Winter Tyres for GL 420cdi

[babaroga]

Hello all,

I have been looking around to get a set of winter tyres and there is vast choice available, sort of.

In the manual, it says that winter tyre size is 265/55r19.

Apart from usual premium brands, Pirelli Scorpions Ice&Snow, I have found that there is also Vederstein Wintrac 4 Extreme. Has anybody tried them on GL or 4x4?

One thing that is missing on those is that little "snowflake and mountain" stamp, unlike Pirellis, and I'm a bit confused of winter tyre markings. Does it need to have "snowflake and mountain" ?

Also, so you have another set of rims, or keep swapping tyres?

regards and thanks
Darko

 

[Sp!ke]

A quick google image search does reveal Vederstein Wintrac 4 Extreme's bear the necessary snowflake mountain symbol as well as M&S.

See picture of rather knackered tyre below)

 

[babaroga]

Thanks, that tyre on the photo is "standard" Wintrac Wxtreme, not Wintrac 4 Extreme. I'm not sure what would be the difference between those anyway, apart that the one with 4 is for destined 4x4s....

Its £300 difference from Pirellis if that is the case, not sure about performance in snow, as £300 is small price to pay for safety .

One more question, what exactly is the meaning for tyre that has "M0" (MB approved) next to it?

 

[momomo]

Yes MO means Mercedes approved tyres.

 

[babaroga]

Found another photo, so Wintarc 4 extreme had "snowflake in the mountain". Also found quite a lot of praise on Land Rover forum on those tyres, so I might change my mind on them.

 

[grober]

Vredestein and Nokian both have long histories in the manufacture of competitively priced winter tyres.

 

[babaroga]

Nokian are great tyres, at least people in Finland think so

Unfortunately, not available in UK for GL

 

[grober]

mytyres.co.uk - Details: Vredestein Wintrac 4 xtreme 265/55 R19 109H with rim protectionleiste UNFORTUNATELY ONLY H RATED

 

[babaroga]

mytyres.co.uk - Details: Vredestein Wintrac 4 xtreme 265/55 R19 109H with rim protectionleiste UNFORTUNATELY ONLY H RATED

Only winter tyre with V rating is Pirelli Ice&Snow, even in manual winters are with H rating....how likely is that you'll be doing 150mph in winter?

 

[x332race]

Only winter tyre with V rating is Pirelli Ice&Snow, even in manual winters are with H rating....how likely is that you'll be doing 150mph in winter?

How likely is that you'll be doing 150mph in summer? (careful how you answer...you never know who is watching this forum!)

 

[babaroga]

Yes, I have been doing 140+mph.....but not in UK, only where legally allowed in mainland Europe.

 

[babaroga]

OK, finally got Pirellis Ice&Snow, swapped tyres over. Damn, nobody has spare set of alloys for sale for GL, so new set of alloys for summer tyres would be on order from Germany.

First impressions. Very good control in pulling from standing up hill, no wheel spin at all. Braking downhill, ABS does not even bother to react. I am still not confident to be more enthusiastic while cornering.

Now, if there are some more GL fellows here, maybe they can shed some light, but I have general feeling that even this is 4x4, it's quite tail happy and can give you nasty suprise (much less than with summer tyres), even at very slow speeds (i.e. 20mph).

Our LR Disco2 (unfortunately not here anymore, now lives in Serbia) is much more controllable and gives very positive feedback, while GL just looses it. Only way to have it controlled was to manually shift gears, so it stops auto-changing it mid corner, and use your right foot for control. I have also played with locking middle diff, but would need some big field to test that properly. I'm now thinking of putting couple of bags of sand in the boot, to see it that can improve traction, as weight distribution does not seems to be close to perfect.

any ideas anyone?

 

[A210AMG]

Seems odd a GL with 4*4 is tail happy at 20mph?

 

[grober]

Seems odd a GL with 4*4 is tail happy at 20mph?

I think the 700 Nm torque of that V8 diesel may have something to do with that?

 

[A210AMG]

^ its all still down to your right foot though, doesn't matter how much power you have?

 

[babaroga]

^ its all still down to your right foot though, doesn't matter how much power you have?

yes it is....but I would not expect rear on 4x4 to over-steer in such excess. It behaves more like RWD than proper 4x4. I had some "fun" last year when I noticed that first, but I have attributed that to worn out tyres that were due for replacement. Now that I have fitted winter tyres, it's still prone to over steering, and it comes as a surprise without much notice where rear end starts drifting away... and that would be without influence of my right foot...

 

[grober]

^ its all still down to your right foot though, doesn't matter how much power you have?

Agreed but with turbo diesels the torque is available at much lower revs--- 1,600 rpm upwards. This can catch people out used the more leisurely build up of say a large petrol V8 which tends to come in more gradually at least 1,000 rpm later.

Only other thing I can think of is summat wrong with locking differential setup. locked differentials can do strange things to a cars handling. Interactive Owner's Manual [In depth | Driving and parking | Off-road driving systems]

 

[Apial]

Agreed but with turbo diesels the torque is available at much lower revs--- 1,600 rpm upwards. This can catch people out used the more leisurely build up of say a large petrol V8 which tends to come in more gradually at least 1,000 rpm later.

Only other thing I can think of is summat wrong with locking differential setup. locked differentials can do strange things to a cars handling. Interactive Owner's Manual [In depth | Driving and parking | Off-road driving systems]

I have a set of Ice + Snow on the L200. I just came home the back way and floored it up a thick dry ice covered 1:6. The traction control light didn't even flicker and I didn't bother with the diff lock.
On wet ice I would expect the traction control light to come on, but on a dry ice covered road the handling is more like an ordinary wet road when accelerating and braking.

Turning though puts different forces on the tyre for which the siping and tread pattern is not optimised so you need to be more careful.

I think you have made a good choice of tyre.

 

[sledgehammer]

I have P Ice & Snow 275/50 20 H's on my GL420. Curiously, pirelli.co.uk don't list that size, but pirelli.com do. I had my usual people eventtyres.co.uk fit them.

BTW, my wife's Renault Scenic has had Michelin Alpins on since October 2009 and been run all through the summer. No problems at all.

 

[babaroga]

I have P Ice & Snow 275/50 20 H's on my GL420. Curiously, pirelli.co.uk don't list that size, but pirelli.com do. I had my usual people eventtyres.co.uk fit them.

BTW, my wife's Renault Scenic has had Michelin Alpins on since October 2009 and been run all through the summer. No problems at all.

Mine's are 265/55 19 V. I have been quite surprised to see V speed spec for winter tyres.

Have been thinking of getting 20's for summers now, but still have almost new set of SP MAXX in 19" in my garage now.

How do you find handling of GL in corners?