Should we be using winter tyres in the UK?

My mum has not been going out for the last few weeks to avoid her putting her car off and scraping it. Not particularly because of the tyres but she must be starting to get on the old side of older :s

It has been a bit of a waste of time as, having new neighbours move into the house across the street today, their removal(delivery) van has lifted it onto the pavement by the rear wheelarch :( We have left it there for the moment so we can take photos in the daylight, it must look a proper sight for anyone driving past!! Thankfully my mum was looking outside at the time and saw it happen before he could drive off.... and also thankfully my sister is good in a crisis and so leapt outside with her camera and a notebook and got him to sign to agree it was his fault :up:

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Originally Posted by J4MIE

My mum has not been going out for the last few weeks to avoid her putting her car off and scraping it. Not particularly because of the tyres but she must be starting to get on the old side of older :s

It has been a bit of a waste of time as, having new neighbours move into the house across the street today, their removal(delivery) van has lifted it onto the pavement by the rear wheelarch :( We have left it there for the moment so we can take photos in the daylight, it must look a proper sight for anyone driving past!! Thankfully my mum was looking outside at the time and saw it happen before he could drive off.... and also thankfully my sister is good in a crisis and so leapt outside with her camera and a notebook and got him to sign to agree it was his fault :up:

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Idiots :mark:

Daniel, as you know I am not mechanically minded, it it possible to get an LSD fitted to the average car, I would imagine this would give unever wear in normal dry conditions??

I personally dont have a limited slip differencial,but maybe my car should have,but its all about the nut behind the wheel!!!
And i am the driver of my car AND know its capabilities,better than you!!
i have driven thousands of miles on icy roads in Canada,Sweden ,France (even towing a caravan)and Finland,in trucks,service barges,and road and rally cars!! Maybe i am short on experience

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Originally Posted by J4MIE

Daniel, as you know I am not mechanically minded, it it possible to get an LSD fitted to the average car, I would imagine this would give unever wear in normal dry conditions??

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Certainly is. I post on Fiatforum and a guy who was building a racing Panda got Quaife to build a batch of bespoke diffs. The diff still slips so it's not like a welded diff or anything. Having never driven a car with an LSD (though Caroline's Legacy may have one) I wouldn't know from experience. Donkey Jote will surely be able to say though :)

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Originally Posted by J4MIE

Daniel, as you know I am not mechanically minded, it it possible to get an LSD fitted to the average car, I would imagine this would give unever wear in normal dry conditions??

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the idea of an LSD is the fact that a clutch in the differential,feels when one wheel is slipping,it then comes into effect and delivers drive to the stationary wheel,opposite the spinning wheel.that is why it is limited.Most cars that have Lsd have then as standard equipment on delivery,but when we were racing saloon cars we used to run locked diffs,so both wheels were driving all the time.

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Originally Posted by driveace

the idea of an LSD is the fact that a clutch in the differential,feels when one wheel is slipping,it then comes into effect and delivers drive to the stationary wheel,opposite the spinning wheel.that is why it is limited.Most cars that have Lsd have then as standard equipment on delivery,but when we were racing saloon cars we used to run locked diffs,so both wheels were driving all the time.

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Not all LSD's use a clutch arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_slip_differential

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Not all LSD's use a clutch arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_slip_differential

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Where did i say they were?
i was giving a guy ,who said he had NO idea about LSD,a small amount of knowledge to HELP him understand how they worked

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Originally Posted by Mark

Winter tyres feature on The One Show now.
Should be on iPlayer soon.

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I often make fun of the One show but that was quite an informative segment and I can imagine just seeing it on the BBC with Dom Littlewood fronting it . It's good to see a well researched and well done segment on the Beeb :up:

I certainly agree that if you're the sort of person who is a light user and drives short distances to work or just to the shops then socks or chains are probably the best idea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ow_09_12_2010/

Watch from about 7:30 onwards if you're a Brit :)

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Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

As I pointed out...you can get around with a less than ideal car and setup for the conditions if you are good at it. That said, winter tires are never a bad idea in the winter.....just don't have the tire cops going around writing fines......there is enough stupid laws on the books in society that cannot be enforced now...

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Actually, I purchased two rear Pirelli snow tyres for my VW1500s when I was in the snowy. They had a peculiar pattern at the edge of the treads which acted like chains sorta, and the traction I got from them in snow was incredible. I never used chains on my own car although I did use chains on a couple of occasions on my Snowy Falcon Ute.

I did post this before but it is useful to post it again. Before anyone was permitted to use a Snowy (SMHEA) vehicle, they had to pass a special driving test. One of the conditions was they had to be able to slow down a Land Rover (circa 1960 vintage) without touching the brakes by changing down on the gears from 30 MPH. Although most experts will tell you never to touch the brakes on ice, I found a way of using my brakes by touching them very gently with the toe of my foot and then lifting off and then touching them again repeatedly. I also found that if I was changing down on ice to slow the vehicle, I had to let the clutch out gently.

But then, I loved driving on snow and ice in those days - great fun. Exhilarating!!!!!!!!!!. :eek: