Winter tyres

[chrisrixy]

I bought a set of Hankook Icebear W300's when I couldn't fine any Wintrac's in stock at the time last month.

They have now done 2500 miles - mostly on dry roads. However having driven from Edinburgh to the far north Highlands yesterday - some 200+ miles - on a mix of deep snow (on the M90!), hard packed snow/ice and some slushy bits - I am very impressed with them. The car felt very solid on the road, not a spin or slide the whole way. Just lots of less well equipped cars in the way!

Even the 15" deep drifts on my home drive were no problem - last January in similar snow I couldn't get the XC to move on the drive with standard tyres.

So if looking for winter tyres and you can't find the highly recommended Wintrac's consider the Icebears.

[Pinstripe]

Looks like you guys are getting even more snow this year.

[400-ascona]

I would not normally consider buying second hand tyres. However, I couldn't get any Wintrac's.
I went to a place on Saturday morning (find on Ebay at online-perfomance-tyres) based in Alfreton Derby. Plenty of fun in the snow on the way there. He fitted 4 off Dunlop winters (to some spare Atlantis wheels I had) for £300, including removing and disposing of the summer tyres off my BBS alloys so I can get the wheels cleaned up over winter. The Dunlops have 6mm of tread, and look in perfect condition. He gets them from Germany where you have to fit winters at certain times of the year by law. It would seem they have resigned themselves to 2 sets of tyres a year, and don't use them until worn out. He also gets tyres with 7mm tread which he sells for a little more.
Like I said, not ususlly a fan of second hand tyres, but convinced myself it was worth a try as the Pirelli Scorpions that were on the car were on when I bought it, so were also therefore second hand to me.
Its one of the few garages I have been to that use rim protectors when fitting the tyres, and also clean the beading to make sure the tyre seals properly.

[bugi666]

I was thinking about getting these Vredesteins for couple of days ... but as my money printer has gone somewhere I just couldn't afford them.
I have to say though, driving the car on flat terrain with plenty of snow isn't really a problem on my Hankooks + Contis (they are fairly new and have 5-6mm thread)...
Mind you ... driving isn't a problem, breaking is a different matter
But as long as I get plenty of clearance to the next car it's fine.
It was funny to watch my neighbours spinning their rear-wheel-drive bmw's this morning Loving my XC90 more every day!

[hut160]

I have hankook icebears on my audi a4, last year I tried to skid , but it was pretty hard to do, very impressed with them.
tried ordering them from tyreland who supplied the a4 tyres, not in xc90 size, they could supply and fit maxtrac winter tyre for £99, but couldnt find anything on the net about them, so have ordered wintrac extremes from clickontyres for £142 each.they have taken my money so hopefully will be with me soon

[styloa]

Some good reading here, thanks to all.

From what I understand the recommended winter tyre size for the XC90 is 225/70 16 - based on the official volvo site.

I suspect the different size is to accomodate snow chains? The 225/70 16 tyre gives a total diameter of 721mm.

The usual 235/60 18 tyre has a diameter of 739mm (roughly the same as the 235/65 17 option).

With my current 235/60 18 tyres there is hardly a fingers width between the tyre and suspension springs - so the traditional chains would probably not fit.

We are off to Austria in Feb where winter tyres and chains seem to be requred by law.

Any advice of getting the right tyre size and chain combination to fit the XC90.... an not blowing a massive hole in the budget?

So far my thinking:

Option 1:
Get 235/60 18 snow tyres + the expensive clip on chains that don't need clearance behind the wheel

Option 2:
Get 225/70 16 snow tyres and rims to match + bog standard chains

Option 3:
Get 225/60 18 snow tyres + bog standard chains

Option2 requires a new set of rims, Option 3 seems non standard, but based on the total wheel+tyre diameter should give enough clearance for chains.

[indiebands]

Originally Posted by styloa

With my current 235/60 18 tyres there is hardly a fingers width between the tyre and suspension springs - so the traditional chains would probably not fit.

We are off to Austria in Feb where winter tyres and chains seem to be requred by law.

Any advice of getting the right tyre size and chain combination to fit the XC90.... an not blowing a massive hole in the budget?

So far my thinking:

Option 1:
Get 235/60 18 snow tyres + the expensive clip on chains that don't need clearance behind the wheel

Option 2:
Get 225/70 16 snow tyres and rims to match + bog standard chains

Option 3:
Get 225/60 18 snow tyres + bog standard chains

Option2 requires a new set of rims, Option 3 seems non standard, but based on the total wheel+tyre diameter should give enough clearance for chains.

Great questions. My MY11 Exec is still on order, so I don't have any feedback for you, but I do have questions of my own ;-)

The Exec has 19" Galeteia wheels and I have the Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme XL (255/50 R19 V107) waiting for the car to be delivered. I hope they will be adequate in the mountains when we go skiing, but I was wondering if it's even possible to use chains. Volvo does not sell any chains bigger than 18" There are, however, some chains that do not require inside wheel clearance.

I am looking at the K Summit XXL chains (K66 size) from Thule. The chains grip onto the tire tread itself and do not hook over the inner wall of the tire, which reduces the odds of some kind of rubbing/damage to the wheel well. Does anyone have experience with this kind of chains (or any chains) on an XC90 with 19" wheels? Any concerns or issues that you'd see with these chains? Thanks in advance.

Here is a link to the chains http://bit.ly/9dWlzA and to the video instructions http://bit.ly/cslGBg

[wadhurstdaisy]

Appreciate this is a bit of an old thread but thought as winter is coming there is no harm in recycling it ...

Firstly, I'm a firm believer in General Grabber UHP's and currently on my second set. Whilst they coped well with the exceptional snow in December '10 I did on occasion need to abandon my XC90 at the bottom of my steep(ish) drive whilst my Mini Clubman fitted with Dunlop Wintersport snow/winter tyres made it up without too much of a problem.

Having just swapped the 'winters' back onto my Mini I decided to get some dedicated snow/winter tyres for the XC90 especially as meteorologists are suggesting this winter is going to be just as bad if not worse than last year and if that is the case then why have better tyres on the FWD Mini than the 4x4 Volvo.

Spent too many hours searching for Vredestein Wintracs without success I've plumped for Yokohama W.Drive 902's as a) my tyre fitter had some in stock and b) he fits them on his own XC90.

So far I've only done 20 miles on them so they need another 150-200 miles to bed in. And the bloody temperature has crept up to 18 degrees today. Initial impression is that they ride slightly firmer than the General Grabbers (which do have a reputation for giving a soft / ballooning ride). Noise is no worse than the Grabbers when going straight but they are a fair bit noisier when going through bends; apparently they are dual-compound with a soft inner and a hard out (a bit like an aardvark ;-) ).

Hopefully the weather will do what it's meant to do shortly after which I'll post a more meaningful report on the Yokohamas.

Dave.

[volvorocks]

Wadhurstdaisy

Ive found that our winter tyres are lethal on the motorway in the warmer weather we are experiencing at the moment. Roll on winter!!

[Brodick]

On the plus side looks like the temp is going to take a bit of adive over the weekend and next week (cetrainly up here). Until it does though my winter tyres are staying firmly where they belong - in my garage!