Winter tyres - yay or nay

[Gazza77]

I'm after some first hand of people who've used them as to there benefits, really as per the title. Living 900 feet above sea level in the pennines, and with a 32 mile round trip of a commute up and down steep and twisty roads, I want the best safety over winter possible, but not at any cost.

As a bit of background to my thinking, for the past two years, I've had a Suzuki Grand Vitara, which was fitted with a set of AT tyres. This coped fine in the snow, but in frozen/slush/wet etc always felt a little skittish, especially when braking downhill when the abs felt to kick in a little too often for my liking.

The Suzuki has now gone, and in it's place is a Nissan X-trail. This has 3 M&S all season tyres on it with about 6mm tread, and thanks to the helpful dealer I bought it off, it has one brand new summer tyre. For the driving I'm doing at present, this combination whilst not ideal will suffice, but I'm not so sure once it gets a bit colder. If I do get winter tyres however, these will be stored and used up next summer to get full use of them.

Is it worth switching to a set of winter tyres, or is the cost greater than the benefit over what I have at present?

If you are going to be using the vehicle in all conditions I would suggest getting winter tyres. Supposedly they are superior in all conditions once the temperature drops below 7 degrees and not just in snow etc. I've driven vehicles in Germany with snow tyres on and the difference in grip in adverse conditions is pretty big. I personally will not be using winter tyres as if it snows or the conditions make the road unsafe, the car just wont be moving and I will work from home.

edit: In the long run winter tyres wont really cost you too much extra as your summer tyres receive less use during winter months and therefore wont need replacing quite so soon.

[embee]

Don't know what your current ones will be like, but I've had a set of Goodyear UG5 winter tyres for my Yaris for several years now. They live stored in the garage roof until end Nov/early Dec.



They are a very big benefit on snow, can't be exaggerated how much better than summer tyres. Also on slushy/wet roads the clearance is so much better. Guide is that the compound comes into it's own below about 7C.

I was unfortunate enough to do about 15mls on black ice a couple of years ago, freak conditions when damp road froze over suddenly. It still felt very hairy, but at least I knew I probably had a decent shot at getting home in one piece (which I in fact did).

Living where you are, I'd say yes.

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by ravingdavis

I personally will not be using winter tyres as if it snows or the conditions make the road unsafe, the car just wont be moving and I will work from home.

Working from home won't be an option unless my NHS employer suddenly gets a huge amount of money from somewhere to provide me with the technology to be able to do so sadly.

[dizzyblonde]

General grabber UHPs are going on the Freelander.....cheapest we can get, best we can put on it,. ...they just never seem to be in stock when we have the money for them, in our size! They're the mutts nuts of tyres for landies .. . ..apparently. At £126 a piece fully fitted.
Don't see the point of specific winter tyres when those will do the job rather well. We have rubbish Pirelli Scorpion ATs and they've done perfectly well, when everyone else is stuck ....we ain't...they come in at over 150 fitted.

And I live ont opposite hill to Gazza.......not seen you on your bike yet, and I do tend to wander about there a bit too

I looked at winter tyres for my xtrail but after speaking to luckypants and a bit research of xtrail forums and tyre forums opted for General Grabbers.
They are what all the utility companies run on their 4x4s for the winter.
I (after much searching) managed to get a spare set of wheels and fitted the winter tyres to these which will let me put them on / off as the weather dictates without paying the local fitter £50

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by Kilted Ginger

I looked at winter tyres for my xtrail but after speaking to luckypants and a bit research of xtrail forums and tyre forums opted for General Grabbers.
They are what all the utility companies run on their 4x4s for the winter.
I (after much searching) managed to get a spare set of wheels and fitted the winter tyres to these which will let me put them on / off as the weather dictates without paying the local fitter £50

Unfortunately, Nissan in their infinite wisdom decided to fit wheels to the 07 on X Trails in sizes that AT tyres such as the Grabbers aren't available in. The only ATs made that I can find are Yoko G012s, and that's what I had on the Suzuki.

[dizzyblonde]

Would the UHPs fit?

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

General grabber UHPs are going on the Freelander.....cheapest we can get, best we can put on it,. ...they just never seem to be in stock when we have the money for them, in our size! They're the mutts nuts of tyres for landies .. . ..apparently. At £126 a piece fully fitted.
Don't see the point of specific winter tyres when those will do the job rather well. We have rubbish Pirelli Scorpion ATs and they've done perfectly well, when everyone else is stuck ....we ain't...they come in at over 150 fitted.

And I live ont opposite hill to Gazza.......not seen you on your bike yet, and I do tend to wander about there a bit too

I'd have thought the UHPs would be very summer specific tyres DB, are you sure you don't mean General Grabbers, which I understand are very good AT ones?

Edit: no, UHPs not available in the right size anyway.

As for the bike, don't get out on it as much as I'd like, not enough hours in the day. When I do, I don't tend to ride it round and round the house though, so you wouldn't have seen me on it unless just heading out or getting back.

[fizzwheel]

I would have suggested the grabbers, but as you've already found out they dont fit, I shant !

Saying that we have a set on our 4 x 4 and havent had any problems in the winter... Liz was reading on another forum the the Grabber UHP that Dizzy was saying about dont give as good grip in off road conditions as the AT2's though.

I looked at Winter tyres for our Audi, but in the size it needs they are IMHO prohibaitvely expensive, so I'm going to get a set of these instead.

http://www.autosock.co.uk/

Might be a cheaper option than shelling out for new tyres ? I know you'd need four for the xtrail though to really make the most of it..