• The Forums are now open to new registrations, adverts are also being de-tuned.

How many change to winter wheels and tyres?

AJA

Active Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
444
Location
Failsworth, Manchester
Car
S212 2014 E250 CDI AMG Sport
I'm thinking of buying some second hand wheels and putting winter tyres on them this winter. How many change to a winter setup, and when do you change?
 
I do, makes a big difference on a E350, a lot less wheel spin. When the clocks go back they go on, when they go forward they come off.
 
I believe that most people living in the South don't bother with winter tyres (I don't), but if you live up north then it's a sensible step. March/April and October are generally the preferred change-over months, but with climate change who knows....
 
I don’t
 
I do end of October and end of March usually.
Yes there is a big difference
 
Many people don't have the facilities or storage space to have 2 sets of wheels and tyres for their cars.
My father in law in the Lake district is one of them. He lives above 1000 feet and has be confined to the house on a number of occasions by snow.
So 18 months ago I went for the middle ground and bought some of the latest 'all season' tyres for him. Would have gone for Michelin CrossClimate, but they were not in stock at the time so went for Goodyear 4 season Gen 2. I drove on them and they are quiet, comfortable and perform well in both wet and dry conditions. Tests indicate they do a reasonable job in the snow too, but I have no personal experience.....and neither does my father in law.
He spent most of the winter in Mauritius, and a quite a bit of this summer too. I suspect there may be a little 'Heyoka' going on.....
 
Live in South but drive up North in the winter (for work)

Or used to....

Bought winters when I bought my CLK in October a few years ago which needed 2 new tyres anyway (Hankook did me a deal of BOGOF, so I thought why not)
Fitted them each Nov to end Marc (commuting when it's still below 7c) even now on the C207 (same staggered set up), but work has changed and I won't be venturing up north so they are going up for sale shortly.
We get some snow down here and it does get cold but I will either work from home or take the other car if its really bad.

I noticed that they made no difference.....
In that it made no difference how cold or snowy it was, the wide wheeled rwd MB just kept on going.
Brilliant, but it's £80 I don't need to spend each year (I don't have space for spare wheels, so have them changed)

Watch the classfieds if you're on the look out for a cheap near new staggered set up.
 
Found a marked improvement on the C Class but only marginal on the E Class.

To be honest, whenever viable - use the 1.1 litre Polo if it snows. VW Polo is so much better with its summer tyres than the E Class with its winter tyres.
 
I do, even with a 4x4 the difference is very noticeable in very slippery or snowy conditions due to the fact that many now wear very wide, very low profile high performance tyres. Like others I tend to switch October/November and March/April.
 
We live on a steep-ish hill - half an inch of snow and it becomes the Cresta run! My wife's E88 120 is now fitted with all-season tyres, Maxxis AP2s, which beat the Pirelli and Bridgestone offerings in Auto Express testing a while ago. In 225/45x17, they didn't break the bank - in fact, I picked them up cheap on Amazon of all places. They seem fine so far - good in both dry and wet conditions, and handle standing water very well. My W211 came on 18s, being a Sport - winters for it were quite pricey, to put it mildly! I dropped on a set of 17" 'Rucha' alloys for sale locally - 2 of them had almost-new Vredestein Snowtrac 5s fitted, all 4 needed a refurb which a mate in the trade did for £25 each, and to complete the set, good old eBay provided a pair of Nokian WRA4s at a nice price....so me and the Mrs are sorted! I use my dear old mum's garage for storage, as mine's full of motorbikes, so a spare set of wheels isn't a problem.

Tbh, we're lucky in that we don't have to go out if the roads are bad - I'm retired, the Mrs can work from home if need be, but it's nice to think we won't be stuck should we run out of wine, or in other similar emergencies. :D

Pete
 
I put winter tyres (alpin PA4) together with after market rims last year for the first time as I live in the Surrey hills , which though is down souff, but we dont get enough gritting and I live in a hilly area and I only had the one car. for other folks, I would say winter tyres are a bit overkill. I drive 7 days a week in the winter and pick and drop family members on 70 mile trips a couple of times a week so winter tyres were a real blessing for around half of the period i had them on especially when the standing water freezes overnight. every now and again though, temps really shot up to say 14 or 15 degrees and winter tyres struggle in those temps. To be honest , anything over 9 degrees and they really begin to feel like piscis out of water. also they have longer braking distances than summer tyres generally except in snow and ice . Overall in my merc, it was worth it but I was really after michelin cross climate + tyres but they didnt do them for my car tyre size range otherwise I would have preferred those . with the winters, when temps were below around 3 degrees then the alpin PA4 winter tyres really showed their quality and worth with AWD levels of grip lol . We had settled snow and black ice plenty and then I really saw the value of those tyres overall. but lateral grip was always a bit limited as the tyre compound is very soft

this year I'll wait till maybe end of nov to stick the winters on my merc and will keep the summer tyres (mp4s) on my daily (bmw m3) . the mp4s tyres are so good on that car that I'm confident that other than snow and ice, I wont miss not having winter boots on that car (I'm sure I'll regret that statement when I'm stranded somewhere or "parked" in a Bush .) and if it snows I'll just daily the merc.

my view is if you have great summer tyres , you can probably do without winter tyres . not all tyres are equal either so it is important to consider a decent quality set of tyres. for down souff, summer biased all season eg cross climate + are a better choice than dedicated winters

lastly , watch out for cheap aftermarket rims, my front right is warped on the inner portion after just a few months but at gbp 130 for a rim, it is as cheap to replace it rather than get it repaired.
 
[QUOTE="Bobby Dazzler, post: 2803212, member: 4143" The difference is very noticeable in very slippery or snowy conditions due to the fact that many now wear very wide, very low profile high performance tyres. Like others I tend to switch October/November and March/April.[/QUOTE]

I agree. My GLE stays tucked up in the garage if the snow falls. With wide and low profile tyres the 4x4 bit can do nothing to prevent zero grip in the braking areas....
'Vera' the Defender is pressed in to service on 85 profile mud and snow tyres. Whilst the brakes are a bit vintage with no ABS they are perfect for snow. Road closures and traffic chaos comes into play long before she runs out of grip.
 
I'm pretty far south so for the little snow and ice we do get I found all seasons e.g. Crossclimate+ are a decent compromise.
If you need the best tyre performance in all conditions then summer/winter sets is the way to go.
It is is for the E250 in your sig then I think all seasons would suffice.
 
I have had 2 sets of winter tyres for my C classes, got me out of trouble numerous times when the weather was poor, have passed Jagz etc. that were stranded in uphill sections. Now I've got a GLC wont be getting another set as I've now retired, but if it becomes an issue will go for a set of decent all seasons. I have always been an advocate of winter tyres but these days I think all seasons are a better choice
 
I bought a second set of alloys, dropping down to 17s, for my winter tyres. It gives me more confidence on the winter roads. I have to drive to customers so being mobile is essential.

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
 
I change tyres every year since 2013 (was doing it before 2005, while living in Europe). I had to buy set of tyres for SLK, while moving to Germany for couple of months. Tyres had correct size for my next 3 Mercedes cars, so put them on and used cars in Europe in winter. I posted pictures before. Have winter tyres for my current non-Merc and put them on every year. I'm planning to do this soon, as it already snowed in the Alps at the beginning of September and I like to go there. So as soon as it gets a bit colder here, winter tyres will be on. One was damaged last season and I had a bit of hassle to buy part worn matching one. It's not very popular size + winter, so extra difficult to get. New one was out of question due to price and potential usage for one season only. I woudn't bother with winter tyres exclusively for driving around south of England.

I keep tyres in the garage, standing by the wall and they are not in the way of anything. Space would be unused anyway. My friends pays £25 per annum for BMW to store winter tyres for one of his cars. Disadvantage is, that it takes time to get them. When his other car broke down and needed them urgently to drive to continent, he had to wait for 4 days.
 
I've got a complete set of new 17" Alloys and Winter Tyres for my S213. I haven't used them yet as this will be the first winter with the car. Always used to swap to winters Nov - March on my S211, made a noticeable difference.
 
I'll swap mine over either when it's ice every day or the day it snows whichever comes first :)
 
I don't because I have the use of my other half's Nissan Joke on Summers as she won't drive in the snow.

Or I can work from home.

If I only had one car and had to go in, I'd have a second set of wheels with Winters and swap them over probably Oct / back Mar.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom