What winter tyres do you recommend?

[Arianne]

Hi folks,

We bought our XC90 in Spring 2006 with Conti Premium Contact tyres.

We usually mount winter tyres from early-December through March as we live in Scotland and we travel to the Alps every winter for a skiing holiday.

What winter tyres do you use?

I don't want an All Season / Four Season tyre as these are a compromise we don't want to accept.

Thanks in advance.

Arianne.

[imac]

Continental WinterContact TS790. They carry the severe service emblem and are fantastic in the snow & ice but not too noisy on dry tarmac either :)

Highly reccomended, although depending on what size you're after you might have to go to the TS800 series rather than the 790.

[Arianne]

Hi T5,

We had Conti WinterContact TS810's last year and they were pretty good hauling our FWD Galaxy up slopes we didn't think a Galaxy could manage.

But checking the Continental website this year it appears that only the Conti 4x4WinterContact is recommended for Exec4x4's. But this tyre is not available in the XC90 rim size - 235/60 R18.

Thanks for your help though and nice pics of the S60.

Regards.

Arianne.

[imac]

Hi,

Have you thought about getting a second set of rims for your car in 17" and mounting 235/65-17 winter tyres on these?

By coming down to 17" during winter you have a much wider selection of tyres avaliable and also with a second set or wheels you don't have to keep getting the tyres remounted twice a year.

Thanks for your comment re pics :)

[Arianne]

Hi T5,

I still have the £800 investment of winter tyres, wheels and trims sitting in my shed from the Ford Galaxy we had until March 2006. A difficult package to shift, me thinks.

Not sure that my budget (or the wife's patience) will stretch to the 17" rims for the Volvo. You're right about swopping the tyres but I'll live with that. There are some other tyre manufacturers out there doing 235/60 R18 sizes. I've spotted some Vredestein WinTrac 4 Extreme but I'm keen to get user feedback before buying.

Best wishes.

Arianne.

[imac]

Hi T5,

I still have the £800 investment of winter tyres, wheels and trims sitting in my shed from the Ford Galaxy we had until March 2006. A difficult package to shift, me thinks.



Ebay may surprise you if you try to sell during the winter months, I've seen sets of good winter tyres go for a few hundred last year.



Not sure that my budget (or the wife's patience) will stretch to the 17" rims for the Volvo. You're right about swopping the tyres but I'll live with that. There are some other tyre manufacturers out there doing 235/60 R18 sizes. I've spotted some Vredestein WinTrac 4 Extreme but I'm keen to get user feedback before buying.

Best wishes.

Arianne.

I know of at least one person with those Vredestein winter tyres on their Volvo T5 who thinks they are great.

With regards to the smaller wheels, I was in your situation last winter but decided rather than get winter tyres in the cars standard 17" size I could get a set of second hand wheels that would fit and save myself quite a lot and the cost difference between 17" and 16" tyres more than paid for the set of second hand wheels. Of course, new wheels from Volvo would have cost me a small fortune and I wouldn't have gone for it that way.

[tem]

I fitted the Nokian WR 235/60 R18 107V XL tyres to MY05 XC90.

The tread depth starts at 11mm and after travelling 23120 miles the front have a tread depth of 7mm and the rear 9mm.

Just removed them and refitted the original Conti's as I plan to fit them on a MY07 XC90.
Excellent all weather tyres.

tem.