A few tyre questions - winter and summer

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ajf

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Couple of things.
Firstly has anyone here run winter tyres all year in the UK?
I currently have them fitted and have been debating whether to leave them on or get summer tyres -I would swap tyres not the rims as well.

I know there have been several comments in the press from manufacturers stating it is OK but wonder if anyone has first hand experience of how winter tyres perform all year?

Secondly, looking at summer tyres, has anyone fitted Dunlop Sportmaxx and Sportmaxx TT? They seem to get good reviews and are reasonably priced.

Although my car is a family hatch it came with 18" wheels so tends to limit the tyres available and I do want something decent in wet and good grip/feel etc.
 
It's a huge can of worms and arguably debatable whether for most people in England its worth running winter tyres at all, let alone all year round!

Whats the car? The Dunlop SportMAXX isn't bad but never seems any cheaper than the superior ContisportContacts, Eagle F1 AS2's etc so I'm not sure I see the point.
 
OK, I respect your opinions but I didn't want this to be an argument about the merits of winter tyres.
For what it's worth in low temperatures I found them to be significantly better in grip than previous summer tyres I have used.
It's not just snow they are good in!

The Dunlops for four were about £100 cheaper than Goodyears and Pirellis so I guess not a huge amount but still a saving. Never been a fan of Continental. The oem tyres are Bridgestone RE050 but they seem to have shot up in price.

The car is a 2.0 cdti Astra. So not overtly sporty but as most 18" are sport orientated....
 
The whole point about winter tyres is they are a different compound to "normal" tyres. They stay more softer at lower temperatures thus giving more grip. As for running them all year, yes you can however i understand that the stopping distance in the dry is not as good as normal tyres.
 
teulk said:
As for running them all year, yes you can however i understand that the stopping distance in the dry is not as good as normal tyres.
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Nor in the wet. Infact, nothing about them is as good as normal tyres when it isn't super cold outside.
 
[TW]Fox;21596924 said:
That appears to be all about winter tyres in winter not in summer :confused:

He is talking about using them in the summer. There is no benefit to this.
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Autoexpress's conclusion was that we would all benefit from having winters fitted for half the year. Their wet tests in that video were done at 4-7 degrees C (not especially cold). It's not the most in depth of scientific test so make of that what you will :)
 
I ran some Falken EuroWinter HS-439 winter tyres in 18" on a Focus ST from October 2011 till middle of March this year as I would be out of the country a lot and didn't want to leave the mrs stuck all alone with me away.

They had 9mm of depth when new and huge gaps between the tread blocks. They were OK overall, very, very slippery when it was wet for about 3 days but then came good.

The only very noticeable difference was under braking you could feel the car moving about more, it defiantly felt squishier.

They have lasted well, the car was only really driven morning and night and even though it was a mild winter (just our luck) temps were probably about 10c average over their use and they have 6mm-7mm left on them now.

I probably wouldn't bother again if I was home, but never got chance to test them out in the snow so not 100% sure if it was just for the mrs.

I saved the summer tyres off rim, just rotating them every 2 weeks and they are fine on the car now
 
Were leaving the winters on my wifes car all year now. The car does only cover about 3.5k miles a year though. Haven't noticed any negative effects so far it will be interesting as it gets really warm to see how they wear and perform.
 
Dandle said:
Were leaving the winters on my wifes car all year now. The car does only cover about 3.5k miles a year though. Haven't noticed any negative effects so far
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Neither do the people who fit partworn Linglongs to Fiestas notice any negative effects but I shouldn't imagine you'll be advocating that any time soon.

Most normal people wont notice a tyres shortcomings until the odd occasion they really need the performance - ie, an emergency situation.
 
Dandle said:
Were leaving the winters on my wifes car all year now. The car does only cover about 3.5k miles a year though. Haven't noticed any negative effects so far it will be interesting as it gets really warm to see how they wear and perform.
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Most of the time you don't have insurance on your possessions you won't notice any negative effects though, until your house gets burgled...

A decent set of non-winter tyres is pretty much all you need in the UK, unless you're intending to drive regardless for the 1 week a year when we get some decent snow!
 
Yeah I get that. I'm dumb and have no knowledge of tyres and my tyre history has always been the cheapest rubbish I could find. You people with no experience of the product have far more experience than I do.
 
I'll have to send this thread to my friends in Munich (where winter tyres are needed in the winter) before killing you in the harshest way possible when I see you next dandle.
 
[TW]Fox;21595861 said:
Why not? They are amongst the worlds most respected tyre manufacturers.
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It's probably just the specific models I have driven as I think they were the Eco Contacts, but I found them not particularly grippy or generally confidence inspiring.
It tended to colour my impressions.

I know they do get good reports so I may look again.
 
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