What should I do with my winter tyres?

[BTB 500]

It was somewhere between 2003 and 2006. It had rained earlier in the day (washing all the salt away) then big fluffy flakes started falling which caused gridlock and stopped the gritters getting back out.

I could see from my office window that it was lying so at 3.00-ish I legged it.

Unlike a LSD-equipped manual 200SX which was drift-tastic in the snow I found the C43 was almost completely useless. The last couple of miles home are mildly uphill and I found that the combination of a mild slope and a speedbump could bring me to a complete halt if my speed dropped below walking place. It was massively touch and go for the last 20 minutes or.

On a different occasion I found myself unable to drive off the road and up the ramp onto a filling station forecourt.

Mind you, wet grass could also defeat it come to think about it.

Interesting, did you use the "S/W" switch on the gearbox? I once had to drive my SL (320 bhp, 10" wide rears) up a very slight incline on a wet field and that was going nowhere till I switched to W (first time I'd ever used it). It was like magic - drove quite normally then!

I've been caught out a couple of times using the SL for events at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire (about 100 miles away). First time was an overnight stay and next morning it was -4C and hard frost. Went quite carefully but had no problems at all with grip. The second time I came out of my meeting to find it snowing It was moderately heavy and I was obviously VERY careful but made it home without any problem (gearbox in W mode again).

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

You can use them all year round if you want. I ran a C32 AMG on the same Michelin Alpin A4 tyres throughout Summer, and they lasted significantly longer than summer tyres, with no noticeable reduction in performance in normal road driving.

The last owner fitted them for a reason though, and that's because big engined, automatic cars with wide rear tyres can be a nightmare in snow. If you can afford to buy a separate set of tyres (or wheels and tyres) then keep these for winter.

 

[Londonscottish]

Interesting, did you use the "S/W" switch on the gearbox?

Yeah I did but had no joy.

The trouble was that thick snow wasn't melting when it hit the (salt-free) roads and instead was getting compacted and polished.

It's normally all a bit academic for me in that I don't use the car for work these days and on the rare occasion that snow halts play in terms of driving/tubes/cycling all my colleagues and customers will just switch to working from home and I'll do the same.

 

[BTB 500]

It's normally all a bit academic for me in that I don't use the car for work these days and on the rare occasion that snow halts play in terms of driving/tubes/cycling all my colleagues and customers will just switch to working from home and I'll do the same.

I'm pretty much the same - I commute into London by train, and if it's ever too bad to get to the station (my wife drops me off normally) then I'd work from home.

 

[MarkACLS]

This thread made me think of this graphic:

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Geordie girls: "Best wear your boots"