Winter Tyres?

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The Wintracs are OK on snow, adequate on ice, but be careful on wet roads - they end up last in that discipline in most tests...
Whatever else, they will be better than summer tyres in any case.
 
How about sand tyres?

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Low clearance and open diffs just make it a bit more challenging. Kids love it! :)

Unfortunately in the image you see the moment the rear bumper hits the sand... no biggy :)
 
Just got to try my Falken Eurowinter HS01 225/55 R18 102V tyres in some actual snow and ice. Yes, we have actual snow in the Midlands - not a huge amount, but enough for RWD cars to have trouble getting up and down hills and general traffic chaos. Mind you, we have general traffic chaos in the middle of the summer too - that's why I want to move to Scotland. Just spent nearly an hour getting a Jaguar XK8 (RWD auto) back down a hill it couldn't get up, which caused a bit of general chaos.

Falken's perform really well, but then I expected them to. Tried over enthusistic acceleration, cornering and braking (obviously where safe to do so!) and all good. In fact didn't feel much different to normal use without the snow. Wasn't really able to identify any difference with traction control on or off, or using the 4X4 50% front 50% rear lock facility. Obviously I can't compare this to what may have occured with the 'summer' Toyo R37s as I can't be arsed to change them all over to find out. There were other 4X4s about who all seemed to be coping ok, so maybe conditions not really severe enough. It's about 1oC today. I'm pretty sure my Smart Fortwo (rear wheel drive auto) would haved coped fine on its winter tyres (Bridgestone Blizzacks) in these conditions.

I'm going to get my re-furbished OEM alloys and Falkens re-balanced though as I can detect a very slight wobble which doesn't happen with the Toyos. When the wheel man fitted the Falkens they were quite out of balance, requiring rather a lot of weights. He recommended having them re-balanced after a month of use as he was of the opinion that they will 'settle down' after some use. The manufacturing accuracy of large diameter 4X4 tyres, with reletively high sidewalls is more difficult than low profile car tyres.

There are in fact yellow paint blobs on the lower, outer tyre wall put there by Falken, indicating the tyres lightest balance point, that are ideally positioned as near the valve as possible to minimize the amount of weights that'll be needed. There's also a red blob, that indicates the high point for both 'radial runout' and 'radial force variation'. This should also be positioned next to the valve, and takes priority over the yellow blob. If it's a steel wheel there is apparently sometimes a dimple in the outer rim indicating the 'low point' of the wheel, to which these paint blobs should be aligned. To be honest I don't entirely understand all of this but hopefully tyre fitters do. Always assuming the paint blobs are still there.

Apparently, if your tyres have any blue, green purple, white, pink or orange paint blobs then they're of no further use to anyone as they are 'mystery' dots put there for factory production reasons. Some tyre manufacturers don't put any paint blobs on their tyres at all. So I'm guessing in this case you have to hope for the best, put up with the resulting wobbles, or take the tyre off again and re-position it on the rim differently.
 
jaapv said:
The Wintracs are OK on snow, adequate on ice, but be careful on wet roads - they end up last in that discipline in most tests...
Whatever else, they will be better than summer tyres in any case.

It does seem to be a real minefield as to what to get, where and how etc. This is the test I saw before buying the Wintracs, so hopefully all will work out. http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Vredestein/Wintrac-Xtreme.htm

Looks like they are being delivered tomorrow, so just in time for the snow to disappear for the next four years!
 
Interesting conversation at kwik-fit today when changing over to winter tyres - I used them rather than stand in the cold & rain at my usual back street tyre shop for an hour, instead sitting in the warm for 2 with free coffee but same price, £15 per wheel :D

Anyway they would only do it "cash in hand" (and no receipt) as it company policy not to fit customers own parts - including tyres. So owners contemplating winter tyres might need to make sure they have someone willing to do the swaps. :eek:

Another less informed quote was regarding tyre age. They claimed the "shelf life" is ten years from the "dot date" but only 5 from fitting. Apart from the contradiction that you might buy tyres which are instantly "out of date", buyers should make sure they get recent "dot dates" as inevitably most winter tyres will do less mileage than summer ones and will need to be kept much longer before wearing out.
 
greendwarf said:
They claimed the "shelf life" is ten years from the "dot date" but only 5 from fitting. Apart from the contradiction that you might buy tyres which are instantly "out of date", ...
To be honest, I don't see the contradiction. You could buy a 4 year old tire and use it for the next 5 years. Then at the end, the dot date is 9 years in the past and the fitting date 5 years. Don't see a problem with that perse?
greendwarf said:
..., buyers should make sure they get recent "dot dates" as inevitably most winter tyres will do less mileage than summer ones and will need to be kept much longer before wearing out.
Looking for winter tires for my new Ampera E, I stumbled on a site that offered new tires that were DOT2013. I thought that was outrages, but on this web site, they claimed that in the tire industry unused tires are considered 'new tires' up to 5 years after the DOT date.
 
The contradiction is that the "fitting date" is only known at the date of purchase. Their line was that they try to persuade customers to change tyres that they see with a dot date older than 5 years, even if they have only been "off the self" for a short period.
 
Sorry, still don't see how you can buy tires that are instantly out of date, when they are valid 10 years after DOT and 5 years after first fitting. Unless they were already out of date before you bought them. Never mind, must be me ;)
 
Any recommendations for a retailer/fitter for winter tyres north of the border (Glasgow)?

I could do with next day delivery so I can get them fitted for a long drive on Saturday.
 
As mentioned previously..."I'm going to get my re-furbished OEM alloys and Falkens re-balanced though as I can detect a very slight wobble which doesn't happen with the Toyos. When the wheel man fitted the Falkens they were quite out of balance, requiring rather a lot of weights. He recommended having them re-balanced after a month of use as he was of the opinion that they will 'settle down' after some use. The manufacturing accuracy of large diameter 4X4 tyres, with reletively high sidewalls is more difficult than low profile car tyres".

Hmm, well not all going that well at the moment. I took my wheels and tyres to my local HiQ to be 're-balanced' today and the fitter reckoned that three of them had so many weights on them that there must be something wrong with either the tyres or the rims (I seriously hope not the rims!). As far as I'm aware there's less likelyhood of it being the OEM rims as they looked virtually new when I got them, not even been curbed, and the re-furb/powder coating specialist checked them for any damage or bends and reckoned they were absolutely fine. They certainly looked a lot better than most of the other rims he had in his workshop for refurbishment. So going to take the Falken off the rim that had the most weights fitted, fit a spare Toyo R37 that I have and see how far out it is. The assumption being that if the rim is ok with the R37 on it then it must be the Falkens at fault.

What a pain in the arse though. I'm not at all happy about this...

UPDATE: Tried a Toyo R37 on the rim with the most weights and it would require half the amount of weight to balance the Toyo than it does the Falken - Toyo 100 grammes, Falken 200 grammes. Had further discussion with the wheel refurbishment man and he said rims were like new - much better than what he normally has to deal with. So looks like the Falken's are to blame then... basically, they're too lumpy and bumpy to balance properly. Now I'm expecting protracted and possibly difficult communications with mytyres.co.uk who supplied the Falkens, as I've done 500 miles on them already. I'm also expecting to pay even more money for some 'premium' quality winter tyres. :roll:
 
saw these the other day while at the dealer. He tells me the owner has had a lot of problems with the TMPS but it is working properly. He has reiterated what lots have said on here, use OEM rims with all 4 tyres the same and should have no problems.
 

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They look a bit hardcore - hope the exhaust clearance can cope with this level of enthusiasm. I've got genuine Mitsubishi OEM 18" alloys and TPMS valves which worked just fine, once 'programmed' by my local main dealer.

It's just a pity that they're currently sitting on my dining room carpet without any tyres fitted (keeps them nice and clean - away from that salty muck on the roads!). Still disputing the quality of the Falken Eurowinter tyres (from mytyres) that I couldn't get balanced. Three of them have now been sent back to Falken (in Turkey) for 'evaluation'. If Falken conclude that in their opinion that there's nothing wrong with them then I get them back and have to return the refund I've just been given by mytyres. mytyres would not refund me for the one tyre that I was able to get balanced, so I currently have one 'good' Falken Eurowinter tyre that is actually no good to me at all. If Falken do admit that the tyres they supplied are duffers then I'm not about to rush out and buy three new ones that's for sure. I'll probably give Pirelli Sottozeros a go, when they get a bit cheaper in the summer. At this time of year winter tyres become either unobtainable or stupidly expensive in the UK.

The moral of this tale - maybe consider the consequences of buying tyres online? Although it's not always easy to get winter tyres from your local tyre supplier, or if you can the brands they are willing to supply can be rather limited - which is why I bought them online in the firstplace.
 
That sounds like a nightmare. I’m going to slap on some Quatrac 5’s in a month or so. Was going to use tyreleader however was hoping that oponeo having a U.K. office might be easier if any problems. Anyone used them in U.K.?
 
Hi Sasheo,

Hope this helps (I think these are the same tyres you showed):

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2997&p=35037

1) Be mindful of the noise. You do notice it on tarmac driving.
2) a bit extra fuel consumption
3) Their on-road performance I find it a bit worse than the Toyo (longer stopping distance and a bit of side-slipping on tight roundabouts - fun, but perhaps not what you're looking for)

I keep both sets and switch them between city and cross-country driving...

Best,
Ricardo
 
That sounds like a nightmare.

Yes - very much like a nightmare, although so far longer lasting. It can apparently take up to six months for Falken to decide whether their wobbly tyres are wobbly or not. In the mean time we have lots of ice and snow! If my house sale hadn't taken such an incredibly long time I'd already be sliding about in the Scottish Highlands rather than 'sunny' (currently -2oC) Lincolnshire. I just went out to the garage to get some lager (colder than my fridge) and fell over on the ice. And I haven't even drunk any of the lager yet.
 
Sasheo said:
That sounds like a nightmare. I’m going to slap on some Quatrac 5’s in a month or so. Was going to use tyreleader however was hoping that oponeo having a U.K. office might be easier if any problems. Anyone used them in U.K.?

I've had Quatrac 5s fitted since November here in Derbyshire, UK and I have found them first class in the cold and so far on ice and reasonably light snow conditions (currently 3 inches on the ground and something of a blizzard going on atm). Not a single slip of the wheels so far with AWD selected and anti skid turned off.

As mentioned in an earlier post these tyres are low rolling resistance and I definitely get something like 10% better range with them.

Ordered via 'My Tyres', sent from Germany and fitted locally for around £10 per wheel. Took about a week to get to the fitter after the order was placed.

Jim B
 
NightPHEVer said:
If Falken do admit that the tyres they supplied are duffers then I'm not about to rush out and buy three new ones that's for sure. I'll probably give Pirelli Sottozeros a go, when they get a bit cheaper in the summer. At this time of year winter tyres become either unobtainable or stupidly expensive in the UK.

The moral of this tale - maybe consider the consequences of buying tyres online? Although it's not always easy to get winter tyres from your local tyre supplier, or if you can the brands they are willing to supply can be rather limited - which is why I bought them online in the firstplace.

Just got confirmation that Falken admit that my Eurowinters were in fact duffers. So I get to keep my refund from Mytyres. Although I still have the one 'good' Eurowinter that Mytyres wouldn't refund me for. So I'll have to try ebay for that one - there's nothing wrong with it, one careful owner... I can only hope somebody else has recently bought a set of four, not done very many miles on them and has then had one wrecked by a puncture, so needs one more (I know this feeling 'cos I recently had it happen to one of my Toyo R37s - fortunately I had a very good part worn R37 with the same amount of tread depth, already on a wheel in my boot! Tyre gloop and an electric pump wouldn't have helped on this occasion). My 'good' Eurowinter has only done 500 miles.

I'm going to try for a set of Pirelli Sottozeros, hopefully from a local tyre supplier so it'll be their problem if it all goes tits up.
 
Seems like the right time to return to the subject of winter tyres - it's only 29oC in Inverness today (fortunately it cools down at night) so we might get some snow soon. I've just had a set of 225/55 R18 Pirelli Winter Sottozeros fitted to my spare set of 18" OEM alloys and they all balanced just fine. Three of them needed 65 grammes and one 100 grammes weight. There were no red dots painted on the Pirellis so I guess I can conclude that it's a good sign that they don't suffer from sufficient radial runout problems to warrant the red dot treatment. They do all have yellow dots though.

I've just tried them out at up to 80mph and no wobbles or vibration at all. And the TPMS valves all still seem to work (in position '2'). Can't yet say how well they work in ice and snow (we might get some tomorrow) but they're very soft 'n' sticky, especially when it's 29oC. The cost was a not inconsiderable £720 including fitting and VAT. I'll probably take them off again tomorrow and put the Toyo's back on.

UPDATE: It's November now - fitted winter wheels and tyres today - here's a picture of one of the Sottozeros on powder coated OEM 18" alloy and close-up of tread. Quite exciting I'm sure you'll agree. I mean you can almost smell them can't you? And they do indeed smell of rubber, fresh rubber at that. Although so far November in Scotland has been warmer and drier than October was. Supposed to get colder next week though...
 

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