Some driving gods will be fine on slicks in snow.
I think I’m a decent driver and drive according to the conditions. Changing to winter tyres makes a massive difference in cold wet weather and an even bigger difference in snow. Gives me the confidence that whatever the weather I am unlikely to get stuck, which is reassuring when I have 100+ miles to do on a cold wet winter night.
This is the road to my house, in Cumbria. About 3 miles further on.
A "C" road, so they plough it about a week after it snows.
And I have to get up in the middle of the night when on call
So yes a set of snow tyres on steel rims that I swap into Nov-March.
THey aren't expensive, because when they are on, my summer tyres aren't being worn out. That's the light bulb moment. They don't cost extra money. My summer tyres last longer. In roughly 5 years I buy two sets of tyres, just like before
I swap over to my ones when it gets down to 6*
Not for everyone, depends on mileage.Originally Posted by The Doc
This is the road to my house, in Cumbria. About 3 miles further on.
A "C" road, so they plough it about a week after it snows.
And I have to get up in the middle of the night when on call
So yes a set of snow tyres on steel rims that I swap into Nov-March.
THey aren't expensive, because when they are on, my summer tyres aren't being worn out. That's the light bulb moment. They don't cost extra money. My summer tyres last longer. In roughly 5 years I buy two sets of tyres, just like before
How do you work that out? If you have one set on your car, the other set is not being used. Yes you have the initial layout for the second set of wheels and tyres but after that it doesn’t make a difference.
Agreed, you will always get the people who think that because it’s a 4x4 it’s naturally going to be invincible in the snow, and these are the ones who end up stuck.
You’ll also get the idiots who don’t drive to the conditions.
I don’t consider myself as being a technical driver, I’m a safe driver, but not especially skilled in snow driving.
I remember my father schooling (and embarrassing] me many years ago when I couldn’t get to his house in the snow in my E30 325 on summer tyres. I tried 4 or 5 times to get up a particular incline about a quarter of a mile from his house and just couldn’t do it, so I parked up and walked to his.
I told him where the car was, he just got up off the sofa asked me for the keys and disappeared. About ten minutes later he was pulling up outside his house in my car.
Fast forward many years to my taxi driving days and I’ve had many compliments of my customers on the places I have been able to get to in heavy snow but I put my hands up and confess to them that it’s the winter tyres on the car and not my driving skill.
They really do make that much difference.
Tyres can perish and crack, work it out.
That takes many years
Thanks Jay.
Food for thought for me.
I’ve had to replace tyres because of cracking with plenty of useable tread.
After 6 years or so they’ll often start degrading so what would have been 3-4 years normal use if Winter tyres not used.
Last edited by Kingstepper; 24th October 2021 at 13:40.
If people don’t see the point in fitting a set of winter or all season tyres, then I can recommend a pair of snow socks.
This is dash cam from my ID.3 last December after a snap snowfall caused the usual carnage. RWD on the ID.3 with bags of torque, I couldn’t even get out of my drive without the snow socks on, and the hill I’m driving up here to fetch my daughter from school is steeper than it looks. Now the tyres that came with the car are worn out, I’ve had some Cross Climate 2s fitted last week, I’ll leave them on the car all year round.
Check out the Ocado van stuck about 10s into the video, can you imagine the unimaginable suffering people had to endure as the Waitrose delivery never arrived… :-(
201204_143259_343_FR by iaintookey, on Flickr
Fortunately Ocado doesn’t deliver Waitrose stuff I believe.
Snow socks work really well on snow. Yes, I know, it sounds a lot like a no shit Sherlock comment but the point is, winter tyres are not just for snow. They are for any weather winter throws at you, and will only struggle on ice (black or not) where only studded tyres or chains will do.
In this country I understand people s reluctance to get tyres that in their mind are only really needed on snow for the very few days most of us are likely to get. And yes, a good driver with summer tyres will adjust his speed accordingly in cold and wet weather, thus braking distances should not be an issue.
However the same could be said about ABS, traction control or even seat belts. Yet all those great drivers are happy with all 3 99% of the time. Winter tyres (or all climates) are no different
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Hey, you don’t need to tell me, I’m already converted and have been for years!
The point I was trying to make, apart from failed humour(!), is that you can ‘get by’ on summer tyres in a lot of conditions even if they’ll be less than optimal.
On a day like in my video where it arrived suddenly and was gone again a couple of days later, even a pair of snow socks may ‘get you home/wherever’ whereas otherwise it would be quite a walk.
That Ocado driver should have not had just any tyres, he needed M+S Tyres.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
I was not disagreeing with you, just trying (and failing, apparently) to reinforce the point you were making. And my own Waitrose comment was also tongue in cheek.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Applause!! :-D
Can't we all agree that some people need winter tyres because they live in areas where they sometimes are required to get around.
Others of us live in parts of the UK where it's rare to need winter tyres to proceed.
It is often adequate to drive more cautiously for the conditions.
No you probably won't get up a steep icy hill without them, but if the road is wet or mildly icy, you can just drive slower and further back.
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
^Good summary.
Although your username is a bit biased.
EVs have around 50:50 weight distribution so being RWD isn’t really important.
EV with infinity torque and summer/motorway tyres is going to be a bad thing. Because its just like a BMW diesel stuck in the snow
RWD or FWD, when the computer cuts all power in 0.5 secs, you are totally stuck, unless your car has an expensive "snow" mode.
The only saving grace might be thin tyres on the EV which help in the snow.
So, we're back to the right tyres for the conditions.
If the UK weather meant we all needed to make changes every November, they would put it on the statute book, like they do in Northern European countries. But they haven't needed to.
The subject of the thread is 'when' not 'should I'. If UK flat-earthers don't want to believe in the efficacy of winter tyres then fine, but most of Europe seem to. Some fine day in the next couple of weeks I shall be crawling around on the drive fitting the winter wheels/Toyo Snowprox to the Pug. The Captur already has Michelin All Season. The SLK won't be going out in ice or snow, it's tail-happy enough in the wet.
Maybe those in favour should just give us a date then, instead of posting why they are so essential, which ones they are using and so forth.
Most have...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
The very first response to the OP was the official/industry answer! 🤣
Exactly. Next couple of weeks is close as I can getMost have...
Perhaps those who don’t see the point and couldn’t wait to post to say as much should have stayed out of the thread as well then?
That was mostly in response to those who said they weren't necessary.
This always turns into a holy war.
God knows why, it's worse than the EV thread...
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I've just discovered my local tyre place is doing a limited offer.
Four winter tyres plus a set of gold interconnects, 20m of silver speaker wire and a homeopathy course for £500.
Worth it?
The homeopathy course will be a real money spinner.
People queue up to buy that watered down, make believe, magic powder.
£500 will be £5000 in no time.
What, do the raw materials cost much?
If 1g of homeopathy powder was a tenner, you could run your entire business, for a century, for a millionth of a penny.
Are winter tyres worth it? Yes I believe so, now or very soon is the time to put them on , however if the roads are blocked by looneys on summer tyre's then you won't be going anywhere
Sent from my SM-G960F using TZ-UK mobile app
Why are we up to post ~130 then? Anyway,
What does that even mean? Daily average? What's the average ambient temperature where you are now?
Both sides are as bad as the other. Same argument every year.
About 10-12degs. So probably too early for winter tyres (unless you have regular early morning starts).
But what do I really care? My cars have got all season tyres on them.
- - - Updated - - -
Some people seem to be very hard of reading.
Where does that figure come from, average of max and min? Then must be ~13 here.
And I have all season too.
This seems to be one side who can't see the point as they've never used them and the other that can speak objectively due to experience.
There's always the third side, those who're just here for the wind-up
Do the winter tyre advocates all drive 4WD vehicles?
Surely if having all the bases covered is necessary, then they should be doing both to ensure they are totally safe.
My guess is they don't all.
I've yet to see the roads blocked by dozens of people without winter tyres on crashing.
In fact, the last time I saw an icy road blocked it was by a Land Rover on its side, on definitely non-Summer tyres, where the driver had clearly been over confident and slid up a bank and fallen back into the road (no one was hurt, luckily).
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Well, I have learned from this thread. If I end up moving somewhere more inaccessible or topographically challenging, I will certainly be looking at getting a set of winter tyres.
Could also be the fourth side who speak objectively from experience of never needing them, and the fifth side who don't comment, but wait for the thread to appear every year rather like the 'eyeballs in the sky'.This seems to be one side who can't see the point as they've never used them and the other that can speak objectively due to experience.
There's always the third side, those who're just here for the wind-up
Ooops. Just realised this post probably condemns me into the third side now...
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Was it Prince Philip? ;)
Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk
Yep, there seems to be plenty of them around. 🤦🏻*♂️There's always the third side, those who're just here for the wind-up
No, but one of the horsey set...
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Did you stop and ask "why the long face?".No, but one of the horsey set...
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Sorry, I couldn't help myself ;)
Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk
I think the answer was self evident :)
M
Sent from my ASUS_X00PD using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
:)
Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
