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When are you fitting your winter tyres?


Rich
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On 05/11/2018 at 10:43, eddie said:

my IS300 is a nightmare (read impossible) to drive in the snow - might be worth looking into...

They'll make a big difference on cold and icey roads too. When I had my Corolla we had loads of snow at work and everyone was queuing on the main roads when going home. I went via Loudwater Lane up that steep hill, then up The Clump and back down again with no problems at all.  They can make a massive difference compared to summer tyres.

It's forecast for 7-16 degrees this week so I won't be fitting ours for another week at least. Are we expecting a cold or mild winter this year after the hot summer we had?

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weather is forecast to hit 17 degrees this week - reckon we will be ok with normal tyres unless the weather is due to turn?? hopefully it stays mild like this for a while longer
 
On 11/11/2018 at 19:42, Rich said:

They'll make a big difference on cold and icey roads too. When I had my Corolla we had loads of snow at work and everyone was queuing on the main roads when going home. I went via Loudwater Lane up that steep hill, then up The Clump and back down again with no problems at all.  They can make a massive difference compared to summer tyres.

It's forecast for 7-16 degrees this week so I won't be fitting ours for another week at least. Are we expecting a cold or mild winter this year after the hot summer we had?

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I inflated 8 tyres and swapped all of them over in 2 hours this morning, which wasn't bad. The summer tyres on the Lexus are almost on the wear indicator at the front. No wonder the steering was feeling vague!

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  • 2 years later...

For the last 2 years I've not bothered putting the summer tyres back on the Accord so have run the Toyo winters all that time. The car has only covered 2 or 3k miles. They're nearly 8 years old now and almost on the sipe wear indicator so still have a bit of tread left.

As the temperature has dropped this week I'm not feeling very confident with them any more. A couple of times when turning in to or out of a road, so the wheels are angled, they've lost traction.

Coming home this afternoon down the lanes there are a couple of sections which are single track. They're just 10 metres long, if that. I was halfway up one when a big pickup type truck came the other way. He wasn't initially going to stop and then realised he wouldn't get past so did at the last second but I didn't have much room to get by. I was doing under 20mph but as I started braking I hit a patch of mud and the whole car slid past him just missing it!! <_< Luckily I kept control of it but I felt like there was no grip at all.

I'm wondering if these tyres have had it? Considering winter tyres are for snow and mud I'm surprised there isn't much grip left. I was planning on selling the wheels in the spring anyway as I need to use the tyres on the summer ones, which still have almost new tread!

Compared to the Nokian winter tyres on the Lexus I have no confidence in these Toyos at all. Although really that shouldn't be a surprise as the T1R on the MX5 are terrible in the wet and I can't wait to replace those too.

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No they're only half worn so around 3-4mm left. That's usually when the sipes start wearing away. Most countries in Europe replace them at 3mm. That's why it's strange they seem to have lost grip already. So maybe it's the age or where they're not getting much use. 

I won't be replacing them, if it carries on I'll just fit the summer ones and see how they are. Those tyres are virtually new so I need to start getting some wear out of them and I'm only doing 10 miles a day to work and back!

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Problem is over time the silica in the tyre hardens, not  forgetting they are probably in storage for 8 or 9 months.

Most would say there kept in the garage, ok i understand that but the temperature isn't under control. 

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That's right, I knew you had mentioned something like that before but I couldn't remember what. They're 8 years old and for the last 2 years I've had them on the car all year round, although it's been sitting there alot. When I did swap them over I would run them for 6 months usually.

Good point about the temperature though as in the summer when the tyres were stored in the shed it gets very hot in there, although they were out of the sun.

The tyres were fine this morning going to work in rain. The school is having major building work done so I've been parking at the rear down a little track, which is essentially in a field. I had a thought, with the weather getting wetter and the mud getting muddier, maybe it's getting stuck in the sipes or it's not clearing from the tyres quickly enough. I think I'll be avoiding that lane for the winter though!

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  • 11 months later...

Anyone still using winter tyres?

With the Lexus now sold I've got a set of wheels to sell. I was also going to sell the Civic wheels that are on the Accord with the winter tyres on and stick with the 17s on summer tyres seeing that I'm keeping the car a bit longer. I do well under 3k miles a year so didn't think it was worth replacing the winter tyres.

I have a dilemma though. The tyres on the 17s aren't brilliant. It seems to be tramlining abit and the traction control kicks in on greasy roads too easily but they have lots of tread left. They've been in the shed for at least 2 years as I didn't swap the winter wheels back over so that probably hasn't helped.

They're the rims that came with the car but it's very unlikely I'll be selling it when it does go so having the Civic wheels on shouldn't matter too much.

Costco are doing an awesome black Friday deal on the Michelin Crossclimate 2 for just under £65 a tyre fitted. I know they're an all season tyre but the originals got great reviews so I'm really tempted. Looking on eBay I may get up to £150 for the Accord wheels. Or I could just keep them for summer use.

Someone talk me out of it! 😂

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Having been to Yorkshire for the first time last month I can understand why you'd want winter tyres fitted. Some of those country roads go on for miles with patchy phone signals. So the last thing you want is to get stranded.

What winter tyres have you gone for?

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I've got my usual Nokians on the Yeti, the van is getting Yokohamas, and the Kuga is getting Dunlops. I got the Dunlops in March when they'd just come off a Merc with about 1000 miles of wear, The Yokohamas I got fully fitted from Blackcircles (even though I hate Blackcircles) fitting is at a place 300yds from me.

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We had Nokians on the Lexus, they were very good. We also Dunlop on the Civic and they were also good. Don't think I'd get Toyos again though.

I'm still deciding whether to get these Cross climates, the price is just too good and the Falkens I have on the car now don't like the cold roads in the morning but are fine coming home.

Is it really worth it though, I'll only be doing 1k miles over the winter months.

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