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Snow tyre - recomendations for make model and from where ?


Hybrid_From_Hell

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Right

Last year I was fine in the LR and the snow, :D , more than fine, loved every powersliding moment :lol:

But, SWMBO didn't in her "Fit Like a Shoe" MX5, and my BMW was hopeless.

After a "Bit of a scare" in the MX5, it went and a New Honda CRV 4x4 has appeared, whilst not as "4x4" as say a Def / 90 / RR etc, its still a 4x4 :)

Now, due to the joys of ebay I have just picked up for peanuts a set of 4 steel honda rims, 17"

So, these are to have proper snow tyres on them.

The size of her tyres / rims at the moment are : 225 60 18

the rims are 17" not 18" which were / are fitted to the "Cooking" CRVs and these have : 225 65 17 tyres

So,

For a true snow tyre, if we get it good and proper again - what iare the better / best / tyres to aviod ?

Makes, models and anywhere good to get them would be good

On a dafter thought ? what bout just fitting some Insa turbos / something similar to the rims ?

Thoughts

Nige

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Insa's are not snow tyres!

Lack of siping mean in compressed snow they wil lbe usesless as a chocolate tea pot, in soft snow they would be excellent of course.

If you are looking for a 'winter' tyre like many continental people use, like in Germany or Switzerland you will see they all have a lot of siping on them.

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if you are going to trouble of fitting a set of snow tyres forget insa turbos etc Go for proper "snow tyres" as mentioned vredestein nokia etc low temp tyres There is no narrower tyre in 17 inch available suitable to replace 225 , so snow tyre will give best result for wife, a chunky tyre eg insa wont help at all as half the problems with modern 4x4 tyres ala MX5 is they are too wide and skate about on top of snow etc. If you really want to help her and there is a considerable fall have a set of fastfit chains eg Klick and go

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4x4 or any description is better than a 2wd

She bought a Honda vs a LR due to nobody she knew had not had probs with a FL2

Same reason I bought a BMW vs a RR :(

Sad but true

I also know / have been told / that snow tyres on any 4x4 up the drivability hugely, so hence the post

I loved the Autocar test of the new posh spice envogue thing

Their ending comment was along the lines of "Nice, but as a manufactuer - coming 35th out of 35 in the relaiblity tests will have a huge impact on sales "

F right,

Enthusiast I might be.... but I have friends who all have had huge issues with LR 4x4s in all sorts and price ranges

Hey Ho Honda 1st out of 35 for relaiblity

:(

Maybe one day LR will get there act together ?

Nige

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if you fit proper snow tyres once , you will fit them every year.

they make a surprising difference on the slimy, slushy wet and cold road.

snow socks wear out extremely fast and are not worth the money

oponeo are pretty good to deal with but hard to get an answer out off if your tyres go adrift on route

bear in mind that some places in europe change their winter tyres @4mm

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Seems a very expensive way to go, why not just stick some half-competent AT's on as the only set and have done? The 4wd + clearance will make the difference, last year I found the Freebie did better even in front-drive only 'cos it wasn't dragging its belly on the floor.

I've heard nothing but evangelical praise for Nokians, being Finnish they should know about snow. I'm quite liking the look of the Continental Cross Contact AT's, since the Freebie is needing a new set of boots soon:

ContiCrossContactAT.jpg

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Because an AT tyre is only marginally better than a normal road tyre.

A snow tyre will let you go round corners, an AT tyre means you don't end up as far in the ditch.

Why would another set of tyres cost much more?

If you have your snow tyres on for 3, 4, 5 months, your not using your 'summer' tyres, so they are

not getting worn. The extra expense is wheels, but there are loads on Ebay. Storage may be a problem

for some though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s]Little demonstration[/url] of tyres 'effectivenes'.

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I spoke to one of the Silverline people at a show, he recommended the Vredstein I think winter tyres, said he believed they were OK all year especially on wet roads and the wear was not a big issue, but you can only get them at certain times of year (like now), but they aren't cheap.

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Another vote for Nokian tyres. Bridgestone 'Blizzak' is anther true snow tyre popular in Canada. I've used snow tyres in Scandanavia and Canada on snow and ice and their performance is truly unbelievable.

Only trouble you'll have is getting hold of them in the UK right now. A mate enlisted my help last week to find snow tyres for his Disco after a fruitless search of the usual high street tyre shops. I tried a few places and they all said the same thing. Suddenly the whole of the UK wants snow tyres and is busy buying up every manufacturers stock in the country right now. The suppliers I spoke to were quoting Dec for resupply but the advice was to buy now to secure an order because quantities would be limited.

Nokian Snow tyre

snowtyre05.jpg

snowtyre10.jpg

snowtyre06.jpg

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If you have your snow tyres on for 3, 4, 5 months,

Over here down south you're more likely to have them on for 3,4,5 days - last year was the worst I can remember and we had maybe 3 days where everyone with 2wd stayed at home (although mostly because it was a free day off) and perhaps a total of 2 weeks where you would have been better off on snow tyres.

Aside from the 2 bad days when I was out playing in the 109 ^_^ I was commuting quite happily in a 2wd freelander on road tyres.

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But we get 3-4 months in this country when the average daily temperature is below 7 degrees which is the cut off point where the compound in winter tyres is more effective than "normal tyres". If the temperature is 7 degrees or below you will stop quicker, corner safer and handle better regardless of whether there is snow or ice about. A winter tyre will aquaplane less and is always better in the wet or damp than a normal tyre, regardless of temperature. And in snow or ice the difference is so obvious as to be a no brainer. I once ran Dunlop SP winter tyres for 4 winters followed by 3 years without removing them all year round (my summers needed replacing) and saw no noticeable degradation through the summer. In total they did around 40K miles.

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Everybody here in Finland is already on Winter Tyres and there is no snow yet (but the temp range is -1 to 5 C ).

I'm actually currently only a few km away from the Nokian Tyre factory, but I'm not bring back a set in hand luggage for anybody ^_^

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Everybody here in Finland is already on Winter Tyres and there is no snow yet (but the temp range is -1 to 5 C ).

I'm actually currently only a few km away from the Nokian Tyre factory, but I'm not bring back a set in hand luggage for anybody ^_^

I'm sure you could slip through with 4 285's tucked under your arm... nobody would notice :P Could you bring them on rims while you are at it? lol

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Snow tyres may well be better but my 2p worth is that if you can drive remotely competently and have anything with 4x4 and a decent set of ATs then you shouldn't end up in the ditch in any conditions you are likely to encounter in the UK.

Just because the entire country grinds to a halt when the annual snowflake falls on the Met Office roof doesn't make it a harsh winter :lol:

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