Winter wheel ownership 1 week in...

Adam83 said:
I've never tried winter tyres. Does there have to be snow on the ground to see any benefits?
Click to expand...
No, the grip on snow/ice is much better but winter rubber remains softer and grips better than standard rubber at lower temperatures. As srhutch mentioned the cross-over point is around 7c and, at this time of year, most journeys to/from work are at temperatures well below 7c even if it get up to 10c+ during the day

The difference is even more pronounced if you're using run-flats as your normal tyres, when I first put the winter wheels on my wife's 1 series DD she was dubious about the need - until she drove the car, then she was saying how much more planted and 'less squirmy' it felt.

We've got rid of the 1 series now but I obtained a winter wheel set for the X3 almost as soon as we got it - if we get snow it's pointless having a 4x4 if it can't get any traction on the ground and a standard (FWD or RWD) car with winter rubber is likely to cope better with snow than a 4x4 with summer rubber
 
Going to put my winters on soon on the X5, looks like it will be getting colder soon.
 
I have to say that none of this convinces me that, living in the South of England, that winter tyres are a must have. This month the temperatures have ranged from -3c to +13c. So this means that winter tyres would have been better less times than they would have been worse.

Our Land Rover has snow & mud tyres, so they strike a good blance I think, especially with all of the other traction gizmos that car has.

Above all said, really not looking forward to any prolonged snow/ice with the ///M !!
 
PerryGunn said:
Adam83 said:
I've never tried winter tyres. Does there have to be snow on the ground to see any benefits?
Click to expand...
No, the grip on snow/ice is much better but winter rubber remains softer and grips better than standard rubber at lower temperatures. As srhutch mentioned the cross-over point is around 7c and, at this time of year, most journeys to/from work are at temperatures well below 7c even if it get up to 10c+ during the day

The difference is even more pronounced if you're using run-flats as your normal tyres, when I first put the winter wheels on my wife's 1 series DD she was dubious about the need - until she drove the car, then she was saying how much more planted and 'less squirmy' it felt.

We've got rid of the 1 series now but I obtained a winter wheel set for the X3 almost as soon as we got it - if we get snow it's pointless having a 4x4 if it can't get any traction on the ground and a standard (FWD or RWD) car with winter rubber is likely to cope better with snow than a 4x4 with summer rubber
Click to expand...


Thanks for the update! :thumbsup:
 
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