Wheels/Tyres: Anyone else getting their Winter tyres ready?

[gjd]

Hello

Likewise.

Today it was 6degrees. Bah!

[Laney760]

I really want my winters off now, today was a nightmare driving around roundabouts with them, I had to sooo slow down in this dryness and heat, lol

Definitely time to take them off now. They have been a great lesson in tyres, I want two Volvos, one with slicks for dry days and one with my Michelin winter tyres for rain and winter!!

[Bill_56]

I know it's tempting fate, but I've just been out swapping back the summer tyres, ready for a trip to Glasgow next week. Took less than an hour, including putting few pounds of air into each tyre.

I know there's still a risk of frost, especially in the North,.but I balance that risk against the risk of getting a puncture when hundreds of miles away... inconvenient at the best of times, but a potential nightmare if I had to wait a few days for a new winter tyre had to be specially imported.

One thing to remember when doing the swap... , now's the time to carefully examine every inch of winter treads for foreign bodies. If there's any nails or whatever, better to find them now than wait until November.

[tt82]

Still got my winters on the front axle, there getting low on tread so I'm planning on running them down to the limit before putting my summers back on. Would much rather have the summers back on but it seems a shame ditch a tyre with 3-4mm of tread still left on it.

[Ian21401]

Originally Posted by Ian21401

I finally decided to go for "All Season" tyres (185/65R15) to my 1992 2.0l petrol 940 estate and had them fitted today. On the basis that I would use them all year because they are not solely for grip in snow conditions but have "cold weather" rubber compound. An advantage for example if I'd driven up to north Scotland at the beginning of November (when it was warm) intending to stay for a month, and then driving back south about now when it is perishing with snow and ice and very cold road surfaces. That's my theory anyway.
I have noted one or two previous comments about "all seasons" being a bit "squishy". After a day driving around town and dual carriageway in cold and wet and ice (for other car parts) I think I might agree. I haven't pushed it yet as I like to "run-in" any new tyres for about 100 miles at no more than 50 mph but the steering does seem to be a little vague with some understeer, compared to the "Maxis MA-P1" summer tyres which were on the front but worn out after 30,000 miles. My previous rear tyres were "Lasser Snoway" which had done 58,000 miles in 6 years and still had 3.00mm tread and I could not fault them but the sidewalls were cracking up.
We'll see how things go over the next few weeks

Four months on and the coldest weather is probably over for another year. My Klebers have not been tested in snow because we haven't had any here in the my part of Northumberland but I don't think that we have had many days when ambient temperature was above 7deg.C. except for that weard week in March when it was up in the mid teens. I've done 2,700 miles of general motoring since fitting the tyres. I've become accustomed to the very slight vagueness and very slight understeer on the steering and this does not cause me any concern. During my spring service of the front brakes with the wheels off I checked the tyre condition and measured the tread depth. Wear appears to be even over the full width of the tread, measuring 7.5 mms. of tread. I'll check the wear again after the warmer weather.

[gjd]

Originally Posted by Ian21401

Four months on and the coldest weather is probably over for another year. My Klebers have not been tested in snow because we haven't had any here in the my part of Northumberland but I don't think that we have had many days when ambient temperature was above 7deg.C. except for that weard week in March when it was up in the mid teens. I've done 2,700 miles of general motoring since fitting the tyres. I've become accustomed to the very slight vagueness and very slight understeer on the steering and this does not cause me any concern. During my spring service of the front brakes with the wheels off I checked the tyre condition and measured the tread depth. Wear appears to be even over the full width of the tread, measuring 7.5 mms. of tread. I'll check the wear again after the warmer weather.

Hello

I swapped the Quadraxers off around a month ago, in favour of the Dunlop Fast Responses that were fitted to my alloys.

I agree - the handling on the Quadraxers was a bit "whiffly" because of the softer compound and blocky tread. The Dunlops are more direct.

Although the Quadraxers are "All Season", so technically could last over the Summer, I intend to use them as Winter Tyres as they match the variable British winter weather. I watched my outside temp gauge hover around the 6/7 deg mark, with lows of below freezing, but equally some days in the low teens.

I drove 130 miles through a Winter Storm, and the Quadraxers felt solid and connected to the road, nowhere near as twitchy as I was expecting. The only downside was a tremendous noise on the wheelarches from the spray. The back window filthied up very quickly, and it seemed to me that I was putting up a spray not unlike a speedboat.

[Bill_56]

Had a largely uneventful drive up to Scotland today, first trip back on summer tyres, alternating between sunshine, showers and torrential rain.

One thing I did notice on upper reaches of the M6 was that in some, but not all of the showers, I had to slow down more than I expected to maintain full confidence. I eventually twigged... the temperature had dropped from circa 10C to circa 5C over not many miles as I climbed up through the hills around Shap, and that seemed to coincide with the times the tyres (summer michelins) were struggling just a little.

I'm aware that 7 degrees is often cited as the point at which summer tyres begin to under perform, but never noted such convincing evidence of it before today.

[RobbieH]

Another +1 for the Quadraxers. Similar experience to the two previous posts, slightly squidgy due to tread and seem to throw up water in bucket loads.

Mine went on last October/November time. Did wonder why when the weather over the Xmas didn't turn out the same as the last couple of years. But, lo, come beginning of February I was pretty glad I did. A trip to the Lake District tested them in proper snow for the first time and then toing and froing to see my Mum in the hospice made me glad I had them. Nearly took them off in the recent hot spell but kept them on for the holiday trip to the Alps (where I am currently sat ). Good job too as there have a been a few days recently where a not insignificant amount of new snow has been dropped. No issues (unlike the new , 61 plate, Merc E320 on summer tyres spotted earlier today ).

[Ian21401]

I think the post by Bill 56 says it all. He didn't have confidence in his "summer" tyres when the ambient temperature dropped. Nothing against your driving abilities or experience Bill but would you or I have noticed this if we had not been driving around on "winter" tyres for the last month or so and become used to their characteristics?
I've been driving cars since 1967, motorcycles for a few years before that. I think my first car, a Standard Pennant, was fitted with cross ply tyres, remember them, and my second car, a Triumph Herald had cross plys on when I bought it and I think the first new tyres I bought for it were Goodyear G8, which I think were also cross ply. Radial ply tyres were just becoming the ones to have about then but were still a bit of an unknown quantity and were blamed for several accidents, mainly due to people fitting one cross ply and one radial on the same axle which was a definite NO NO.
I don't remember any chat about "summer" or "winter" tyres in those days except for "Town and Country" tyres which had a very chunky tractor type tread and were intended to be fitted on the driven wheels only. That was almost exclusively the rear wheels, except for the then fairly new Mini and a certain Citroen dating from before the Second World War which also had a "free-wheel" option operated, I believe, by a knob in the centre of the steering wheel. I suspect that the tyre rubber compound was fairly simple then and all tyres were simply meant to work reasonably well in all temperatures. As car performance improved and the motorist expected better tyre performance the R & D guys got busy and the "high performance" dry weather tyre arrived at the expense of grip in colder conditions. I remember in the early 70's trying to drive the firm's rear wheel drive 3.0 litre Ford Granada shod with the latest fashion asymetric tread tyres up a very slight incline in about an inch of snow and it simply couldn't do it. (and I'm a confirmed rear wheel drive advocate).
The point of all that diatribe is: are the current "All Season" tyres simply a step back to simpler days when the rubber compounds were simpler and intended to be used in all conditions?
I'll watch my Klebers as the weather warms and try to compare the tread wear in the warm against the wear in the cold and hope they don't scrub off in the heat.

[m0bzy]

Ian21401,Re; 3 liter Granada,it wasn't the tyres at fault,it was the car. I had one and it drove me crackers untill I put a kerb-stone in the boot,after that I drove all over the Midlands in heavy snow with out problem.