Winter tyres vol 2

[Slow]

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

[Zod]

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

[Slow]

Zod said:

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

Better to have winter rears and summer fronts than summers all round though.

[theboss]

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

They aren’t the same size (illogically the summers are smaller, but I got a good deal on the the larger winters and figured I’d get the wear out of the tyres before swapping them around). In any case I wouldn’t put winters on the rear only - I think I’d be asking for trouble. Will make a break to the south before the real snow kicks in (up here) on Thursday and then rely on trains hopefully... I’m flying to Belgrade in Thursday night which could be interesting...

[ATM]

Waking up to news of deaths overnight due to cars crashing.

[Dog Star]

My next door neighbour has had someone run into the back of his Bentley.

Of course the tt who ran into him has no insurance.

As an off - topic aside - neighbours insurance passed him over to an accident management company who tried to get him to enter into a credit agreement and were trying to get him to take a Rolls Royce Phantom at £1100 A DAY as "it'll be recovered from the third party insurer" (this was before the other person called him to confess about the insurance). He told them to bugger off, but seriously - we are all getting buttfked for insurance because of the scam with these accident management companies - insurance companies plead it isn't them responsible for premiums but they complicit in it by passing details to these people and paying out willy nilly for false injury claims. Anyway - that's for another thread.

[p1esk]

Slow said:

Zod said:

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

Better to have winter rears and summer fronts than summers all round though.

With a rear wheel drive car that's what I would do, in order to get the best traction.

[Slow]

p1esk said:

Slow said:

Zod said:

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

Better to have winter rears and summer fronts than summers all round though.

With a rear wheel drive car that's what I would do, in order to get the best traction.

Worked for me,

[Silverbullet767]

Slow said:

Worked for me,

I'd say, that's some incline!

[NRS]

p1esk said:

Slow said:

Zod said:

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

Better to have winter rears and summer fronts than summers all round though.

With a rear wheel drive car that's what I would do, in order to get the best traction.

The reason for putting them on the rear tyres whatever drive you have is if you have to brake and the rear tyres are summers then they will slide while the front grips. This will result in the car spinning, which is more dangerous than the straightline understeer you would get the opposite way around.

[tenohfive]

NRS said:

p1esk said:

Slow said:

Zod said:

Slow said:

If your winters are the same size just fit them to the rear to remain movable, obviously braking won’t be as good.

It's generally thought to be a good thing to be able to steer a car too.

Better to have winter rears and summer fronts than summers all round though.

With a rear wheel drive car that's what I would do, in order to get the best traction.

The reason for putting them on the rear tyres whatever drive you have is if you have to brake and the rear tyres are summers then they will slide while the front grips. This will result in the car spinning, which is more dangerous than the straightline understeer you would get the opposite way around.

My attitude is fundamentally simpler than that - you can do things to mitigate the skid or braking compromises either way, but if you're sat tyre spinning on your driveway it's all moot. Hence why I'd favour putting them on the driven wheels.

[Up_North]

Apologies if this has already been covered but it's quite a long thread to search.

I'm in the process of buying a W212 E Class Estate. Tyre sizes are 245/40R18 on 8.5J rims front and 265/35R18 on 9J rims rear. A Google suggests 245 section tyres would fit fine on both rims. There is a reasonable selection of winter tyres in 245/40R18 - typically about £170 per tyre for a decent brand.

Is anybody running anything as big as 18s on winter tyres and if so how are they doing or is it best to drop down to 17s and get new rims aswell as tyres?

Cheers.

Ian

[A900ss]

Up_North said:

Apologies if this has already been covered but it's quite a long thread to search.

I'm in the process of buying a W212 E Class Estate. Tyre sizes are 245/40R18 on 8.5J rims front and 265/35R18 on 9J rims rear. A Google suggests 245 section tyres would fit fine on both rims. There is a reasonable selection of winter tyres in 245/40R18 - typically about £170 per tyre for a decent brand.

Is anybody running anything as big as 18s on winter tyres and if so how are they doing or is it best to drop down to 17s and get new rims aswell as tyres?

Cheers.

Ian

Without looking at your particular size, I run (an official) smaller size steel wheel on my car, 16's rather than the usual 18’s. Steel wheels are very cheap and over the long term pay for themselves by not having to change tyres off a rim each change of season.

I’m also happier to kerb a steel wheel in the ice than an expensive alloy.

It looks a bit ‘downmarket’ but that’s a look I can live with.

Good luck.

PS- for me dropping to 16’s meant that a cheaper tyre size (16 v 18) also paid for the steel wheel.

[Up_North]

A900ss said:

Without looking at your particular size, I run (an official) smaller size steel wheel on my car, 16's rather than the usual 18’s. Steel wheels are very cheap and over the long term pay for themselves by not having to change tyres off a rim each change of season.

I’m also happier to kerb a steel wheel in the ice than an expensive alloy.

It looks a bit ‘downmarket’ but that’s a look I can live with.

Good luck.

PS- for me dropping to 16’s meant that a cheaper tyre size (16 v 18) also paid for the steel wheel.

Thanks for your quick reply. Yes - dropping down a size and getting new wheels, even alloys doesn't add a massive amount to the cost. Just curious about capabilities of 'full size' over smaller ones in snow.

[RichardM5]

Up_North said:

Is anybody running anything as big as 18s on winter tyres and if so how are they doing or is it best to drop down to 17s and get new rims aswell as tyres?

I'm running 255/35 R20 on my M6 as that's the smallest wheel that will fit over the brakes. They are better than summer tyres but still crap compared with the 235/45 R17 I have on the E39 M5.

[Up_North]

Thanks Richard. I guess you didn’t have a huge choice in that size.

I can see why a drop in three inches would be useful (although not possible for you) but I think my one inch difference might not be so dramatic.

[andyps]

NRS said:

The reason for putting them on the rear tyres whatever drive you have is if you have to brake and the rear tyres are summers then they will slide while the front grips. This will result in the car spinning, which is more dangerous than the straightline understeer you would get the opposite way around.

Only if you are going too fast for the conditions. For a few winters I ran a fwd car with winters on the front and summers on the back and never had an issue on dry, wet or snowy roads. Would have been pointless having winters on the back and summers on the front in my opinion, on snow I would not have been able to get much forward motion but if I did braking would have been minimal and steering the same. With a rear end slide at sensible speed it is possible to react and counter it, with front slide options are very limited. With the rwd car I had more recently I had winters all round so I could go, stop and brake. I've borrowed my wife's winter tyre shod 4x4 today because I have only had my current car 1 month and haven't got winter tyres or second set of wheels yet.

[Wills2]

I moaned about my winters earlier but they have just got me home after 200 mile journey from the south the weather was appalling in Yorkshire and they worked well.

I would have been stranded without them.

[briang9]

Silverbullet767 said:

Slow said:

Worked for me,

I'd say, that's some incline!

think that deserves a

why is it so hard to get a pic orientation correct these days...not rocket science really

Edited by briang9 on Wednesday 28th February 23:54

[matthias73]

Drove an hour up the A1 to Newcastle and back for dinner with family tonight, despite the excellent blizzards.

Cooper winter tyres so far haven't let me down. I always get a smug feeling when I overtake something in my 330 vert, I may put the roof down tomorow just to get more gawps

Does anyone know if most lorries run winter's? They don't seem particularly bothered by it.