Winter tyres: With a difference

[daveenty]

It's that time of year again to start thinking about the handling of the car and, after a couple of "interesting" trips over the last few days I decided I'd do something about it.

Much as I love the E Class, especially with the 4 wheel drive, it's just no fun in the cold and icy conditions we've been experiencing in the last few days. It tends to be skittish and feels like a totally different car to how it was even just a few weeks ago, struggling for traction and really light on the front end. I looked around for winter tyres and wheels though the cost was prohibitive and I also have a storage issue in that I have no space for another set really. I am aware that a few people will be only to happy to sell me a set and keep mine in storage, though this needs paying for and it's usually reflected in the initial cost. Another issue I have is that, even whilst I can still be ultra careful in the poor conditions, I'm not on my own on the roads and would hate someone to slide into the car while it's stood still or even parked up.

The logical answer, at least to me using my best "man maths" was to add a winter shed to the collective, so I'm now the proud to be owner of yet another Jeep. This one's a 2004 Cherokee Extreme Sport edition, with a 3.7 V6 coupled to an auto box. Petrol obviously, especially to those that know me. Just over 60k miles on it and a good service history, with regular dealership visits. It's being delivered on Wednesday, though won't be on the road till Friday as I'm not taxing it till the start of the month. This will give me the time to change all fluids and filters and that will be all it'll get this year. The only reason for this is that there doesn't seem to be any records of the transmission fluid or transfer box being done, so it's just a preventative thing. The diffs will also be done at the same time.

Only one pic for now from the seller's advert, hopefully more to come when it arrives:



It may not be as cheap as a set of tyres but should be more fun.

 

[BIRMA]

I totally agree with you, as careful and skilful you may be there's no accounting for other drivers. This was one of the reasons I kept my Phaeton, four wheel drive with winter tyres if needed and I won't cry if an accident/incident occurs in bad weather.

 

[mat8n]

I bought an x3 bmw for the daily winter chores.
Wish I hadn't, I'd rather sit on a tiny incline spinning my wheels looking stupid!

 

[PenelopePitstop]

I prefer winter tyres, cheaper solution. However this year I can't be bother to put them on Mercedes but got used ones for Audi and will be putting them on tomorrow. Only reason to get them, was for my continental winter driving. Nearly new ones are not that expensive, some people buy winter tyres for one trip and then never use them again.

 

[JDL60]

I put winters on again this year as the 63 is my daily driver.
If things get really bad I’ve an XC90 too but the wife uses that occasionally otherwise I’d use it daily!

 

[Charles Morgan]

I have Michelin Cross Climates on my daily. Saves any faff, but obviously not a solution for the bigger wheeled sporting car.

 

[BIRMA]

I prefer winter tyres, cheaper solution. However this year I can't be bother to put them on Mercedes but got used ones for Audi and will be putting them on tomorrow. Only reason to get them, was for my continental winter driving. Nearly new ones are not that expensive, some people buy winter tyres for one trip and then never use them again.

You're absolutely right there, I bought some very nice and quite expensive Michelin Alpin's for my Phaeton brand new and used them for the first winter and since then have been in my store. I believe winter tyres are compulsory in some countries abroad though.

 

[Andav]

Should be fun Dave

I remember you from Jaginfo

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I'll bet used winter tyres in the UK are from the continent. It's good practice to remove them with 4mm remaining, and some will replace with more tread, so some British buyers will consider them as having useful life left in them given that our legal minimum is 1.6mm

 

[PenelopePitstop]

Just got my tyres delivered, 7.5mm each, imported from Germany. I got tyre set for £550, while one tyre retails at £ 428.40 in UK. Didn't want to buy new ones as I don't expect to use them for more than 2 years and probably no more than 8K miles in total.

Seller told me they import whole lorries of tyres and alloys. Sometimes they get brand new wheels from factories, when not enough cars is produced and parts are offloaded cheaply. Showed me pictures of new sets for Audi SQ7.

 

[daveenty]

This would actually have been my first year without a winter car as I was hoping that the Mercedes would have been OK for it though it's not what I was expecting really. I had an S8 Audi a few years ago which was a lot better in the cold and snow. Another thing is that, with being white, I've found that I'm cleaning it every time it goes out. This is obviously down to my preferences as I hate a dirty car but I'm now going to try to avoid using it on anything but clear dry days, which is another good reason for a spare car. As I mentioned earlier, it's not necessarily what you do, it's other people who don't drive to the conditions, hence my preference for an older car to just potter about in, it doesn't really matter if it gets the odd scrape.

Also agree about buying part worn winters, especially with over 7mm left on them and at that price, absolute bargain. I've found that winters don't seem to work as well with under 5mm of tread which is why they tend to get changed earlier, especially in Germany. My rears are 295x30x20 so would obviously be pretty expensive, and whilst there are a few used ones knocking around, I still have the issue of storing my summer ones

Should be fun Dave

I remember you from Jaginfo

It was when I had my Jag that I bought a Subaru Outback as a winter car. Brought the Jag out of the garage one morning down a very slight slope and the thing just went sideways and smashed a mirror on the wall of the house. It was then that I realised that 12" wide tyres and snow don't mix...

Used to like that forum by the way, met some nice people, not been on for a long time now though.

 

[PenelopePitstop]

I just put 285/30/21 on my car. Summers were a bit different size but couldn't find anything similar used one. Not very popular size. I'm not that worried about my daily driver, if someone is going to crash into it, it will happen anyway.

Did 3000 miles in SLK55 last winter, and I mean real winter in Europe, and it was more or less fine except a few drifting episodes in deep snow. Car is white as well. Didn't look very well after one particular drive. I think I posted pictures on the forum some time ago.

 

[AMGeed]

Good decison Dave. It would be tragic to see the E class damaged through no fault of your own and using a shed for 3 months is no hardship.
My old shed doesn't get used if there is black ice around. Snow is rarely seen around my part of the country but if there is any, the wife's Focus is commandeered.

 

[190]

We had snow on Saturday morning. Not enough to make life too difficult but a good chance to test the ABS going down our hill. It reminded me to rotate the wheels putting the fresher rubber with deeper treads on the back.

 

[mat8n]

This mornings drive to work!

This afternoons drive back from work

In a works 4x4 not one of my cars!

It's a wind farm near Loch ness/Fort Augustus in the Highlands

 

[CaptainChaos]

A 4x4 without decent tyres is still no help. I’ve got a Range Rover Classic and it came on road biased tyres. It could get going no problem. In fact generating four rooster tales of snow was great fun until the first corner when I discovered I had a two ton V8 sledge! Steering and braking is not helped by 4x4 and it’s easy to be caught out because you got moving with relative ease, so OP please take care.

On some decent tyres it’s a different story. That’s why you see so many high performance SUVs struggling - because they have high performance road summer tyres on them. 4 x 0 grip = 0 grip.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

A 4x4 without decent tyres is still no help. I’ve got a Range Rover Classic and it came on road biased tyres. It could get going no problem. In fact generating four rooster tales of snow was great fun until the first corner when I discovered I had a two ton V8 sledge! Steering and braking is not helped by 4x4 and it’s easy to be caught out because you got moving with relative ease, so OP please take care.

On some decent tyres it’s a different story. That’s why you see so many high performance SUVs struggling - because they have high performance road summer tyres on them. 4 x 0 grip = 0 grip.

Spot on. Both of our ML63 are useless in the snow, and so they wear winter tyres to make the safe and driveable in winter. Not switched yet though.

 

[rf065]

A 4x4 without decent tyres is still no help. I’ve got a Range Rover Classic and it came on road biased tyres. It could get going no problem. In fact generating four rooster tales of snow was great fun until the first corner when I discovered I had a two ton V8 sledge! Steering and braking is not helped by 4x4 and it’s easy to be caught out because you got moving with relative ease, so OP please take care.

On some decent tyres it’s a different story. That’s why you see so many high performance SUVs struggling - because they have high performance road summer tyres on them. 4 x 0 grip = 0 grip.

Correct, I sat at a set of traffic lights on a dual c/way in my CLK with winters when the roads had 6" of fresh snow, a BMW 4x4 pulled alongside and tried to make a quick get away when the lights turned green, spinning all 4 wheels and not really going anywhere fast. I accelerated away with no wheelspin whatsoever and watched him sliding sideways along the road as he disappeared in my rear view mirror.
We had 1/2 inch of snow a couple of days ago and the SLC was booked into the dealers for a recall, our driveway & street are both on slight inclines, after taking the car out of the garage just the slightest touch of brake had the fronts locking up and it was impossible to reverse back onto the driveway and thats a new car with 2000 miles on the clock so the tyre tread is still as new but has absolutely zero grip in snow.

Russ

 

[GordonTarling]

I'm intrigued as to how having a 4WD vehicle, even with winter tyres can stop another car from sliding into you. Does it come with a built in force field around it?

 

[daveenty]

I'm intrigued as to how having a 4WD vehicle, even with winter tyres can stop another car from sliding into you. Does it come with a built in force field around it?

It can't stop anything but it's a lot cheaper to repair an old shed than a 17 plate E63s