BTDT in cack brown polo estate TDI coming out of Morelands Road in Link-Top during that big freeze in December 2010 whilst visiting the parents. Had to navigate around some bint in a Discovery, sitting there with all four wheels spinning and no sign of movement. I laughed so hard, I nearly crashed into that daft traffic island I was on Vredesteins as well, Found some at Demon Tweeks. Can't remember what they were, but almost ANY winter tyre has to be better than a "summer" in snow. I use studded Kumho I-Zen Wis (KW19)s on my (RHD) golf 2 GTI at home in Montreal, Canada. But the winters here are a touch erm.... whiter.....A Quaife also helps. As well as the tyre compound, having sharp edges on the tread blocks and a sufficient depth of those squiggly "sipes" (after John F. Sipe) in the tread blocks are what really bites into compacted snow and even ice. The trick is to always buy new, then sell them on fleabay after a season or two (one season each on the front for a FWD) whilst they still look pretty damned reasonable, to someone who's convinced that if they're black and round, then it's all good. Using winter tyres in the summer really makes the blocks and sipes go blunt very quickly and that's not ideal... The other tip is to get the latest hot model (of tyre as well). What tends to happen over here is that the manufacturers will launch a new tyre with "new technology" but in fact put more of the expensive additives in the rubber that make it work better in the cold. That way they get rave reviews in the car mags, then progressively use less and less expensive additives over the subsequent years.... This year it appears that the Michelin X-Ice-3 is the business....
Im glad this is taking off in the UK. I've been fitting winter wheels for customers all week! Eventually the UK might be semi prepared for winter like the rest of Europe always has been lol
P.S. has anyone used Yoko W.Drive V903 ? They are more of a small car / hatchback winter tyre & i've considered a set a few times but never bought. 65 each in my size
Grabed a pair of part worn winter conti's in 215 45 17 for 60 fitted yesterday, should be fun on the 200sx if it does snow this year.
I reckon they have to go on the front if another pair doesn't pop up, its got a proper locking diff in and wide asymmetric rears so hope it goes ok.
My "snow" tyres have just arrived not fitted them yet but will as soon as i can remove the old road tyres (now i have a new set). Now i've gone gone for a slightly different set of "Winters" as I live right out in the sticks (and don't have a 4x4) after a couple of realy bad winters I finally went and bought 4 x new 185/70/15 Colway Emjo C-88 gravel / mud / snow tyres (off road stage rally tyres to you & me) Been planing to do this for years as it saves buying a new 4x4 car and should get me to work and back in the mk2 golf just fine when it snows as I work in the middle of "knowwhere" and can't imagine getting home in the snow (bad enough in the wet tbh) All I'll have to do is swap wheels & un-plug the N75 valve to turn my track car into a Landrover lol.
I remember going to Edinburgh in a 10 year old mini 1000 (in about 1987) with ten quid remould M&S rally tyres on it - we were going great guns up the M90 in the outside lane... passing everything in the blizzard... till the wipers froze and fell off lol
First week report. Started week brand new and temps went up to 12C. Felt fine but vety floaty at higher speeds, low noise, same fuel consumption. As week went on and it was colder on a couple days, felt better, more stable. So obviously the rubber comes into its own as they are designed for less than 7 degrees. More updates later.
^^^ From experience mine took about 1,000-2,000 miles to bed in - they were a bit sketchy at first but after that they were fine. Also I noticed that the small tread slits formed a 'jagged' edge which according to my local tyre place is what they're meant to do as that helps with the traction. Edit - looked at my tyres just now and looks like they have a 'claw' type effect now where the tread blocks have had time to move around and bed in.
I have a set of original 7J x 16 inch alloys, fitted with 4 x Michelin Primcay Alpin tyres in the for sale section. Came off my A4 but not needed now since an uninsured toe-rag wrote it off. The tyres have 5-6 mm of tread left on them.
I'm rubbish just spent ten minutes trying to post twice and I'd not logged in doh!!!! Just got some old a6 16" alloys for my a6 avant to put winter tyres on they've got two descent Pirellis on but should I put 4 on? Are 205/60/16s the same circumference as my 245/40/18s .. Any advice gentlemen ? Thanks
try this link mate http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-calculator edit ...i prefer this one http://www.tyretown.com/my_sizecalc.htm
