Winter tyres

Anybody use them and care to share your thoughts,i have never bothered in the past but even the met office is saying we are in for more seasonal winter weather for possibly the next ten years,reckon i could get a good four years out of a set which would of course make my normal tyres last longer.

Last year I put some toyo H08's on the camper. They are not strictly winter tyres but they seem to have more silicone in them. Last winter they performed superly, I had 100% control at all times, or is that just good driving?

Also the camper is excellent at getting stuck in the mud, well a few weeks ago, on these tyres, I didn't get stuck once when many others did.

Because they have so much tread on them, I now need a step to get in the sliding door, lol.

Going back to winter tyres, I believe they are not as effective when the tread years down to 4mm, but I guess they would still give an average user a few winters of use.

No Kevin isn't with me,

Also the camper is excellent at getting stuck in the mud, well a few weeks ago, on these tyres, I didn't get stuck once when many others did.

I found the same which surprised me as my beetle would go anywhere.

mike wrote:Anybody use them and care to share your thoughts,i have never bothered in the past but even the met office is saying we are in for more seasonal winter weather for possibly the next ten years,reckon i could get a good four years out of a set which would of course make my normal tyres last longer.

If your justification is the prognosis of the Met Office then I'd treat this with a large pinch of (Road) salt. Having sold their soul to global warming gravy train.
Unfortunately the people at Exacta Weather who seem to have a better track record on long range weather forecasts are also predicting a cold and snowy winter. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If your looking for information on winter tyres from other than tyre companies then as often the Torygraph has the best motoring comment. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
So you might want to get information from Vauxhall on recommendations of different sized wheels for your vehicle. Making a note of these when you contact your insurance company, as some were demanding extra premiums or denying cover to winter tyre fitters.
The article thought higher rolling resistance caused his increased fuel consumption. I would have thought the lower gearing as the tyre diameter would have been smaller.
If part of your concern is stopping then once snow falls the thing most likely to make you hit something is ABS system. OK if your travelling bellow 10 MPH it's inactive but on snow skidding is good. The skid provides more friction than the revolving wheels and in light snow may punch through to the tarmac below. Switchable ABS or knowledge of where the fuse is for trips in snow might help. I don't know exactly where this fits in with the above but if you practise the precursor to ABS, that is manual cadence braking this works brilliantly in snow. I was playing around with this and could shorten my breaking massively. Though of course it doesn't stop the crash it only changes whose insurance company pays for it if you have someone following you.

Kevin.

No Kevin isn't with me,

But closer than you think as he was formulating his own response at the time.
Are the Toyo's the standard i.e. non winter fitment? As Toyo always had a reputation for high grip but low mileage, but that opinion was formed a good few years ago and they may have changed.

mike wrote:Also the camper is excellent at getting stuck in the mud, well a few weeks ago, on these tyres, I didn't get stuck once when many others did.

I found the same which surprised me as my beetle would go anywhere.

Our Type 3 would go anywhere if we allowed it. I think the camper gets stuck because the engine is heavier, it's a diesel, also it's got a bigger heavier body on a Golf engine.

It's been sunk up to it's hub caps twice now, once it took 7 people to push it out, the second there was a tractor.

Hi Kevin, great minds and all that. She had Toyo H02's on her when we bought her, after about 30,000 miles with us, the tread depth hadn't changed. I don't know how many miles they had already done. I bought new tyres because I worked out that although they still had 6mm of tread left, they were 12 years old.

My Event tyre, a puncture replacement, tread was down to 2mm in just a few years, so that was crap in comparison.

The H08's replaced to H02's.

Thanks Kevin not gone as far as the insurance company yet as just in the thinking stage,the met people are only backing up something i read about 3 years ago it looks like the sun is going through a cycle that could give us poor summers and bad winters for quiet a few years,as you know its not just in the snow and ice but also at temperatures under 7c that normal tyres dont perform as well,mine are particularity bad in snow the tread fills and doesn't flex the snow out,i have 5mm on the front and 6mm on the back after 12000 miles and nearly 3 years,so buying winter tyres would give me another couple of years out of these.
Ah cadence braking know it well even with abs and some thing else i forget the name of i still use it,especially with a dandy 6 pushing a punto down a steep hill i like to be in control ime old enough to know skidding can be good also wheel spin can cut through sometimes and give enough grip to get you up a hill,its knowing when to use what or when to lock it and walk away.

i know someone who bought winter tyres for his car last year and he no prob's in 5inch snow while everyone else was stuck.I have looked at all season tyres as these are perfect for the British climate they cope with a little ice and snow ok but unlike full hardcore winter tyres they will last a lot longer.The winter tyres do about half the miles that summer tyres do then there is the hassle of swapping tyres around or buying a spare set of wheels.If i felt i needed winter tyres i would buy just 2 for the drive wheels.
Old cars with skinny wheels don't struggle in snow and ice as much as modern cars with their low profile fat tyres.

We have a Latvian guy at work put some on his 5 series BMW just before the snow came last year,he was running a taxi service for other workers he had no problem getting anywhere.