winter tyres

what do people surgest

I run the same tyres all year round.

In the UK there is no need for winter tyres unless you live in the Cairngorms.

what do you run then mate, i came very close to a 6 feet ditch last night

I am on Falken FK-452's
I find they grip pretty well in most conditions.

Most tyres won't give much grip in snow or ice though.

If you came close to a 6 foot ditch, I am sorry to say but its nothing to do with you having the wrong tyres, it was either:

Your current tyres are shot

You were driving too fast for the conditions

You may have hit a greasy / icy patch

Or you were driving too fast for the conditions

Or maybe a little bit of all.

For the winter you definitely need to check you tyres have tread on them >3mm, but also you need to adapt you driving, roads will be colder, tyres will be colder, brakes will be colder, you can't hoon around as much, like you may do in the winter!

Sounds like your well overdue for some new tyres Adam, please don't dump your coupe in a ditch, my charges for recovery are huge

Hereford roads are like skating rinks at the moment, not ice but layers of mud off the tractors

At really low temperatures tyres transision from their usual rubber like state to a harder, more plastic like state (known in the trade as the tyres 'glass transition temperature')

Tests have shown tyres give their best wet weather grip just before this transition point

Accordingly, manufactures consider the expected ambient operating temperatures and make tyres appropriate to where they are going to be sold in the world to provide best performance....

I once had some cheap tyres (I forget the brand) which provided very good grip in the wet and dry, but they were terrible in winter when it was cold - go for a decent brand!

countrycruising your the first person IL be ringing when i final put it in a ditch, even if it is at 3 bells in the morning.

yer i think new rubber is on the menu this week

Blackcircles are selling the Falkens for £63 per corner fitted at the moment. You also get 10% off if you buy 4 together.

As they say though it's better to back of slightly in the winter as the car wil have less grip in general. Especially when they start chucking salt on the roads and it gets greasy.

It's a shame as the car will make more power during colder weather.

Interesting topic for the UK where it does not make economic sense to have winter tyres/wheels until one slides off the road

I used to believe that tyre rubber was tyre rubber. But no. Drive a car on snow and ice with winter tyres and there is a world of difference. Winter tyres really do work. OK, they cannot rewrite the laws of physics, but they still grip long long after a summer tyre has given up and started looking for a good religion.

Look at Michelin, Goodyear, Dunlop in particular. Their winter tyres are usually up with the best.