# Winter tyres on a budget...



## Kriminal (Jan 11, 2007)

Owning a RWD this year, I've been having a bit of an ogle at the Winter tyres available, and am totally confused as to what I'll need.

What I was 'hoping' to do was swap the summer's for the winter's, and when the time comes to change back have a look around for another set of wheels, ie. the current 17's will remain with the tyres on for each winter.

My current tyres are 205/50/17, but would be interested to hear from you tyre mogul's as to whether I need to stick to this set-up, and also what would be recommended on a budget. :thumb:


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## quattrogmbh (May 15, 2007)

From an insurance perspective they must be the same Size as the Summers. Load Index the same, but the speed rating can be lower.


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## m1pui (Jul 24, 2009)

What car are they going on?

I've heard a few BMW owners people saying good things about Nankang SV-2, despite what a lot of ADAC test results say. Sister has Avon Ice Touring on her 330D and is very very happy with them

EDIT: 1-series coupe? Plenty of threads on here too https://www.google.co.uk/search?cli...oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=cbBgUI2nM8TJ0QXGnICQDg


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

As long as owner manual states tyre sizes then you can use what is stated.
Does not affect the insurance as i checked with them beforehand.
Mazda manual says i can go down to a 195/65/r15 which is what i have done for the winter tyres. they are T rated but have same load rating of 91
tyres on there at the moment are 205/55/r16 V
Got a good deal with Mytyres after doing a bit of research on the web and decided on...set of steel rims plus Goodyear ULTRA GRIP 8 195/65 R15 91T M+S . the whole lot for £400.

Kev


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## Dave777 (Mar 19, 2012)

I have big 19" wheels on my RWD 5 series. Lethal in the winter!

I got a genuine set of 5 series 16" alloys off ebay and put Continental winter contact tyres on using the manual sizes (the wheels were off an SE version).

Absolutely stunning in the snow and great in the wet and dry too. About £120 each but bought in the summer! The 19" tyres are £240 each so saves me money when I am wearing the winters out!

I just swap them over generally Nov-Mar depending on temp. They say use when temp drops on average below 10C. I spoke with Continental tech support for their advice, very helpful.

HTH

Dave


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## xJay1337 (Jul 20, 2012)

Ebay mate cheapest buy some part worns avoid the random brands stick with a trusted branded tyre.
I had Goodyears winters on my 15s last year and were very good and hardly worn despite the mega miles.

Better MPG too now though. Unfortunately I sold them with my winter wheels as the old wheels I had (I sprayed them Orange) didn't fit over my new brakes


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

xJay1337 said:


> Ebay mate cheapest buy some part worns avoid the random brands stick with a trusted branded tyre.
> I had Goodyears winters on my 15s last year and were very good and hardly worn despite the mega miles.


Most of the part worns come from Germany where limit on winters is 4mm.......

due to the way they are designed you get to ~4mm the sipes (that give the grip on snow and ice) vanish leaving you with a useless for the intended purpose tyre.....

My winters have 2 wear indicators one at 4mm and the other at 1.6.......




























There is a bit of a winter tyre thread in the Motors section too


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=280087


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## mjn (May 16, 2011)

Use 225/40/18 and 255/35/18 in the summer, and for the winter i've got some Kleber (made by Michelin apparently) in 225/45/17.

17 is the smallest that will fit over the calipers, so the tyres were still quite expensive, but well worth it. They were fantastic in the snow last winter, managed to drive the 20 mile round trip to the train station in fresh 4" snow. Passed a load of other BMWs at the side of the road, i did feel slightly smug


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## xJay1337 (Jul 20, 2012)

andy monty said:


> Most of the part worns come from Germany where limit on winters is 4mm.......
> 
> due to the way they are designed you get to ~4mm the sipes (that give the grip on snow and ice) vanish leaving you with a useless for the intended purpose tyre.....
> 
> ...


Yup the 4mm in germany is true.
Mine had 4.5mm and were perfectly fine in the winter and gave a definite grip improvement over my Michelin summer tyres in those conditions. :driver:


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## CAB (Oct 24, 2007)

My experience with snow tyres on my old BMW 120D M Sport. 
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=197268


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## Dixondmn (Oct 12, 2007)

go as narrow as possible, when choosing winter tyres, but remain within the advised spec of your car..... Or.... don't go out in the snow.


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## Kriminal (Jan 11, 2007)

Thanks for all the help. The last RWD (Lexus) I had barely moved over about a centimetre of dusting that we had that year, so having the 1 series coupe was a mental struggle for me, as I've never had any issues getting the car out of the lane on a FWD car.

However, as I'm still out of work my budget is hoping to stay fairly low.

Having been on mytyres, this is the list that comes up for replacing the summer's, and keeping the size exactly the same :

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl

Opinions/Recommendations?


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

Kriminal said:


> Thanks for all the help. The last RWD (Lexus) I had barely moved over about a centimetre of dusting that we had that year, so having the 1 series coupe was a mental struggle for me, as I've never had any issues getting the car out of the lane on a FWD car.
> 
> However, as I'm still out of work my budget is hoping to stay fairly low.
> 
> ...


Only one, bl**Dy link is german i think!!!


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

Any Winter tyre will pretty much out handle a summer tyre under 7ºC..

My mate ran Nankang winters last year, they were pretty decent..

Vredestein Wintracs for the win ..


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

tried winter tyres on the polo last year, theyre amazingly good you can accelerate and brake pretty hard with out a worry...well worth it


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## apmaman (Jun 8, 2010)

Good Year Ultra Grip 8's done me well last year. There wasn't anywhere I couldn't go.


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

apmaman said:


> Good Year Ultra Grip 8's done me well last year. There wasn't anywhere I couldn't go.


Read the reviews online and ended up buying these, hope they are as good as they say!!

Kev


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## fordeboy (Dec 3, 2009)

I put winter tyres on for the first time last year. I took off my nice 17 inch alloys a bought a set of 2nd hand 15 inch steel rims. I bought a set of budget winter tyres from mytyres and fitted. You can really tell the difference running on winters!! Rain,snow and slush the tyres just plough though. I would recommend winter tyres to anyone thinking about buying them. My total cost was £168 for tyres and £30 for the steel rims. Don't forget to inform your insurance though if you fit them.:thumb:


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## millns84 (Jul 5, 2009)

I've got Nokian WR A3's and will be fitting them at some point.

Not used them yet but have heard good things and they were relatively inexpensive :thumb:


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## spirocheter (Dec 9, 2011)

I've been running winter tyres for the last three years on a Volvo V70, car now sold (set of 4 refurb powder coated Amaltheas with Vred Wintrac Extreme slight wear for sale if anyone interested), a Volvol XC90 with Vred Wintrac Extreme again, and a BMW 335d with Falken Eurowinters. 

The Vreds are outstanding tyres and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, the Falkens I've not been pleased with. They took 500+ miles to wear in and in marginal temperatures (5-10 C), I reckon the Michelin pilot sports will outperform. This granted is on a moderately high performance vehicle. Of course, in snow they perform just fine, but I'll be fitting them fr later this year, then removing much earlier despite the 7C average temperature rule. Anything above 10C and the Falkens are truly horrible!


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## witcher (Nov 25, 2010)

my 1.5 p
winter tyres are designated to be used in temperatures below 7 degrees celsius - it is different rubber blend than in the summer tyres, this provides better grip since the rubber remains softer in winter. It doesn't have to snow to make summer tyres useless, it is enough if it is cold.
Do not make savings on winter tyres - usually body repairs are much more expensive than any tyres you can buy, and besides they will serve you more than just one winter
Go narrow and choose one with snow / sludge thread for UK.


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

xJay1337 said:


> Yup the 4mm in germany is true.
> Mine had 4.5mm and were perfectly fine in the winter and gave a definite grip improvement over my Michelin summer tyres in those conditions. :driver:


but at that rate you have 0.5mm of "usable tread" before the sipes wear away (sipes generally do not extend down to 1.6mm or the tyre would squirm a lot under load / cornering, and they are what make the winter tyres grip on the snow (they trap snow within the sipes imagine making a snow ball how well snow sticks together under pressure its the same principle)


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