Anyone have any thoughts as to whether a set of these will be of benefit in the south east?

 

Not much point in SE. We usually get one day with a half inch of snow and then nothing moves anyway. Better off spending your hard earned on a warm blanket and thermos to keep in the car for when your stranded on the M11.

 

They are worth having when the temperatures are hovering around zero. Normal tyres get very hard and lose a lot of grip. Winter tyres are designed to operate better at lower temperatures. They will still be crap in snow - you need chains.
Don't personally know anyone that bothers with 'em in the UK.

 

Completely disagree.

I've own a set of Nokian WR winter tyres for 3 seasons now and they are brilliant in the winter conditions. People think because they drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle that they have an major advantage over other cars in the snow, you might have an advantage starting off and slight inclines but because the tyres are wide you are eventually going to lose grip then your in the same boat as everyone else, four wheel drive or not!
This is where winter tyres take over, the WR tyres are fantastic in the snow, complete different ball game compared to standard road tyres and I would recommend them to anyone. And as they are an all year round tyre you have no panic in removing them once the weather improves.
I agree some areas of the UK don't normally get much snow, and for the amount of time we have snow it might not be worth it, but snow's is not the only reason to choose winter tyres. They have different compounds in the tyre along with a different tread pattern giving them much better grip on ice as well as snow.
I always say if a set of winter tyres stop you from hitting something or ending up in a field just the one time, then a few hundreds pounds is worth every penny.

 

Winter tyres are better in winter for two reasons
1. The polymers they use allow the rubber to remain more flexible as the temperatures drop. Summer tyres go harder and their grip reduces below roughly 5 deg C.
2. Tread pattern/blocks. The blocks are designed to move around more providing better grip and allowing snow/ice to fall out of the treads instead of being compacted in there.

New winter tyres will definitely provide better grip in snow/slush/ice then summer tyres and can give grip approaching studded tyres. For the record, there is no need to use chains in you have winter tyres, that's the whole point. I've done hundred of kilometers in snow over here on my studless winter tyres quite happily. Using chains is a pain in the ****, you are limited by the speed you can drive at with chains on and if you screw it up they can become flails and damage your car (seen it on more than one occasion).

The following report gives some interesting info on the deceleration forces achieved by a random group of people driving in snow/slush, smooth ice and rough ice. Studless winter tyres are referred to as "friction" tyres. Even worn friction tyres comfortably outperform new summer tyres.

http://www.stop.se/test/abstests.pdf

The report is also interesting because it compares stopping performance with/without ABS. In fresh snow you are better off without ABS, but the research indicates you would be better leaving the ABS on in all other circumstances.

Is it worth it for you to buy winter tyres? That depends on how much spare money you have. From about 5 degress C and below grip will be better with winter tyres, but still not as good as summer tyres in summer conditions. They would give you a bigger safety margin in you hit black ice unexpectedly. They would be great if you're planning on driving to the slopes for a ski holiday. And if there is lots of snow in the south east this winter then you'll be laughing, until you discover the roads are blocked by less well equiped cars driven by muppets

 

Michelin and Pirelli both quote the cutover temperature of about 7 Deg C for using winter tyres, I found a website that showed average UK temps are below that most days from December to early March.

Also given that most journeys are undertaken in the morning or evening when the temps are likely to be lower anyway, to me it makes perfect sense to use winter tyres.

I've just ordered a set of Michelin Pilot Alpin 205/50 R16 H for my STI5 Type R, which cost me £314.44 from www.blackcircles.com and are being fitted on saturday.

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/au...ilot_alpin.jsp

I think that's pretty reasonable. Also I'll be much less likely to get stranded in snowy/icy conditions, and I'll be much safer in cold/wet/greasy conditions. Plus Michelin reckon on at least 2 seasons wear so I can use them again next winter too - and possibly the year after.

 

On my 3rd season of Toyo Snowprox on 17's, still has loads of tread left and has got me out of some very sh1ty snowy roads.
Thinking about Michelin Alpin's or Nokian WR's when these eventually wear sown.

Obviously the handling and speed rating are nothing compared to summer tyres but who cares on the winter roads

 

I thought about Toyo Snowprox but the guy I spoke to at Blackcircles reckoned the Michelin Alpin were a better tyre and also about £25 cheaper per corner. Probably not a lot in it though in terms of performance, it's not like you want to shave fractions of a second off your trip to work if it's icy!

Nice of them to recommend a product which isn't the most expensive!

 

Cheers guys, input much appreciated
Wad

 

http://forums.sidc.co.uk/messageview...eyword1=Nokian

Some more info here and like RobD above I have 3 sets of tyres for my Sti....to cover all the seasons we get up here in the NE of Scotland. Trouble is we can't change them over quick enough to keep up with the weather

 

so where's the best place to get winter tyres then? i've found Toyo snowprox in 215/45/17 (for my 04wrx) at mytyres.co.uk for £92.10 each (inc p+p) - that means around £400 for 4 once i've paid out for fitting/balancing. anyone found any better deals/offers?

 

First of all I would like to say hallo to all of you friends in England. I am writting from Greece -Thessaloniki.
I am a member of the GREEK Scoobynet forum and I decided to be a member in your forum too.

I have the FORESTER 2.0XT with summer tyres in 225/50/17 dimensions. We had tried hard to find
winter-tyres in this dimension but it was impossible. Finally I put the PIRELLI SOTTOZERO in 215/55/17.






I would be grateful If someone knows and inform me about these tyres and their behaviour in winter-snow conditions.
Thank's a lot in advance.

Dimitris

 

I found it really difficult to find 'mainstream dealers/fitters' that actually knew anything about true winter tyres ... they all went off on one about mud or snow tyres.

In terms of fitting, I rung round as there was a huge difference in the price people wanted for changing to the new tyres ... managed to get £7 plus VAT per tyre including balancing at Formula 1. Some places charged extra for alloys and disposal of old tyres if that was required.

 

anyone know of anywhere with snowprox 215/45/17 in stock. visited my local tyre supplier today who rang toyo uk and was told they don't have any in the uk + have had their quota for this year. sounds a bit wierd. any ideas?

 

Mytyres.co.uk charged me:
Brand, Profile and Size: Nokian WR 215/45 R17 91V XL
No. of items: 4
price for one: 84.30 £
------------------------------------------
Total VAT included: 337.20 £

------------------------------------------
Total: 337.20 £
Includes 17.5 % VAT = 50.22 £
------------------------------------------

Got them fitted all inclusive for £10 each corner.

 

when and how did you get these at this price? they are currently listed at mytyres for £100+ in this size

 

Dunno, that's what they were when I got them end of October! That was the invoice from Mytyres. I guess demand went up when the 'bad weather' hit.

They're strange things to drive on I have to say. Now I know why all Finns seem to be brilliant at car control - they drive on tyres that have no finite grip limit! - quite apart from having proper winter conditions!

I was hoping that these would be great for all-weather winter use. I've driven them for about a month now, in which time the temp has rarely been above 7c and regularly below 0c, at which these are supposed to be better than summer tyres, but I have to say the only time I could see an advantage so far is in below zero temps - difficult to judge as I'm much more wary below 3c anyway - but above freezing they're not close to F1s - In my opinion anyway.
In dry conditions they feel very light with very little feedback and it's hard to know where the limit is as there's so much squirm, in wet they're lighter steering still and aren't great grippers....they don't aquaplane certainly.....but damp conditions have you feeling that there is no breakaway point, you just can't instinctively feel it....push them and they'll go, very gently and progressively, so at reasonable speeds it's easy to play with, quite fun actually when it's deliberate, prod the throttle and the back will just go a bit, prod it some more and it'll go a little wider, nothing dramatic, all controllable with a bit of throttle and steering input.....but I don't have the nerve to try this at speed or to trust where the limit is.
I might just swap them back until the weather turns again. I do feel a lot more confident on icy morning runs but the rest of the time I just feel a little nervous! - at least it's making me drive more responsibly!