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Reminder this is the time to buy the tintop winter tyres.
britishtrident - 21/8/14 at 12:08 PM

Winter tyres are still dirt cheap by the end of this month the price will start to rise.
I just picked up 4 new Avon Ice Touring 195/65R15 91T for less than £200 on eBay which I rate as a good price for a class tyre.

coyoteboy - 21/8/14 at 12:19 PM

Yep we ran ice touring tyres on my other half's FWD tintop and she went from being terrified of driving it in the ice and unable to get up our (almost flat) drive without bouncing off bushes to happily driving 30 miles a day and being able to easily reverse up and down the drive. Stopping significantly improved.

That said, I've never had any problem with a decent wet weather tyre and sensible driving either.

adithorp - 21/8/14 at 12:44 PM

Just won a set of steels with Vredestiens SnowTracs fitted for £140 on e-bay to go on my new (to me) Volvo.

I put a set on Angies MX5 last winter and she went from worrying about going out to complaining about the 4x4's going too slow.

I've got 4x 195/55/16 Evergreen winters going spare if anyone is interested from my Mazda

killerferret666 - 21/8/14 at 01:07 PM

For the whole 1 inch we might recieve here on the south coast this may be one purchase i dont need.

My Gf will be glad to hear i havent just bought something for no reason

40inches - 21/8/14 at 01:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by killerferret666
For the whole 1 inch we might recieve here on the south coast this may be one purchase i dont need.

My Gf will be glad to hear i havent just bought something for no reason


Avon Ice Tourers are Winter tyres, not just snow tyres
They grip better the colder it is. You have to use them to appreciate just how good they are in winter temperatures.
Although when the temperature is above 10degrees, they wear out pretty fast. Ask me how I know

mcerd1 - 21/8/14 at 04:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
That said, I've never had any problem with a decent wet weather tyre and sensible driving either.


likewise until I got these tyres on the last tin-top:
Summer
Summer
you can even see the marks from all the wheel spins it took to get in an out the drive

fantastic grip and steering response in warm and warm/wet weather, not so good in the cold and near useless in the deep snow
although never actually got stuck with them, but it did take a few attempts to get up some of the steeper bits including the untreated road to my parents where my winter tyres live....


so I got some of these vredestein quatrac's:
Winter
Winter
all season rather then a full winter tyre, but they do have the mountain snowflake markings and are V speed rated too (I think goodyear are the only other ones who offer this speed rating, at least in normal car sizes)
I reckon using them as winter tyres is a pretty good compromise for the usual crappy cold wet weather we get, and they work well enough in the snow too

in the deep snow they were as good as the ground clearance of my car would let them be, but they also worked pretty well in the summer too, but they cost me ~5% more fuel, were a bit noisy and just didn't have the nice planted feel that - but still 100x better than some of the cheap nasty budget summer tyre I've had

v8kid - 21/8/14 at 07:37 PM

Two sets of wheels is the answer - one for winter and one for summer. If your car has enough clearance to the discs get high profile winter tyres on a smaller diameter wheel to max longitudinal traction and low profile three on a larger diameter wheel to max lateral grip.
Sture the unused set on the dark and cold and they should see 2 years
Bit costly to get the extra wheels but you can always sell on if changing cars is your thing.
Cheers!