Winter Tyres - the great con???

[Marvell]

My First snow in a rear wheel drive car, I fitted Continental winter tyres when I had my wheels refurbished this year and must say, I was surprised at how good the car felt.

 

[Dryce]

I've left 4x4 cars for dead pulling away from dual c/way traffic lights in deep snow because they were on summer tyres.

So you get out and check their tyres when the light's at red?

 

[Pablosammy]

So you get out and check their tyres when the light's at red?

It's quite easy to spot the difference, even at a reasonable distance. The treads are noticeably chunkier.

 

[rf065]

It's quite easy to spot the difference, even at a reasonable distance. The treads are noticeably chunkier.

True, but the biggest give away is when they try to move off and their wheels have no traction, even with 4 wheel drive. Quite funny to see a 4x4 slithering about with no traction while a rear wheel drive Mercedes moves off as if it was on dry roads.

 

[AntMB]

Mine is on a set of Dunlop SP Sport Fastresponse and it was a little worrying earlier at times, especially going up hill.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Just looking at the news feeds today will tell everyone how useless the best 4x4 fitted with the 'very best' winter tyres is when faced with 400 vehicles blocking your way ahead .
Better to have a rotor on the roof so you can fly over them, otherwise your sensible investment in decent tyres and drive train is a complete waste of money.

That's why some countries make it offence NOT to have approved 'winter' tyres fitted during certain dates. Will this ever be law in the UK.?

No. not ever.

 

[Alienator]

Just looking at the news feeds today will tell everyone how useless the best 4x4 fitted with the 'very best' winter tyres is when faced with 400 vehicles blocking your way ahead .
Better to have a rotor on the roof so you can fly over them, otherwise your sensible investment in decent tyres and drive train is a complete waste of money.

That's why some countries make it offence NOT to have approved 'winter' tyres fitted during certain dates. Will this ever be law in the UK.?

No. not ever.

Yeah but if majority had winter tyres fitted then would be only slowly moving traffic...

 

[Petrol Pete]

Yeah but if majority had winter tyres fitted then would be only slowly moving traffic...

Agreed, but it will never happen in the UK. Only people like us on motoring forums have a small clue about winter tyres, the majority of UK drivers only know their tyres as the circular black things attached to their wheels. most can't even be bothered to check the pressure and tread depth despite the fact that their lives depend upon it.

 

[markjay]

...That's why some countries make it offence NOT to have approved 'winter' tyres fitted during certain dates. Will this ever be law in the UK.?

No. not ever.

Difficult to justify it for the sake of one or two days a year.

 

[rf065]

Just looking at the news feeds today will tell everyone how useless the best 4x4 fitted with the 'very best' winter tyres is when faced with 400 vehicles blocking your way ahead .
Better to have a rotor on the roof so you can fly over them, otherwise your sensible investment in decent tyres and drive train is a complete waste of money.

That's why some countries make it offence NOT to have approved 'winter' tyres fitted during certain dates. Will this ever be law in the UK.?

No. not ever.

I've had an experience where we were stranded on a dual c/way for 15 hours due to snow. The problem was caused by HGV's, imagine a valley, whatever direction you are travelling means going downhill & then uphill. Problem was the HGV's could not get uphill & ended up sideways across the dual c/way in both directions, blocking everyone. I just bet the problems on Bodmin moor have the same cause right now, with motorists stranded overnight.
This was the last bad winter about 10 years ago, at the time the authorities recognised HGV's were responsible and talked about parking HGV's in the m/way service areas when it started to snow or bringing in a law that forced HGV's to fit winter tyres etc.
Well, after all the talk, they did absolutely nothing! It appears no-one in this country has the will to change anything for the better of us all.

 

[markjay]

I think they did say on the news that the roads were blocked due to jackknifed lorries.

 

[AllyE350]

The 'con' according to the OP (Rorywquin) is in the fact that the dealers supply new cars fitted with summer tyres in winter, forcing owners to fork-out for a secont set of winter tyres, instead of giving the customer the option of ordering the car with winter tyres fitted from the factory - but the OP was not suggesting that winter tyres do not work in snow and ice etc.

I live in Germany, the cars are delivered with the wheels and tyres that the customer orders! If the customer wants both sets then he has to pay for that, It's not just winter tyres that are the issue, the wheels also have to be authorised for winter use. Most winter wheels and tyres are one or two inch smaller in size than the owners' Summer choice of wheels, due to better traction and fitment choice for snow chains. The other point is that tyres with less than 4mm tread depth are no longer classed as winter tyres!

 

[Petrol Pete]

I live in Germany, the cars are delivered with the wheels and tyres that the customer orders! If the customer wants both sets then he has to pay for that, It's not just winter tyres that are the issue, the wheels also have to be authorised for winter use. Most winter wheels and tyres are one or two inch smaller in size than the owners' Summer choice of wheels, due to better traction and fitment choice for snow chains. The other point is that tyres with less than 4mm tread depth are no longer classed as winter tyres!

And if the same thing was offered here in the UK I guarantee most would opt for the widest , biggest diameter, lowest profile available even if it was a lowly 220 diesel as long as it had a similar foot print and look of a 600bhp supercar they would be happy. IMHO a vast number of cars on Britain's roads are 'over tyred' purely for cosmetic reasons.

 

[Dryce]

bringing in a law that forced HGV's to fit winter tyres etc.

The problem with this is that whatever benefit you get unblocking the road - you end up wth large heavy vehicles doing high mileagees on suboptimal tyres for the milder days in winter.

If you really want to deal with this then you need 'UK Spec' tyres and set a minium tread depth in winter. You need tyres taht will not degrade safety in milder conditons while being a reasonable compromsde in poor conditions.

The risk with mandating winter tyres on HGVs is that yuo have 40+ tonnes of vehicle on a mild January day delivering a lot more momentum into the back of a stopped traffic queue than it might on regular tyres. That's a different risk from the snow situations which are generally low speed and less momentum and typically cause congestion rather than serious injury and death..

Well, after all the talk, they did absolutely nothing! It appears no-one in this country has the will to change anything for the better of us all.

In Central Scotland things have actually improved in the last 10 years - there are more gritters visibly on standby on the motorways and major DCs. The response teams tend tyo be better prepared to deal with incidents.

Meanwhile traffic levels seem to grow and people make longer commutes - and it doesn't help that rail services have tended to capitulate to the conditions more easily than they used to.

 

[AntMB]

And if the same thing was offered here in the UK I guarantee most would opt for the widest , biggest diameter, lowest profile available even if it was a lowly 220 diesel as long as it had a similar foot print and look of a 600bhp supercar they would be happy. IMHO a vast number of cars on Britain's roads are 'over tyred' purely for cosmetic reasons.

I agree with that. I don't like low profile tyres. They make the wheels vulnerable and quite frankly they look ridiculous.

I've got 55mm profile, that's low enough.

 

[iainjo]

Only a few dealers I've ever bought cars from have broached tyre options, there seems little scope to choose though. One did suggest adding some snow socks to an order. The UK climate on the whole suits good summer tyres and for years I made do, even on the scariest trip home from Inverness on the A9 in blizzard conditions in a RWD BMW on summer tyres. I've always been more concerned about decent tyres that have an A rating for wet conditions.

I have run full winters on an Audi and a Land Rover and the difference in the snow is astounding. However, particularly on the Audi as the temperature got above 7 degrees the grip was seemingly poor. Fortunately they were on a cheap spare set of wheels but that's not an option for most.

With the beast from the east last year I found driving the CLK a scary prospect, when I could actually get it moving. I've just had the rear tyres changed as they were close to the tread limit and went for all season tyres as I'd have that extra grip in the cold spell, have great wet performance and I won't need to change them as the weather warms up. It'll be interesting to see how they fair, anyone else tried all seasons?

 

[rf065]

In Central Scotland things have actually improved in the last 10 years - there are more gritters visibly on standby on the motorways and major DCs. The response teams tend tyo be better prepared to deal with incidents.

That doesn't work in practice though, in my situation there was a gritting depot less than 2 miles down the road. Because the HGV's had blocked the roads and backed up the traffic for miles, the gritting lorries were unable to join the m/way and had to sit in the depot unable to go anywhere.

 

[fabes]

Have you mixed summer and all seasons on the CLK?

How have you found that work in recent conditions and weather on our roads?
They do say to have the better tyres on the rears......

 

[AltonAnt]

Have you mixed summer and all seasons on the CLK?

How have you found that work in recent conditions and weather on our roads?
They do say to have the better tyres on the rears......

I wouldn't. I have no issues steering on the all-seasons where you would normally just go sideways on summers.

 

[rf065]

They do say to have the better tyres on the rears......

That's been said for years with good reason, but before systems like ESP were fitted to cars. Mercedes at some point, contrary to everyone else, even said fit the best tyres to the front as ESP needs front wheel grip to work. If you have summer tyres on the front with zero grip on snow or ice, then your ESP will not do the job it was designed to do.