Fitting winter tyres to the Xantia.

[Citroenmad]

More than anything I'm intrigued to how different they perform, no doubt they will be better in the rain as well as low temperatures. Its supposed to be -1 tonight here, maybe I should start thinking about getting my winter wheels and tyres mated and put on.

Did I say that

Ill be getting mine fitted in a few weeks and ill no doubt comment on how they perform. I just need to find some 'round' wheels and the job will be a good'en.

Wet grip is promised to be good with current winter tyres, its to do with the silica compound apparently.

[MPV]

Well i ordered my 4 Hankook RW06 winter tyres for the van, lets hope it will perform as well as a RWD van running half worn summer rubber with them on this year
Should have them fitted tomorrow or monday.

D

It's a bit early still for most parts of the UK, temps are not dropping below 10 Deg C, London will almost hit 20 C over the weekend.

[MPV]

Sites I'm watching...

http://www.exactaweather.com/UK_Long_Ra ... ecast.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/latest.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?acti ... ange;sess=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/14days.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When it gets below 10 C I'll put mine on. Looking like another two weeks to go...

[GB]

3°C in the morning here in Henley-on-Thames for the past few days, 8°C in the evening - that's when I drive the most so placed an order for two Goodyear Ultragrip Performance 8 from the AA (http://mobiletyres.theaa.com/). £230 delivered and fitted (205/60 16 to replace Michelin Primacy HP summer tyres 215/55/16).

On Wednesday they were £106 each, yesterday £110, and $115 today. IMO forget about the stock market - just bulk buy winter tyres in June/July and sell in October/November. 30% return in 4 months guaranteed!

Cheers,
GB

[SwissSPEC]

I've just ordered 185/60/14 Goodyear Ultragrip 8's, they've gone up in price from when i initially looked over a 2 day period from £62 each to £64, typically i paid the higher price. Also managed to get a good deal at £8 per wheel for fit & balance from local mechanic, so not too unhappy overall. Will report back once fitted to see whether they are better than my previous Debica Frigo2's which i used for 4yrs & found to be great. They were very cheap back then at £27 each, & even they cost over £50+ each now

During last winter, when it got really bad in Derbyshire, i appeared to be the only 2wd car on the roads One day did defeat me though as it was too risky to drive the 40 mile round trip for work, which i deemed not important enough to risk my life or my wifes, cars & lorries were stranded everywhere the day before, so even if my car could have made it, i might have become stuck due to other road users out there being in the way.

[reblack68]

Now then just how did people manage to get around in years gone by before winter tyres came along

They drove cars that weighed half or even less than a modern car's weight, which means they needed much less traction. They had narrow high-profile tyres and softer suspension, lower gearing and smoother (ok, less- but the effect was the same) acceleration. More significantly people tended to live closer to their work/shops etc., so the roads being blocked was less of a hardship.

[red_dwarfers]

Just checked the price of mine again, gone up to £80 a corner from £56 a couple of weeks ago...

[Spaces]

Now then just how did people manage to get around in years gone by before winter tyres came along

They drove cars that weighed half or even less than a modern car's weight, which means they needed much less traction. They had narrow high-profile tyres and softer suspension, lower gearing and smoother (ok, less- but the effect was the same) acceleration. More significantly people tended to live closer to their work/shops etc., so the roads being blocked was less of a hardship.

Roads were also less busy, more people were more used to diffcult conditions and there was a little more common sense from a generation which had lived through the war and the years of austerity which followed. I don't believe the weight has much to do with it - a 2CV is brilliant in snow/slippery conditions whereas a heavy BMW may be useless, equally a lightweight Japanese car from the 1970s would get stuck very quickly where something heavy like a Austin/Morris 1800 (Landcrab) was fantastic in snow.

It's more to do with where the weight is and whether the tyres have a sensibly-shaped contact patch. (Most cars were rear wheel drive back then and with a sack of spuds in the boot they managed ok.) Tyres were British and had softer compounds and tread patterns suitable for British weather and roads. The lack of stiff antiroll bars probably had an effect - modern cars transfer more weight around their chassis making them less predictable and less grippy.

[Norlander]

Feeding too much power to the wheels is perhaps the most commonly made mistake I've seen in recent times.

Tyres were British and had softer compounds

Inclined to think both a yes and a no to that; on oldies, comparatively big diameter but narrow crossply tyres gone stiff with age can do reasonably well on some kinds of snow/ice surface that gives most modern vehicles (on ordinary tyres) a bad time of it.... perhaps the hardened tread goes some way towards emulating chains or studs?

[Citroenmad]

Good winter tyres stay softer at lower temperatures, when summer tyres have become hard and less flexible. So compound is everything in winter tyres, its still why the cheaper brands usually come out worse in winter tyre tests, similar to summer tyre tests.

[Deanxm]

Well i ordered my 4 Hankook RW06 winter tyres for the van, lets hope it will perform as well as a RWD van running half worn summer rubber with them on this year
Should have them fitted tomorrow or monday.

D

It's a bit early still for most parts of the UK, temps are not dropping below 10 Deg C, London will almost hit 20 C over the weekend.

No it isnt, my tyres are almost worn to the limit and have to go now i will be interested to see what sort of difference they make if any to the vehicle, when we had the good snow the year before last i was piloting my transit on badly worn tyres everywhere doing deliveries, it took concentration and planning to drive successfully making sure on steep icy decents she was kept in check and there was enough speed carried to get up other long hills but she was a good truck and i would never have bothered with winter tyres, waste of time totaly in my veiw at that time. Now last years snow saw me in my new van, a FWD Master and to tell the truth i could not get the thing off my drive let alone up the hill in my street and onto level ground, ok she had summer tyres with 3mm of tread on but so did the old tranny the year before, anyway like i say i will see how she performs this year with winter rubber.

D

[robert_e_smart]

Master

Bloody Renaults!!

[MPV]

3°C in the morning here in Henley-on-Thames for the past few days, 8°C in the evening - that's when I drive the most so placed an order for two Goodyear Ultragrip Performance 8 from the AA (http://mobiletyres.theaa.com/). £230 delivered and fitted (205/60 16 to replace Michelin Primacy HP summer tyres 215/55/16).

On Wednesday they were £106 each, yesterday £110, and $115 today. IMO forget about the stock market - just bulk buy winter tyres in June/July and sell in October/November. 30% return in 4 months guaranteed!

Cheers,
GB

I think they saw you coming! You can buy your tyres on the web for just over £90 if you shop around!

[MPV]

Just checked the price of mine again, gone up to £80 a corner from £56 a couple of weeks ago...

The standard T is on backorder at Lovetyres, but you can still get 195/65/15 ultragrip8 for about £70 plus del:

http://lovetyres.com/tyre/Goodyear-Ultr ... /195-65-15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Same at Camskill:

http://camskill.co.uk/m95b0s703p0/Winte ... 95_65_R_15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GB]

I think they saw you coming! You can buy your tyres on the web for just over £90 if you shop around!

Well, I wish it was this easy! There are only four tyre shops in my town, and only two of them are willing to fit tyres bought elsewhere for £15 to £17 each. So IMHO it's not worth the effort with only two tyres. In March, on the other hand, I expect to buy 4 Michelin Primacy HP so definitely worth a trip to a tyre fitting place.

BTW, had my Goodyear Ultragrips fitted an hour ago - butter smooth ride, very soft compound.