Bloody Weather

[xrrr]

After the snow trauma last year I bought some Autosocks a month ago. Today it has taken me 90 mins to get from one side of Guildford to the other - usual journey of 15 mins. All delays were traffic issues, the car had no problems at all except for one steep hill with deep snow. Some pics....


16:13. Got the Autosocks on the wheels - it took about 15 mins but was worth it:


16:36. Bloody Guildford hills - serves me right taking a short cut - this was about 0.5 miles from where I put the socks on:


17:13. Bloody traffic:


17:34. Nearly home:


17:43. At the top of my road (I had stopped for a few photos a long the way):


18:28. Went home for my tripod and drove back up the hill:


I can't recommend those autosocks enough. Last winter the BMW was shocking in the snow. Today it was able to take on *almost* everything.

[kentmotorcompany]

Looks good.

Makes a change from all the winter tyre threads currently running, of which I am a contributor to and buyer of said tyres.

After a bit of practice do you think you get them on quicker?

How much?

[Vvroom]

Thanks OP, I've been considering these. Yes, how much?

[taylor86]

£65 roughly i think for socks that fit 255/35/18 depends where you get them from, they look ideal for harsh conditions but dont fancy taking them on/off when on gritted roads.

[xrrr]

£65 for my 255 R19 wheels from roofbox.co.uk (linked to from autosocks.co.uk). They won't last as long as snow chains, they were a total bugger to fit (prob get better with practice) but they were cheaper than snow chains and they got me home stress free. Priceless!

[mmm-five]

If you put a set on the front, you'd probably find turning was easier too.

[Gruber]

Another vote for snow socks - they took all of 5mins to put on the old Merc this evening and it's fair to say they transformed it. Only cost me £44 on ebay. Brilliant.

[thegreatdogwood]

If only they made them for 275/35/19 though. Guess they think we all put our toys away for the Winter

[xrrr]

Gruber said:

Another vote for snow socks - they took all of 5mins to put on the old Merc this evening and it's fair to say they transformed it. Only cost me £44 on ebay. Brilliant.

Presumably there is some clearance between your wheels and the bodywork? Most of my 15 mins this evening was trying to get my hands between the wheel and the wheel arch. It was like trying to put on a fitted bedsheet - when I got one half on, the other half sprung off!

Once on though I was very impressed with the traction. I still skidded whilst braking and on the very steep down hills (2nd photo) I had to feather the foot brake and the hand brake to stop. No biggie though. Everywhere else (apart from the *really* steep bit with deep snow - I needed a run up) was great. I was even overtaking people in Front WD cars on the hills around Guildford whereas last year it was the other way round

I considered winter tyres but went for the socks because:

• I don't have anywhere easy to store my normal wheels
• The wheels + winter tyres worked out quite expensive
• I am vain and didn't want my car looking sub par (because I would have bought smaller wheels for the winter tyres)
• The snow only settles like this for about 10 days a year around Guildford and most of the time I just stay at home

It would be great if BMW started offering a winter tyre with storage and fitting service for a fixed annual price.... or is that a gap in the market someone should fill (hint hint)?

[camera]

Another vote here for Autosocks. My company won't fit winter tyres to the car so Autosocks are a better option than leaving it in the garage.

As for fitting, I have 19" wheels with 255/35 tyres on 330i coupe so have very little space. I found the easiest way to fit them is to turn the Autosocks inside out then just hold the centre against the wheel with my knee then push them on with a flat hand (or using a wooden spoon at the top of the wheel helps!). I fitted all four and the car brakes and steers remarkably well on snow and ice.

Dave

[z4me]

another vote from me, got me out of a sticky situation last year. Were a real pain to get on with 18" wheels, 19" must be a nightmare. Took me about 15 mins too, and just didn't look as though they were on properly, but decided to give it a go anyway. Stopped after about 50 yards or so, had a quick look, and they were on perfectly. Can only assume that they self-centred as I drove along.

[Tea Pot One]

Nice to see them on an M Sport 3 series coupe - exactly the same as my car

I have a set and they took me 20 minutes to get on with scraped knuckles ! They do fit though and I have seen them working on other cars thus bought a pair.

I work shifts so also bought Thule K Summit snow chains - they fit from the outside of the wheel so are dead easy to get on - about a minute a side ... the downside is the cost at £280 and the fact that like snow socks, if the weather / road gets clear you need to remove them before you destroy them on tarmac.

[theboss]

xrrr said:

It would be great if BMW started offering a winter tyre with storage and fitting service for a fixed annual price.... or is that a gap in the market someone should fill (hint hint)?

I bought a winter wheel set from BMW this week, they fitted to the car free of charge, and then put the summer ones into storage until Spring. When I enquired about ongoing storage charges i.e. for next year the guy said they would continue to store them for nothing for as long as I owned the car and was a customer of theirs. He did add that they had access to a good bit of warehouse space.

The winter wheel packages they are offering really aren't bad at all when you consider the value of the alloys and tyres seperately. Being very impressed with the tyres we just had fitted to the X3, I followed up by enquiring about a set for my E90 and the package which included 4 x Bridgestone LM-25 runflat M&S tyres was £1580. Availability is 10-15 days as they have to order from Germany.

When I asked about the rims on their own (17" style 284) they guy said about £1200 quid, and the same Bridgestone tyres listed at mytyres.co.uk are about £230 each.

So you're looking at £1580 for £1200 'worth' of alloys and nearly £1000 worth of tyres, with storage and fitting included.

[xrrr]

theboss said:

So you're looking at £1580 for £1200 'worth' of alloys and nearly £1000 worth of tyres, with storage and fitting included.

Hmmm, I think I will stick with the autosocks and stay at home when it snows (good excuse!)