| Winter tyres - drive everywhere safely on snow and ice and in cold temperatures |
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Why use winter tyres?Do you live on a hill and your car can't move when it snows or its icy? Have you ever been prevented from driving anywhere because there is snow or ice on the road? Has your car slid on snow or ice? Have you had an accident when driving on snow? This is just not meant to happen and need not happen. The simple reason for this is that your car is still fitted with the same type of tyres, summer tyres, that were fitted when it was new. Summer tyres are not designed for temperatures below 7 degrees and are definitely not designed for use on snow. In those temperatures it is important that you change your tyres to winter tyres (also known as cold weather tyres). These are made of a softer rubber and have a different design of treads so that they grip properly in cold temperatures, whether on snowy, icy or wet roads. In almost all other countries in Europe, some with a similar climate to the UK, and other parts of the world people use winter tyres, why does hardly anyone use them in the UK or have even heard of them? To see the difference that winter tyres watch some of these clips on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncga6UxlHM, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7iiAYjBis. During the snow early in 2010 in the UK I drove my car with winter tyres on it up and down some of the steepest snow covered hills in town, with no loss of grip! Winter tyres work amazingly well and are far more effective and safer than summer tyres in snow. If you drive with summer tyres in winter you are a danger to yourself and to other road users. Even TyreSafe promotes the benefits of winter tyres: Here's a great article about winter tyres from Autocar: http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?AR=246496 Mercedes-Benz UK are offering winter tyres for their cars now: http://news.mercedes-benz.co.uk/article-8370//mercedes-benz-improves-road-safety-with-cold-weather-tyre-launch.html Read what the tyre manufacturers say about cold weather (winter) tyres: More information at: The figures - comparison of summer vs winter tyresAccording to one test http://global.hankooktire.com/Tech/h730_test_8.pdf, on snow The tests on the website http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/248524/winter_tyres_tested.html took place in mixed conditions (not just snow) - snow off-line, mostly slush on-line and some of the corners merely wet. It was about 3°C. This is a summary of the results: The figures on the website http://www.tyres-online.co.uk/techinfo/winter.asp show the differences in braking on wet and icy roads at 5degC: 1. Braking on wet road from 62 to 0 mph: summer tyres 70.5m, winter tyres 65.7m - almost 5m less on winter tyres 2. Braking on icy road from 20 to 0 mph: summer tyres 68m, winter tyres 57m - 9m less on winter tyres The figures speak for themselves. At low temperatures, winter tyres are a huge improvement on summer tyres on snow and ice covered roads and on wet roads. The costThe through life cost of using winter tyres in winter and summer tyres in summer is very similar to using summer tyres al year round. The cost of buying a winter tyre is similar to or slightly less than buying an equivalent summer tyre. The only additional costs are the cost of changing over your tyres twice a year (around £10 to £12 per tyre) and possible storage costs. Your summer tyres will last much longer if you use winter tyres in winter. To avoid the cost of changing your tyres twice a year a good compromise may be to buy all season tyres - see below. An investment is to buy a new set of wheels for the second set of tyres, allowing you to change the tyres over yourself. These can be purchased second hand on ebay or from used car spares suppliers (look on the internet or in your local yellow pages) for around £25 each. But think of the savings - you will never lose any pay due to not getting into work - if you bought two winter tyres it is likely that any additional costs will be more than outweighed by this factor if you lose pay for just one or two days a year due to the snow. Then there's the cost both financially and increased risk to human life of having an accident if you lose grip in your summer tyres. If you need to drive as part of your job - taxi driver, salesperson, courier etc you could have a significant competitive advantage if you use winter tyres. For optimum safety you need to fit four winter tyres - see www.michelin.co.uk/michelinuk/en/car-4x4-van/fitting-cold-weather-tyres-wheels-winter/20070319171413.html. This provides optimum grip on corners and braking stability and efficiency. However, if you drive carefully and only wish to be improve traction to enable you to drive up hills and you have a front wheel drive car, two winter tyres on the front wheels may be sufficient. The cost of this could be as little as £120 fitted. Even this is far better and safer than using summer tyres in winter. The only other cost is in terms of grip on dry roads. According to www.tyres-online.co.uk/techinfo/winter.asp, even at 5 deg C, the braking distance from 62mph to rest is 41.5m with winter tyres compared to 29.5m with summer tyres. At higher temperatures the braking distances on both wet and dry roads is shorter for summer tyres, and summer tyres last longer at higher temperatures and on dry roads. All season tyresAll season tyres are designed to be used all year round, and although not as good as the best winter or summer tyres, they can be a good choice for the UK, where snow is experienced only a few days in the year and the roads are generally well gritted in winter. These should enable you to move around on all but the steepest snow covered roads, improve your grip in cold temperatures, provide good grip in summer and avoid the costs and storage issues of changing between summer and winter tyres twice a year. For those who are unwilling to use winter tyres we recommend everyone else in the UK use all season tyres. Use of summer tyres in winter is dangerous and we do not believe it even worth considering, having experienced the benefits of winter tyres. Two very good tests of all season tyres are available here: http://global.hankooktire.com/Tech/h730_test_8.pdf http://www.autobild.de/artikel/test-ganzjahresreifen-175-65-r-14_978053.html - in German but Google can translate it. According to these tests, the best two all season tyres (which get an exemplary rating in the tests) are Hankook Optimo 4S and Goodyear Vector 4 seasons. Nokian WR G2 is also an all season tyre and is an excellent tyre, performing particularly well in winter. Vredestein Quatrac 3 is more widely available but did not perform as well in tests. The following test includes the Goodyear Vector 4 seasons, showing that it compares favourably with a midrange winter tyre: The following test compares winter tyres and includes the Goodyear and Hankook all season tyres, however these do not come out all that well: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2009-AMS-summer-and-winter-tyre-test.htm#winter In July 2010 Bridgestone introduced an all weather tyre, the A001, see http://www.tyrepress.com/News/1/127/20071.html. When to change between winter and summer tyresWinter tyres are designed for use in average temperatures below about 7 degrees C. Therefore in the UK, the times to change between summer and winter tyres are around early November and late March. If you don't change to summer tyres in the summer, the life of your winter tyres is likely to be significantly reduced, and winter tyres do not provide optimum grip in higher temperatures. Which brand and where to get them fromSome comparison tests are listed here: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2009-AMS-summer-and-winter-tyre-test.htm#winter http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seiten/reifentests/winter_2009/205_55_R16H.pdf http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/winter-tyre.html Vredestein are probably the easiest to obtain in the UK, but as can be seen from the tests, are better in the smaller tyre sizes. Goodyear, Continental and Dunlop are consistently very good. Avon, although commonly available, do not come out well in the reviews. A local independent tyre dealer should be able to supply you with winter tyres. Kwik Fit are gerenally not knowledgable about them. www.tyremen.co.uk/ are an excellent mail order supplier based in Hull, particularly specialising in Vredestein. Other good suppliers include www.merityre.co.uk/, www.etyres.co.uk/, www.winter-tyres.info/, www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/ and www.event-tyres.co.uk/tyres/winter-tyres/. HiQ now stock a range of winter tyres at centres everywhere, see www.hiqonline.co.uk/carCare/winterTyres. We would not recommend http://www.mytyres.co.uk/ due to a number of poor reviews on the internet. Reviews here: www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Type/Winter/ and www.tyretest.com/pkw_winterreifen/index.html - bear in mind that some tyres reviewed on these sites are only available in North America. What about snow chains, Autosocks or studded winter tyres?Snow chains might initially seem like a good alternative to winter tyres. With snow chains fitted to your drive wheels you can drive up almost any gradient of snow covered road. However, you can only use them on snow, and if used on tarmac roads they can damage the road and their life will also be reduced. So because most roads are gritted in the UK when it snows, you would have to keep taking them on and off. It takes quite a few minutes to fit them and remove them, so it would take a lot of time to get around. Also, the maximum speed that it is recommended that you drive on snow chains is about 30mph. Autosocks work in a similar way to snow chains but are made of textile. See http://www.autosock.co.uk/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TemOZoVd2Y and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZsFbEF2JhE. They are quicker to fit than snow chains and do not damage tarmac road, but do not last as long. The maximum speed you can drive with autosocks is still only about 30mph, and if driven on tarmac their life is considerably reduced. Studded winter tyres give additional grip on ice and hard snow. However if used on tarmac they can also damage the road, which is illegal, and also do not grip well on tarmac. They are therefore generally inappropriate for use in the UK. |