All Season Tyres

Pyscho_Si

Pyscho_Si

Pyscho_Si

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Joined
30 Nov 2002
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Location
Bolton
Hi,

After the fun of Dec last year and Jan this year, in which my old 1 series was as useful as a chocolate fireguard and spent numerous days stuck in a hotel car parks not being able to move and when I did get home not being able to get on the drive, I'm considering what to do this year. My Mercedes has even wider and even more low profile tyres so I'm assuming it will be even worse in any snow.... especially being an auto. I'm assuming my Bridgestone RE050's currently fitted are going to be lots of fun.

I don't really want to consider full winter tyres as storing my summer tyres will be a pain and I've read that All Season tyres are now available and the technology is really maturing. Does anyone have any experience of them?

Which ones would people recommend?

SW
 
Best thing to do is buy a Land Rover defender with full arctic explorer pack.

That's the best reaction to some freak weather a year ago.
 
How is the heater in the Defender? I don't want to get cold.

You may have noticed I said All Season Tyres and not Winter Tyres. I believe Winter Tyres are a little OTT here.

Just to add to the reasoning, I drive about 30K miles a year and can include visits to Seascale in the Lakes (which I've never done in the winter but guessing it can get interesting) and also drives down to Northern Spain.
 
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See my thoughts on this are as follows.

If you look back at the weather pattern in this country over the last 10 years you'll find that weather like we had last winter is exceptionally rare. It's very much the exception, rather than the rule, that we have weeks of snow in our climate.

Infact comparatively speaking our winters are very mild - so mild infact that for almost the entire year, the average daytime temperature is above 0c (The temperature point at which there is an indisputable advantage of a winter tyre over a summer tyre), even in the middle of January.

Tyres like the Potenza RE050 are hardly poor in the rain when its 4c outside. Infact, they are still very good. I'd suggest a high performance summer tyre is still better than a mediocre 'all season' tyre in these sort of conditions - it really is snow and ice before the winter and all season tyres start to become a really good idea. And even when you do get these conditions the entire country grinds to a halt anyway (Because unlike somewhere like Colorado, its so rare people are not prepared and its unreasonable to expect the council to have limitless resources to tackle something that rarely happens), so being able to get off your drive into the going absolutely nowhere queue of abandoned vehicles on the M4 is rather pointless.

But then unless you are going to change tyres twice a year you'll invariably end up with your all season tyres fitted in July, where there is no doubt whatsoever that you will have much less grip available than with a high performance summer tyre.
 
mjt said:
Do it properly and just get a set of winter tyres.
Click to expand...

And a spare 4wd vehicle. And a boat for flooding. And a plane for forest fire escape. And an earthquake survival pack.

And some anti-venom for the snakes. And some malaria tablets.

You never know!
 
Considering that summer tyres have compromised grip at temperatures below 7 degrees, and that for 3 - 4 months of the year the temperature on average does not exceed this, then i'd consider winter tyres a good idea, especially when we get ice and snow like we have done the past couple of years.

 
[TW]Fox;17453807 said:
And a spare 4wd vehicle. And a boat for flooding. And a plane for forest fire escape. And an earthquake survival pack.

And some anti-venom for the snakes. And some malaria tablets.

You never know!
Click to expand...
Have some :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

If the OP's contemplating buying all season tyres, then he should just get winter tyres. They're not all that expensive if you're on 15"s and 16"s.
And they're not just for snow, you know...

For a couple hundred quid (plus fitting x2) then it's really not a particularly extreme purchase, is it?
 
There is lots of opinion about winter tyres v summer tyres.

I beleive the actual case is that above 6c, summer tyres are superior in terms of grip to an equivilent winter tyre. Below 6c but above 1c, there is little in it. Below 1c, there are clear advantages in winter tyres.

Therefore really, it isn't enough to go changing your tyres for our climate.

Especially as its quite hard to get a like for like winter tyre. Whilst a mid range winter tyre might offer superior wet grip at temperatures of 3c to a mid range summer tyre, what about a high performance summer tyre? Few people buy high performance winter tyres to compare them with. Infact do they even exist?

Winter tyres are an excellent idea for countries with a half decent climate where summer is nice, and winters are proper, and there is a marked difference between the two. We have a temperate maratime climate which means temperatures are rarely below freezing.

There are exceptions to every rule, like last year, but they are just that - exceptions.

Notice how nobody even mentioned winter tyres before last year? Now suddenly its a must have? Yea, right..
 
mjt said:
If the OP's contemplating buying all season tyres, then he should just get winter tyres. They're not all that expensive if you're on 15"s and 16"s.
And they're not just for snow, you know...
Click to expand...

Because he'll have inferior tyres at higher temperatures. Even last January we had days where the temperature was above 7c - where winter tyres would be putting you at a disadvantage. And this is January!

It isnt worth it in England, IMHO.

The average high during the months of December, January and February in this country is 7c.
 
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[TW]Fox;17454049 said:
Because he'll have inferior tyres at higher temperatures. Even last January we had days where the temperature was above 7c - where winter tyres would be putting you at a disadvantage. And this is January!

It isnt worth it in England, IMHO.
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It depends where in England.
Although I'm inclined to agree, I'm just saying that winter tyres are a better purchase than all-season ones.
 
performance winter tyres to exist.

And that temperature when it makes sense to start using winter tyres is actually 8c, not 6.
Whether a high performance winter tyres has more grip at 4c than a reasonably decent winter tyre (eg equivalent of a Falken 452) is a bit hard to asses, isn;t it?


To be fair I find it quite funny how people insist on buying high performance summer tyres (which is good, shows that they care about theirsafety) but then quickly dismiss winter tyres because there isn't that much "winter" in the UK. No wonder traffic was OMG last year when there was half an inch of snow on the roads for a couple of days. No wonder insurance firms went OMG as well after the "icy" season and it's small crashes.

Sure, the time when you actually really need it isn't that long, maybe 2-3 weeks but in those 2-3 weeks your chance of crashig is so stupidly high that you're overall safer on the road driving kumhos during the summer and a budget winter tyre during the winter than you are by running summer performance tyres all year round. But if we look at temperatures, we can clearly see than you can easy use winter tyres 4 months a year. Sure, it's inconvenient at first, but once you get used to it it's the same cost in the long term because both pairs will last longer.

Maybe it's because I come from a place where snow is rather hard to ignore during the winter, but I find the strong reluctancy to buy winter tyres rather ironical.
 
Buying a completely new set of tyres at what, £500, for 2-3 weeks is just ridiculous. Thats a good point actually, even during our freak weather last year it only lasted about a month!

If we lived in Germany, or Colorado, etc etc, I'd be totally 100% with you.

But we don't. So I'm not.
 
One of the issues is that I'm running

Front: 225/45W17 | Rear: 245/40W17

I know this causes issues with tyre choices with some manufactures.

I live near Bolton (Lancashire) so within about 5 miles of the Pennines. It is possible I might have to travel to Seascale (with work) which is surrounded by some awful roads. I also often have to drive the 240 miles to the company HQ in Hampshire. It is also possible I might need to spend time in Chesterfield which means the Snake Pass over the Peaks. Life would be simple if I didn't need to drive so much.

Also regarding average temperatures.... 7 degrees during the day is fantastic in Dec/Jan/Feb.... well it would be if I didn't arrive at work in the dark and leave in the dark when the average temperature when I'm driving is much lower.
 
I had 225/45 17 ContiWinterContact TS810s and they were simply superb.
****ing expensive, but brilliant. Also rated to over 120mph :p
 
mjt said:
I had 225/45 17 ContiWinterContact TS810s and they were simply superb.
****ing expensive, but brilliant. Also rated to over 120mph :p
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And there we see there is clearly a considerable degredation in the non-snow ability of these sorts of tyres, when you consider a 225/45/17 ContiSportContact is rated to 186mph.

Because it wont always be snowing. Infact, it'll hardly ever be snowing. And before some bright spark pops in to say you wouldnt do 120mph let alone 186mph, I'm highlighting the difference in rated ability.
 
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