Why we’ve tested winter tyres

How true this is. Fortunately I am retired, have been driving now for 60 years and have never had an accident. But now only drive about 6000 miles per annum. If it is treachoruos conditions then I stay in the house or alternatively can walk to town to collect whatever we require. But more importantly, careful forward planning is the best solution. Keep the larder well stocked.

Do you think then that if the weather is bad nobody should go to work?

A slow puncture for about a year! Amazing.

yeah, we don’t use the car that much, if we go on a long journey, I pump it up, job’s a good ‘un 🙂

When you say all weather tyres I take it that what you actually mean is summer tyres?

A slow puncture for about a year? And you still drive on a daily basis? Please give full details of all proposed journeys so that we who care for our families and property may take the necessary avoiding action and stay out of your way

You do realise that the vast majority of tyres for sale in the UK aren’t all weather tyres at all, they’re summer tyres.

oh you mean so they don’t work in the wet? How naiive of me! 🙂

Every tyre is an all weather tyre, saying winter/summer does no-one any help at all. What you’re talking about buying, erroneously, is snow tyres.

And Edward, no, I don’t drive on a regular basis, as I had indicated a few posts ago. The puncture is so slow it goes down about 3 psi a week. That’s something i can manage until we can afford new tyres. Not all of us are so flush that we can afford these extra outlays. There is plenty of tread on said tyres and believe it or not, I can actually drive in the snow with them.

It might well be the valve. Cost about £15 to fix.

Further to bungalows comment, it could well be anything that is related to the tyre including the wheel itself (damaged rim, porous wheel if its aluminium, etc.).
3psi may not sound a lot but it can have an adverse affect on the vehicles handling, especially if you had to brake in an emergency whilst cornering and that, in itself, had put an additional load on that particular tyre.
In addition to that there is the fuel consumption issue which will also be affected but as Dean has said, if money is tight then a lot of folks tend to put things like this on the backburner.
Personally I would nip round to my local street-corner garage and get it sorted out but then thats me.

you are correct ….
ride IS usually better.
Ask the tyre companies about winter tyres – they should ALWAYS be fitted when driving on roads below 4 degrees C – a ‘summer’ tyre compound hardens at these temperatures, and stopping distances multiply, even in the [odd] dry conditions…. in the wet, or mouldy, or icy, or snowy, you’ll be in for your insurance excess before you know it if you don’t fit winter tyres EVERY winter. Most winter tyre sets are often less than your excess, anyway.
I just retired, but used to make ££££££s every winter repairing customer’s cars who didn’t heed the advice [I always use them in winter] … no Ifs, no BUTs, just do it !!

Agreed!
As a new self-employed courier/haulage driver I depend on my vehicle constantly and so, as such, I enquired to several of the reputable tyre companies and they all said the same, that initially 4 tyres need to be purchased and installed together. None of them even mentioned the spare but as David says, it’s down to common sense really.
I would like to add that all of the same above mentioned companies said I would have to order winter tyres well in advance as they are not a stocked item and they generally only allocate a certain quantity of winter tyres for the UK due to lack of demand/fitment of winter tyres not being mandatory in the UK, as it is in several European countries (it seems they get the lion’s share).

I have a Freelander and have been looking for an Omnidirectional tyre for the spare. The comment that you should buy 5 tyres is excellent but, unless the fifth is omnidirectional, which way round do you have the spare mounted? Maybe I should buy 6 unidirectional tyres and carry two spares!!!!!!!!!!!! Any ideas.

Do you mean snow tyres or winter tyres? The two are not the same.

I’d run that past your insurance company. The recommendation is to have winter tyres on all wheels as it could seriously compromise the handling. In countries where winter tyres are obligatory they have to be fitted to all four wheels and there are heavy fines if they aren’t.

Check out this link comparing a premium brand summer v’s a premium brand winter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaHugXARk-w

Stephen,
I do indeed have two full sets of wheels plus tyres.
The winter wheels are not low profile.

Storage is done by the garage although some tyre suppliers also offer “tyre hotels”. In effect they simply rent a large truck container and use it to store the set out of use. I pay £40 a year which includes the two wheel changes – but that may have been a special deal. Some suppliers did offer first year free with sale of the winter tyres.

The cost is high – but nowhere near the cost of my “high performance” car – and the performance increase due to winter tyres is very definitely greater value for money for 6 months of the year 😉

Reputable tyre fitters wont change tyres from one rim to another as it can apparently damage the edge of the tyre, so the best and easiest solution is to have your winter tyres on a set of steel rims.
Regarding costs of having two sets of tyres I think that in the long run the price would be less than you think, as of course only the set that is actually fitted to the car is wearing at that time, for example if you cover say 12000 miles a year and have the winter tyres on for 5000 of that total you would expect the summer tyres to last a longer time than if they where on for the full 12000. Taking into account that the summer tyres would wear quicker in winter ( and likewise the winter tyres would wear quicker in summer due to having a softer rubber compound) due to slipping in adverse conditions I believe that changing tyres to suit the season is a cost effective proposition.