Winter tyres. Discuss.

[lou_m]

I pit some Vredistein Quatrac 3 all season tyres on the Saab as the summer tyres were all perished. Went up to Aberdeen today and the roads were quite bad. Loads of crashes and cars in ditches on the A90. Tyres felt great in those conditions. 250bhp and front wheel drive with no issues. Will see how they go in the summer.

[SAJ]

I pit some Vredistein Quatrac 3 all season tyres on the Saab as the summer tyres were all perished. Went up to Aberdeen today and the roads were quite bad. Loads of crashes and cars in ditches on the A90. Tyres felt great in those conditions. 250bhp and front wheel drive with no issues. Will see how they go in the summer.

Had these on the Audi all year round when they first came out. Decent in the snow but did struggle on the odd occasion up hill in deeper snow but as an all season tyre couldn't really fault them.

[sendmyusername]

Don't know about them, don't think we do them.
Tbh - if it's a halfway house, i'd assume it wasn't very good at either, rather than being good at both, might be an option depending on your budget.
It's like 'best of both bread' if you like brown bread, you don't want white, and if you like white bread, you don't want bits in it - should be called worst of both bread.
I'd assume they wont be as good in the summer as summer tyres, or as good in the winter as winter tyres
They might be more to one market i.e. Closer the winter running rather than the summer, but i don't know.
My previous post is fact, this one is just me guessing off my own back

[kerryxeg]

I put Goodyear vector 4 all season tyres on my mums A4 Quattro. I'd agree they are not as good as winter tyres in winter or summers in summer, but for what the car is used for it will not be evident. It's a good combination on the Quattro and plenty grip on snow, but maybe not as effective as a winter tyre on the icier roads.

We also Had an almera with vector 4 s, being 2 wheel drive this was a bit more of a compromise, so decided to try 2 alpine winters on the front and keep the all seasons on the back. This worked well and we just swap the fronts. These all seasons on the back are now over 20k miles and still 5mm left.

The s4 has vredstein winter extreme, now on there 4th winter an an amazing 15k miles ish with 5mm left. Still gripping well, but starting to slide a little in corners. Normal tyres do about 8k miles on the s4 so I reckon this must be a saving. On dry or wet roads you would notice a slight difference but given the greater care for winter conditions not significant. I think I'll run these down and replace for next year.

[flyingscot68]

We also Had an almera with vector 4 s, being 2 wheel drive this was a bit more of a compromise, so decided to try 2 alpine winters on the front and keep the all seasons on the back. This worked well and we just swap the fronts. These all seasons on the back are now over 20k miles and still 5mm left.

I'd be very careful there, if you were involved in an accident your insurance co. could use this against you.
It is not acceptable practice to have a mix of tyres like that, the difference in grip levels in winter conditions means the car is more prone to oversteer/swapping ends.

You should always have your best tyres on the rear, even in a front wheel drive.

[kerryxeg]

We also Had an almera with vector 4 s, being 2 wheel drive this was a bit more of a compromise, so decided to try 2 alpine winters on the front and keep the all seasons on the back. This worked well and we just swap the fronts. These all seasons on the back are now over 20k miles and still 5mm left.

I'd be very careful there, if you were involved in an accident your insurance co. could use this against you.
It is not acceptable practice to have a mix of tyres like that, the difference in grip levels in winter conditions means the car is more prone to oversteer/swapping ends.

You should always have your best tyres on the rear, even in a front wheel drive.

Driving the car would suggest otherwise, it is very nicely balanced in both summer and winter setup. The front back arguement, makes important points, but isn't as black and white as you would be led to believe. Ideally you want the same grip at all corners, but life is complicated, weight distribution isn't even, tyres wear, temperature changes etc.

[flyingscot68]

Try explaining that to your insurance company.

It's up to you how you run your vehicles but I can tell you from experience this is the kind of thing they look at should you have a big stack.

I wouldn't do it.

[kerryxeg]

Common sense has to apply at some point, I'm sure the insurance could find an exclusion on every car if they looked hard enough. It's not mixing sumer and winter tyres, which is always going to be picked up by insurance.

[flyingscot68]

Insurance and common sense in the same sentence -

I've had lots of claims fault and non-fault over the years due to running taxis.
They're never striaght forward to deal with and have an amazing knack of turning their assumptions in to facts. Some simple cases go on for years, we recently took three years to settle a claim for £130, no idea how much it cost to actually deal with that as we were using a lawyer supplied under the insurance.
I worked in the insurance game for three years, they'll do anything not to pay out and have no morals at all.

We currently pay loadings on two policies for cars that have had non-fault accidents, they write their own rules.

Anyway, whinge over

[SAJ]

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/roadtests/ ... 08&i=26998

Watch on YouTube

A bit from the article:

Now, those who reckon winter tyres aren’t worth it should probably stop reading now. Both these cars are on winter rubber, and we ask Matt what would happen if they weren’t. “We wouldn’t have got here,” he says, indicating the 500 yards from the pitlane. And on the track itself? “You wouldn’t be able to move. You can’t stop, and you can’t accelerate.”

He’s a big advocate of performance winter tyres, and not just in snow, either. He does add they don’t have the same sharpness or the steering feel of the equivalent summer tyres. But regardless, his view is that "everybody should put their car on winter tyres."

[dlogan]

I am running Winter tyres this year on the 911 and the last two days in Aberdeen were the best test yet for me. What a revelation, I am a total convert, sure I have driven hire cars in Norway on Winters, and they were fine, but never have put them on my own car until now.

The knowledge that I wont get stuck at all is so re-assuring.

[sendmyusername]

read in paper today - quentin willson on the autocar website - they did a test with a skoda mpv one 4x4 with normal tyres, and one with front wheel drive but with with snow tyres on it.
now i know this is very slightly off subject as it's tested in snow.
the front wheel drive had better traction and grip.
obviously the 4x4 with snow tyres would win, but a good demonstration of the winter tyres

[Mr Momo]

I've got Vredestein Wintrac Extremes all round on the 4WD (Haldex) Yeti - I would like to think it's better than FWD with winters all round, but we're hardly getting any snow in Aberdeen itself to test it out - two winters and little snow in town. Need to venture out more

Other than really deep snow, from my experience, I would say either 2WD or 4WD would be fine on winters - as long as you keep your momentum, traction and take it sensibly on the bends. The 500 Abarth is on 205/45-17 Sottozero winters

[kerryxeg]

I have to agree 2 wheel drive with winters is very capable, especially when you consider all important braking. 4x4 comes into it's own on the hills though and in very icy conditions. I'm just back from Austria where everything has winter tyres. My very capable hire golf could not get back up the steep hill on snow that was granular like sand. The Only vehicles making it up were 4x4's or rwd with chains. It was quite a spectacle in the village as everyone stood around watching various attempts. I did regret not trying with lower tyre pressures - just might have worked.

[BiggestNizzy]

Kilmarnock had some snow this morning and the winters were fine. I have hankook winters on the BMW and they seem to work fine on snow and when it's really cold. Anything above 3 degree's and the seem to go off a bit.