tyre as Pirelli found the market to small, we no longer stock these as the supply is now very poor so if we sold a set and a customer was unlucky to trash one it would be poor if we could not back them up.

Another All Terrain tyre well worth a look is the General AT, made in a lot more sizes than others and a very popular tyre.

As I have said there is a huge choice on the market so only you can make the call as to which is best for your needs and we don't get much snow down here in the South East.

The thing to think about is that your tyres are the only four small contacts on whatever you are driving on.

[FiF]

Same vehicle as OP, have replaced the Pirelli Scorpion All Seasons with Nokian WR G2 SUV. Had good experience with others from this manufacturer, and intend to run them year round. They have the snowflake and mountain symbol, sold as winters in Europe, but sold as All weathers on N American continent appearing on both the winter and summer tyre pages of nokiantires.com.

[HarryW]

Thread resurection...Been away on business for the last month so missed this.
Do most go for a spare set of rims or do you swap the tyres and keep the summer tyres in the garage for remounting another day?
I've a FL2 on 18" and a spare set of rims is about the same price as the tyres again, being a bit parsimonious I'd rather spend that on a few more cases of wine for christmas.......also will 4 tyres fit in the boot with the seats up.........

[chappj]

Finding it difficult to source the wintracs locally to me (Tonbridge / T.wells), however I'm being offered the Continental winter tyre for the same price.

Does anybody have experience of the Continentals and are they as good as the wintracs?

[ian964]

Sarge 4x4 said:

To get the best out of Wintrac's it's best to changeback march/april to summer but we have many, many customers running these all year with no problem. On D3 customers are getting 40,000 miles out of them and are happy to run all year.

I would rather be on a winter tyre in the summer than a summer tyre in the winter, always drive to the conditions of the weather and the roads.

Winter tyres are getting very popular and not just on 4x4's.

I'm one of those running Wintracs all year round on a D3. 3rd winter and about 24K miles now, still working well. They'll probably need replacing next year, but miles better than the original fit Scorpions which were crap in snow and barely lasted 10K miles.

[Sarge 4x4]

Iknow a place just off J8, M25 that has Wintracs in stock.

[FiF]

HarryW said:

Thread resurection...Been away on business for the last month so missed this.
Do most go for a spare set of rims or do you swap the tyres and keep the summer tyres in the garage for remounting another day?
I've a FL2 on 18" and a spare set of rims is about the same price as the tyres again, being a bit parsimonious I'd rather spend that on a few more cases of wine for christmas.......also will 4 tyres fit in the boot with the seats up.........

Per above post I've moved from having a second set of rims and tyres to fitting a set of winters that are designed and perform more like all weathers for use all year round, the driving force for his change being, a) change of vehicle, b) significant change of use, ie 40k pa to 10-15k pa plus different needs c)reducing capital outlay d) bit of an experiment.

Re the 4 tyres fitting in boot with seats up, that's a no.