Should we be using winter tyres in the UK?

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Originally Posted by janneppi

the hassle of changing them IMO is the least of the problem. If you live in house, you are bound to have room for four tyres. I store my tyres in my parents shed, along with my dad's, sister's and brother's tyres. The actual switch takes about 30 minutes and requires a parking space, preferrably tarmac, and a basic floor jack cost 20 eur-200 Eur. If you use alloy wheels, it's best to use a torque wrench so you don't over tighten the wheel nuts.

Added bonus is that you get a good view how your brakes and shocks are doing.

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Yup. Currently my alloys are standing out in the back yard because I wanted to clean them before they went into storage.

Like you say it's also good to see how your brakes are doing as well as checking CV boots and the like. I also have my own torque wrench which only cost me 20 pounds or so. That way I don't have to deal with tyre monkeys breaking my locking wheel nuts.

The problem though is as Robinho says, 99% of people could be on winter tyres but if the moron out from wants to drive at 5 mph then traffic is going to go at 5mph. IMHO if you're too timid to drive at a decent speed then stay home and let people get on with it.

A set of wheels takes up hardly any room, unless you live in a tiny 1 bedroom flat or have no backyard then you have space.....

I did actually consider buying up a stock of steel wheels over the summer and selling winter tyres including rims on ebay but I there's always the risk of not making your money back and I couldn't be bothered with it.

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Yup. Currently my alloys are standing out in the back yard because I wanted to clean them before they went into storage.

Like you say it's also good to see how your brakes are doing as well as checking CV boots and the like. I also have my own torque wrench which only cost me 20 pounds or so. That way I don't have to deal with tyre monkeys breaking my locking wheel nuts....

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Yep. My buddy and I usually swap our respective vehicle's tires together in his garage. Typically it takes less than 90 minutes and a couple of beers for both vehicles. Mind you, it helps that his garage is equipped with a compressor and a pneumatic impact wrench :erm: . Still, we never trust the torque setting on the wrench and do the final tightening by hand with a proper torque wrench.

Small vignette for you.

The news has been full of the usual dire warnings not to drive unless your journey's essential. Well today I had to take my elderly father to a medical appointment which I considered important. I spent half an hour clearing the car off, brushing every single flake of snow away with a soft broom, did a walkround to check all the lights, then set off.

When I arrived at his house I found a car outside driven by someone who must have judged a trip to the post box as essential (even though we've had no post in 3 days). He'd made an effort, bless him, he'd cleared most of his front windscreen and some of his driver's window; and I think he'd got his sidelights on but it was a job to tell through the snow. There must have been nearly a foot of snow on his roof, and about the same on his bonnet. I think it was a Renault Laguna but it was hard to tell. Number plate? No idea.

I watched him post his letter then get back into his car and floor it, in first gear. He moved... about an inch. A couple of minutes later, when I'd collected my dad, he was still trying. Front wheels spinning like mad, car resolutely going nowhere. I probably should have given him a push, but I honestly didn't want to play any part in helping a tosser like him being on the road.

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Originally Posted by Dave B

Small vignette for you.

The news has been full of the usual dire warnings not to drive unless your journey's essential. Well today I had to take my elderly father to a medical appointment which I considered important. I spent half an hour clearing the car off, brushing every single flake of snow away with a soft broom, did a walkround to check all the lights, then set off.

When I arrived at his house I found a car outside driven by someone who must have judged a trip to the post box as essential (even though we've had no post in 3 days). He'd made an effort, bless him, he'd cleared most of his front windscreen and some of his driver's window; and I think he'd got his sidelights on but it was a job to tell through the snow. There must have been nearly a foot of snow on his roof, and about the same on his bonnet. I think it was a Renault Laguna but it was hard to tell. Number plate? No idea.

I watched him post his letter then get back into his car and floor it, in first gear. He moved... about an inch. A couple of minutes later, when I'd collected my dad, he was still trying. Front wheels spinning like mad, car resolutely going nowhere. I probably should have given him a push, but I honestly didn't want to play any part in helping a tosser like him being on the road.

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The thing that gets me is that it's not hard to clear snow off your car, granted i've not had a foot or anything but you just push it off.....

Sidelights or their more correct term PARKING LIGHTS, why their use isn't banned whilst a car is in motion, the clue to what they're there for is in the name PARKING LIGHTS.

It's Darwin coupled with laziness at work though. People just don't seem to realise the seriousness of a journey undertaken on icy/snowy roads and also don't begin to think about what could happen and what happens then like if Mr Laguna's foot of snow comes down over the windscreen just before an icy corner......

Parking lights are a pet hate of mine. If you feed the need for any lights then you need your headlights!

Apparently on Radio 2 they were saying that some insurance companies are classing it as a modification and want to charge some people extra. What a lot of thieving barstuds. When a car is given an insurance group it is given it on the basis of its specification as the manufacturer has specified.

For instance on the 500 Abarth there is an SS pack which gives better brakes, lower suspension and a healthy increase in power. Insurers can not charge you any extra for this as this is part of the specification of the car. This I am 110% sure of.

Mine lists winter tyres as part of the specification. I've put winter tyres on and if any insurance company wants to try and get more money off me because I've taken steps to make myself and other road users safer then they're SOL.

Churchill are even going on about the benefits of them.

http://www.churchill.com/motor/winter-tyres.htm

Tbh it all sounds a bit made up to me to be honest as I've never seen a post from a person saying that it did actually cost them extra
Perfect example here
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/wheel...e-warning.html

Also, comparison between winter tyres and summer tyres

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product...2/verdict.html

Winter tyres scored between 100-96.7 all seasons got 95.1 and summers got 76.4. Pretty bloody clear if you ask me. Also quite telling was that the summer tyres took 60 seconds longer on a 100 second lap in the snow.

From das AA -> http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice...in-the-uk.html

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Insurance implications?
If you fit winter or all-season tyres in place of your standard 'summer' tyres then there should be no need to inform your insurer – even though the speed index might be lower than the standard tyre specified by the car maker.
The lower speed index is still likely to exceed all national speed limits by a considerable margin – with the exception of some German autobahns – and is not checked as part of the passenger car MOT test.
Fitting different wheels would not be considered a notifiable modification either provided they are not oversized.
If you follow the standard European practice of keeping two sets of wheels, one fitted with winter tyres and one with summer tyres, then there will be no need to tell your insurer so long as the winter tyres are fitted to correct specification steel wheels or to alloy wheels of a similar specification to the car's original equipment.

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just saw this on Pistonheads

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As much as I think compulsory winter tyres are a good idea, there are at least a couple of reasons why it wouldn't work.

At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.

Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.

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:rotflmao:

Oh and one of our great Tory overlords thinks that winter tyres = studded tyres :rolleyes:

http://uk.autoblog.com/2010/12/03/tr...-tyre-message/

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Originally Posted by Robinho

Bridgestone Contisport 3's

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:facepalm:
I'm going to have to show your post to our marketing guys :laugh: :laugh:

Hey. Didn't notice that :rotflmao:

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Originally Posted by schmenke

Yep. My buddy and I usually swap our respective vehicle's tires together in his garage. Typically it takes less than 90 minutes and a couple of beers for both vehicles. Mind you, it helps that his garage is equipped with a compressor and a pneumatic impact wrench :erm: . Still, we never trust the torque setting on the wrench and do the final tightening by hand with a proper torque wrench.

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90 minutes with an impact wrench :crazy:
that's a HELL of a lot of beers you must get through in 80 minutes :bandit: :p

You're absolutely right about the torque settings on pneumatic impact wrenches by the way... if they're not calibrated regularly you should set them to the lowest torque and use a proper torque wrench for the tightening. :)