Winter tyres, snow socks and chains.

Just been out doing some visiting & chores in my MX5, Main roads are clear but there's about an inch of ice on the side roads & I had to get it back up onto my drive. Didn't get stuck anywhere.
Got to be honest, Everybody staring at me made me paranoid. :p

I am now dead.
 
I have always liked the look of the Michelin easy grip composite socks. I travel Luton to Cambridge most days 100 mile round trip and every year for the last 6 years I've held off on winter tyres or socks due to everyone spouting off about it not snowing every year.

Every year it has in the last 6. I drove home Sunday night at 21 mph average speed over my journey and the only bit that was clear was the M11. This year I'm definately taking the plunge and getting a set of steel wheels and tyres to lob in my garage even if its for only 2 months per year. It would be cheaper than losing my car in an accident or the hassle from having my car in repair etc. it's a 5 minute job to change 4 wheels back over, certainly much shorter than my 3 hour commute home. Yeah I haven't died or had an accident in those 6 years (some close ones) but that's not the point, why not make things safer for yourself even for just two months per year if you drive decent distances each day.
 
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dannyjo22 said:
I have always liked the look of the Michelin easy grip composite socks. I travel Luton to Cambridge most days 100 mile round trip and every year for the last 6 years I've held off on winter tyres or socks due to everyone spouting off about it not snowing every year.

.
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I have some of these, never used the set i've got though have been in a car using them - actually I don't even think I bought them for this car.

They work well to get you grip when there otherwise is none on summer tyres but you absolutely must stop and take them off when on a better surface for grip (i.e near enouhg straight away) otherwise they'll be destroyed. Same pluses and minuses as snow socks really with the added advantage that they're a little bit nicer to handle and store when soggy /wet
 
Firestar_3x said:
Didn't you fit some cheap junk just so you could have winters? They may work during the 5 days a year we have snow, but will be significantly worse otherwise.

High five!
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Yeah that was me, fitted some wun-hung-low ditch finder specials.

In my daily game of follow the leader on the A146 to work and back whether I'm on the "cheap junk" or the Bridgestone summer tyres makes no difference to a regular driver like me. Actually, I tell a lie, the winters are noticeably quieter.

Maybe if I was some kind of driving legend like your average OCUK motors poster I'd be bothered.

High Five!
 
I've had the mini, the Astra and the mundano out in the snow over this weekend, and nothing untoward has happened at all.

Apart from me dying 3 times obviously.
 
In which car did you die the most?

I'm off to the South West again tomorrow, I shall do my best not to drive my hire car into a ditch full of bunnies making snowmen.
 
lordrobs said:
Yeah that was me, fitted some wun-hung-low ditch finder specials.
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I see.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-Auto-Bild-42-Winter-Tyre-Braking-Test.htm

This test also highlights the poor performance of budget winter tyres in the wet. Using the Semperit as our benchmark, the worst winter tyre took 56 meters in wet braking, stopping 15.9 meters, or 52 foot after the Semperit tyre had stopped the car.

Please note: Auto Bild considered places 27-42 so dangerous they did not test them in the snow. Our results show 1 meter for formatting reasons
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Indeed - if they had done poorly in the wet (which in that test they clearly didn't) due to being a random no mark it would just have made the original point even clearer
 
I think it really depends on your personal circumstances as to weather they are worth buying or not. Personally for me with the rear wheel drive cars I used to have, after being essentially snowed in for the better part of 2 weeks two years running, yes they probably would have been worth it. Now, with my front wheel drive car, they are not, with the Volvo I can manage in the snow provided I don't try anything silly anyway.
 
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