Winter Tyre Help

sacodetoro

sacodetoro

Lifer
I'm wanting to get winter tyre's for the GT and have a few questions.

Currently running 15" 195/50/15 tyres, what size of tyres should I be going for in the Winter tyre, I don't want to much flex in the tyre wall but I want it to be able to do the job it was designed to do?

Also any recommendations on the tyre itself bearing in mind I won't be driving like a granny?

Thanks,

Richard
 
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AdamB

Member +
Uniroyal Rainsports I found pretty good in the wet, the rear end was slightly skittish going in a straight line, but was probably due to running quite a high tyre pressure. In terms of cornering I found them very good and with very good control over the car, started to understeer just on the limits when giving the car a bit of a hammering.
 
sacodetoro

sacodetoro

Lifer
Would they not be more of an all year tyre? I want something designed to work with low road temperatures, snow and ice but that doesn't hav reduced performance when dry.
 
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AdamB

Member +
Simpley not possible really. You have to sacrifice one area for another.
Whats your budget? As you can pay quite a lot of some specially designed winter tyres. Your probably going to be looking at Michelin, Continental, Goodyear brands for winter tyres for snow, ice and cold temperature conditions.
 
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starletburkie

Member +
a tyre will never be near as good in the wet as in the dry and the only way to overcome that is not drive fast, wet roads are very unpredictable
 
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Paul_JJ

Member +
I've been using the winter tyres for many years now!

To start with I would NOT recommend using 195/50/15 for Winter Tyres, the profile is too low! I personally use 195/50R15 in the Summer and 185/60R14 in the winter - narrow tyre with bigger profile would give you better traction in snow and in wet, not to mention that 14 inch tyres are cheaper then 15 inch -) The bigger the profile the better the tyre for snow/wet traction.

I personally use TOYO Snowproxes S942

http://www.toyo.co.uk/tire/pattern/snowprox-s942
http://www.tyretest.com/cgi-bin/autotest.pl?104z117z111

The review based on 109 feedback is very good, with average 4 out of 5 stars, with most people advising that they will buy this tyre again! And I will buy them again as well -) These tyres are just awesome, no matter the weather, dry\wet\snow\ice!!!

The tyre is not directional so I can swap them regularly for even wear.


Don't listen to ALL season marketing bullshit - like Adam said you always sacrifice something. Get proper snow tyres which will help you to get a grip in snow/ice as well as improve your driving experience in heavy rain of flood.
I put snow tyres in December and keep them on till March every year and even though a lot of people call me pussy for doing that, I don't care, if it snows I can drive anywhere anytime uphill or down the hill, not to mention that my braking distance in wet is pretty much the same as in dry!!! One thing to remember though that don't keep the tyres older than 5 years as even if you have plenty of thread left on it, they won't grip well. I've learned the hard way - when I bought the car my rear tyres were Falken M+S with a lot of thread left on it, but it didn't grip well on the corners, it turned out that my tyres were 9 year old -))))

Remember when buying a tyre to look for a SNOW FLAKE sign on the tyre, not just M+S (Mud and Snow), like this one

SSE_450x300.jpg


"In 1999, the RMA (USA Rubber Manufacturers Association ) defined a real “snow” or winter tyre with its severe snow-rating. Car and AWD tyres that pass this performance test and are embossed with the “snowflake on a mountain peak” icon. Severe snow-rated tyres must provide traction at least 10% better than a standard reference test tyre.

The off-road, all-terrain and all-season M+S tyres cannot pass this test. The M+S rating doesn't mean much. The severe snow rating does."

Other popular brand for winter tyres would be Nokian, Bridgestone, Falken and of course Michelin.
 
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Paul_JJ

Member +
starletburkie said:
a tyre will never be near as good in the wet as in the dry and the only way to overcome that is not drive fast, wet roads are very unpredictable
Click to expand...

Properly designed winter tyre would grip well in any conditions, the only drawback here is that in Dry condition and spirited driving, with the outside temperature higher than +7C the tyre will wear out very quickly, the level of grip would be no worse then a standard summer tyre of a decent manufacturer, not the sport one of course!!!

Most of the WORLD, Europe, USA, Canada and Russia require the tyres to be changed to winter tyres by law before the winter (usually November). In fact I would rather prefer no grit on the UK roads at all, no panic, no traffic, no accidents, no ridiculous insurance premiums - then the summer tyres in the winter. It's about time the insurers would use their brains and reduce the insurance premiums say by 25% for those using the snow tyres in the winter, however this would never happen as most of the insurers make money on the accidents....

Also those who say that winter tyres do feck all - never actually experienced them in the winter, or did experience but the tyres were old or with less than 3mm thread on it.
 
Jay

Jay

Admin
I'd agree with Paul on the tyre size TBH. Always found 14's a fair bit more comfortable on the slippy stuff myself.

We sold a shitload of snow tyres last year (everyone was prepared and it barely snowed) so I'll ask the tyre guy for his suggestions reference brands mate. There is a serious difference in grip and stopping power when comparing snow tyres to the regular ones in cold conditions.

Jay
 
weeJohn

weeJohn

Lifer
I can see all the benefits with these tyres but to be honest I dont see the point, first sign of snow on the roads and the handbrake goes on, not happy unless its sideways lol.
 
sacodetoro

sacodetoro

Lifer
Thanks for the input everyone.

AdamB said:
Simpley not possible really. You have to sacrifice one area for another.
Whats your budget? As you can pay quite a lot of some specially designed winter tyres. Your probably going to be looking at Michelin, Continental, Goodyear brands for winter tyres for snow, ice and cold temperature conditions.
Click to expand...

starletburkie said:
a tyre will never be near as good in the wet as in the dry and the only way to overcome that is not drive fast, wet roads are very unpredictable
Click to expand...

I get that guys, I'm not as simple to think that a Winter tyre will perform like a sporty summer tyre when it's dry, after the least worst if you get me.

Paul_JJ said:
Properly designed winter tyre would grip well in any conditions, the only drawback here is that in Dry condition and spirited driving, with the outside temperature higher than +7C the tyre will wear out very quickly, the level of grip would be no worse then a standard summer tyre of a decent manufacturer, not the sport one of course!!!
Click to expand...

This is more what I was wondering.

Jay said:
I'd agree with Paul on the tyre size TBH. Always found 14's a fair bit more comfortable on the slippy stuff myself.

We sold a shitload of snow tyres last year (everyone was prepared and it barely snowed) so I'll ask the tyre guy for his suggestions reference brands mate. There is a serious difference in grip and stopping power when comparing snow tyres to the regular ones in cold conditions.

Jay
Click to expand...

Thanks Jay.

I don't mind getting 14s the only thing is I have wms 4pots and I'm not sure that 14s would fit over them?
So If I was to get the tyres for my current 15" wheels, what size should I be going for?

Thisis all came about from having a girlfriend in Ballymoney who lives up a big hill lol
 
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