spec me some snow chains in prep for the winter

A set of second-hand rims hardly costs a thing - perhaps £100. Then you just put the winter rubber on, which yes, will perhaps cost £10-£20 more per corner than the equivalent summer tyre. However - snow then becomes a total NON ISSUE. You now have two sets of tyres, so yes you've spent fractionally more than twice as much, but you'll get twice the mileage! So the extra cost per mile is minimal.

No-one in Canada carries chains. Seriously - even the RWD taxis and Cop cars didn't carry chains. You just don't need to worry about snow if you have proper tyres.

With the added benefit of extra grip in the kind of conditions we ALWAYS get in the winter, wet, cold roads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncga6UxlHM&NR=1
Some other vids + things:
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-video/winter-tyres/
http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/248524/winter_tyres_tested.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s

Some misconceptions :
- lots of people in the UK seem to believe their current tyres are all-season tyres. That is rubbish - unless you have M+S on your sidewall you are driving with summer tyres. Roughly, M+S only = all-season, Mountain/********* symbol = proper winter tyres
- winter tyres really are not in my experience any louder than summer tyres. Maybe with equipment you could measure the decibel difference, but I could never tell the difference
- all the people who say it is a waste of money have probably never actually driven a car with winter tyres. But unless storage is an issue, I fail to see how it's that much more expensive to have two sets of wheels.

EDIT> What makes winter tyres so good? It's that they get rid of all the WATER. Rubber and ice actually grip really well, but ice is covered with little droplets of water that gets between the rubber and the ice and that's the disaster part! In Canada when the temp was -30 there was LOADS of grip because the ice stopped melting on contact with the tyre.
 
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bigjimmyauk said:
thx for the video think i might look at getting some spare rims and proper winter tires.

where would be the best place to get them???
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online mytyres.co.uk seem to be about the only retailer geared up properly. However, I phoned up my local tyre supplier (independent guy) and they said they will have no trouble obtaining the tyres I want. I am going to stick with what I know, had these on my Audi in Canada so going to stick them on my BMW now -

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/BigPi...=2004&autoModel=A6 Avant Quattro&autoModClar=
http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop...._pro_Seite=20&Transport=P&dsco=110&sowigan=Wi

You can get good tyres for £50-60 a corner though - V speed rating pushes the cost up a lot with winter tyres. H/T much cheaper.
 
lol Will.

I always think of that drive up to Courch in my new bimmer, heavy snow, queue of traffic behind us as we slid up hill and us hoping the police wouldn't stop us to check for chains :D
 
[TW]Fox;17149574 said:
Nice to see the overeactions have started already! Don't forgot to stock up on bread.
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You say that, but there is nothing wrong with a little preparation. Last winter I got stranded for over a week, I couldn't even get my car off the drive for a few days ...and the road was another challenge entirely. It's quite hilly around where I live.
 
[TW]Fox;17149574 said:
Nice to see the overeactions have started already! Don't forgot to stock up on bread.
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Didn't you pay to have your steering wheel refurbished or something? If you can afford that, you can afford the right tyres. I like to drive actually be able to drive my car! :)
 
whitecrook said:
Reverse your car up the hill so the driven wheels are at the 'back'. Job done.
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I really doubt that works. For one thing - the tread blocks will the wrong way around so be rubbish at pushing snow and water out of the way. Driving from the back doesn't really help - having weight over the wheels will help so you aren't achieving a lot.

Frankly - assuming it actually works, I'm betting that was only because the reverse gear is higher than the 1st gear and you could have achieved the same effect by driving up in 2nd.
 
It 'can' help to drive backwards if possible, which obviously it isn't always ...but the other issue is there is no real weight over the rear wheels, so unless you have a couple of hundred weight of grit you can stick in your boot ...you still won't get any decent traction anyway.
 
taximike said:
Didn't you pay to have your steering wheel refurbished or something? If you can afford that, you can afford the right tyres. I like to drive actually be able to drive my car! :)
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Meh, Fox lives in a part of the country that only sees a hard frost twice a century.

Surprised really that somebody who lectures others for not checking their tread levels regularly (omg how can you not know your tyres is illegal!!) then lectures people for ensuring they have the right tyres for the conditions.

Guess we'll never know what makes fox tick, he's like half woman half bmw - reliable but confusing.
 
Telescopi said:
Meh, Fox lives in a part of the country that only sees a hard frost twice a century.

Surprised really that somebody who lectures others for not checking their tread levels regularly (omg how can you not know your tyres is illegal!!) then lectures people for ensuring they have the right tyres for the conditions.

Guess we'll never know what makes fox tick, he's like half woman half bmw - reliable but confusing.
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This thread appears to be out snow chains, which IMHO are slightly OTT for our country (Not to mention illegal on 99% of roads) not winter tyres.

Mind you if a sentence is now considered a lecture no wonder people think Uni standards are slipping :p
 
Maz said:
I didn't think you were allowed to drive in the UK using snow chains!?
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You are. What you are not allowed to do is damage the road surface (wth anything, ever, not just snow chains) so they are only suitable for "real" snow like we got last time.
 
taximike said:
online mytyres.co.uk seem to be about the only retailer geared up properly.
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Probably because they are German owned (IIRC?) where winter tyres are popular.
I think German law prohibits driving in snow without winter tyres but I might be wrong about that.
 
Out of curiosity, does anyone make some sort of reasonable performance winter tyre? I've long considered winter tyres, but ultimately worry about the car driving like **** on those fair days (the time I'd use the car the most).
 
MikeHiow said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone make some sort of reasonable performance winter tyre? I've long considered winter tyres, but ultimately worry about the car driving like **** on those fair days (the time I'd use the car the most).
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The tyres you already have are reasonable performance winter tyres and all you need in the UK.
 
mine seem pretty good they are Pirelli 210 sottozeros, even after a drive back across france and countless thousands since they still seem as good as new
 
MikeHiow said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone make some sort of reasonable performance winter tyre? I've long considered winter tyres, but ultimately worry about the car driving like **** on those fair days (the time I'd use the car the most).
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Evo did an article about sticking a set on their Jag. Can't remember which tyre it was though, but I seem to remember the set of four being ~£1K.


EDIT: Found the article online; http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/248524/winter_tyres_tested.html

@below, Whip-round for poor Will? :p
 
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