Winter Tyres

[Crispo]

Looking at my first set of winter tyres and looking for recommendations from people who use them. Done some searching on here and other forums and I'm looking at the Vredestein Wintrac xtreme. A lot of people seem to recommend these. I'm just slightly confused by the Wet Grip rating of 'E' as I hear people say the braking performance of winter tyres in the wet are much better than summer tyres. I know it's more to do with temperature but I would of thought winter tyres would have higher wet grip ratings than they do.

Any help or recommendations on this subject would be awesome, looking for 4 to fit to my original 17"" monza's then will be buying new wheels and tyres for summer next year.

Cheers guys

[Scottymon]

I'd say it's down to temperature.

A winter boot at 20C in the wet will be worse than summer tyre in the wet at that temp... however remove 15C off that; at 5C and the winter tyre will become a lot better in the wet.
Winter boots start making sense around ~7C and below... in the slush/ice and snow there is simply no comparison the winter boot is far, far superior.

I think you will notice the biggest difference simply moving from summer to winter tyres in those conditions, the difference between brands you won't be able to tell because you cannot compare them.
I've personally used Dunlop 3D's, GY Ultragrips and this year I'll be trying the Continental TS 830P or possibly 850p if I can find them, on the fronts (still have plenty of tread on the GY's for the rear).

Makes winter driving much more pleasurable.  What I find interesting about the 17 inch vs 18 inch winter tyres is the speed rating the 18's are V rated and the 17's H.  But as long as your not doing over 130MPH in the snow, you should be ok.

[Bernhard30]

There are lots of threads on here about the pros and cons of winter tyres.
Personlly cannot recommend them highly enough.
Bought 18" Conti TS830P winters in 2010. And in a couple of months they'll be going on for their 4th winter season.
Exceptional in cold weather. Sublime in snow/ice. Well worth the peace of mind for me.

The only cons really are cost/storage/hassle of swapping them over. But all the cons are far outweighed by the pro points.

[Marc-5-GTI]

Looking at my first set of winter tyres and looking for recommendations from people who use them. Done some searching on here and other forums and I'm looking at the Vredestein Wintrac xtreme. A lot of people seem to recommend these. I'm just slightly confused by the Wet Grip rating of 'E' as I hear people say the braking performance of winter tyres in the wet are much better than summer tyres. I know it's more to do with temperature but I would of thought winter tyres would have higher wet grip ratings than they do.

Any help or recommendations on this subject would be awesome, looking for 4 to fit to my original 17"" monza's then will be buying new wheels and tyres for summer next year.

Cheers guys

This is exactly what I'm doing... My summer tyres are nearing 3mm so as soon as they get to 2mm or the weather dips into singles... I'll by putting winters on and buying myself some pescaras ready for summer  just need to find somewhere to store them.....

[Crispo]

Thanks for the replies guys! 

[f1fan]

Check out tyrereviews.co.uk , I remember looking at the tyres you mentioned for my wife's car and they had good feedback.

Most winter tyres don't score highly on the new scale.  I did watch a tv programme that said the A-G scale is quite misleading and shouldn't be relied upon alone in tyre choice.

You will notice any premium or mid range winter tyre gives a huge gain over summer tyres when the temperature drops.  I ran Hankook Icebear W300 last year, the grip on cold water, ice and snow was amazing.

[Crispo]

I've got some Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme sitting in the garage to go on when the temp drops. Cheers for the reply though

[f1fan]

How much did you pay and where did you get them from?

I'm having a nightmare getting a set for my wife's car from the local place I usually use.

[Crispo]

Bought them off Oponeo at £111 a tyre. 225/45/17 94V

[f1fan]

Thanks I'll take a look, not heard of that site before.

[xjay1337]

Winter tyres are only really worthwhile in the snow. Even at 2 or 3 degrees so long as there is no snow on the ground then your high performance summer tyre will be better than your winter tyre.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/All-Season-Tyres-How-Do-They-Stack-Up.htm

Around 7 degrees in those tests, in all apart from the snow test, the summer tyre was best.

Last year on my TDI I ran my Vredestein Sessantas and managed to get up a hill on my way to work, where some woman was spinning all 4 wheels in her Q7 in her ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get up the hill.

That being said tyre tread pattern plays a large part. The Sessantas have a nice chunky pattern with large gaps between the tread blocks allowing the snow to be grabbed , where as your asymmetric tyre like the Eagle F1 would struggle more.
 
The biggest factor in winter is driving habits and technique. I'm going to be running Sessantas again over winter.

[rich83]

Winter tyres are daft.... Ive coped ( and so have millions of other people) without them. Save yourselves £450 and keep your summer tyres on. 

[john a]

I used to think that too and, in defence of that, I've always used summer tyres without too much difficulty. Last year I put a set of Nokian WR-A3 on for winter and the difference was like night and day. Mine will be going on again when the morning and evening temps start hovering around 5 degrees.

[f1fan]

I ran Hankook Icebear winter tyres for the first time list year after driving a crappy hire car on a skiing holiday in Canada that had winter tyres and being so impressed.

My GTi was flawless in the snow, ice, flooded roads.  On snow the grip is amazing and the car is easily drivable while every once else is sliding around.  On untreated icy roads, which I have a lot of round here, the car grips as if it's dry.  You don't realise how good they are until you drive them and then get in a car with summer tyres again.

If you are serious about driving safely without compromise and risk then buy winter tyres, they really aren't that expensive. Your tyres are the only thing keeping your car on the road, it's the last thing you should be tight about.

[xjay1337]

On untreated icy roads, which I have a lot of round here, the car grips as if it's dry.

Well that's a lie now isn't it