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Twigman

Which winter tyre?

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I suppose I am thinking ahead.

This year my winter car (Mazda6estate) was written off. This leaves the GT86 as my only car, for now. I live in an area that always suffers worse winter weather than the surrounding area. They call my part of town 'Little Siberia'. We have lots of hills and I must navigate fairly steep hills to get anywhere. I also have a very steeply sloping driveway - so steep that lowering the car is out of the question! So I am looking to stick the 17s back on at the end of October through to March and looking to equip them with some winter tyres which might keep me mobile throughout, even when the snow falls -and it will.

So which winter tyres work best? I'm not bothered about longevity as they've only got to get through the winter - I'm prepared to replace them every year.

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If you don't track/drift, winter tires not used through summer (when soft rubber compound in wrong season will make them wear faster) will last long as any normal tires. Normally only for daily driving used tires usually last for me 3 seasons easily.

I guess, you want non-studded and normal winter tires, not ones for soft euro winters, which are closer to all-seasons.

I guess, most of top winter tires in most roundups, like michelin x-ice xi3, bridgestone blizzak ws80, nokian hakkapeliita r2, should do well. I'd probably choose no wider then stock, maybe even narrower, eg. 205/50/R17, if used on stock wheels. My own choice was getting R16 wheels for winter though. Tires are often noticeably cheaper, one can find even narrower sized tires for 16" & extra sidewall helps with rim protection over worse roads/potholes.

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My Winters have probably covered about 10k miles by now and they've still got plenty of life in them, despite me exploiting their fun characteristics. Performance gets extra squiffy above about 10 degrees and that's my guide for when they come off in spring, i.e. when the morning temperature is consistently warm.

Irrespective of tyre choice, if you've got slopes to climb you might have to resort to Sierra tuning, i.e. heavy stuff in the boot.

Depending on how bad your roads get, you might also go all-season with some snow socks if things get wild. Your driving experience will be much better most of the time that way. Mud+snow tyres are very impressive in the wet, but they're often wooly in the dry.

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This will be on OEM 17" rims - I'm not going to buy yet another set of wheels.

Snow traction is probably my #1 priority as getting on and off my drive in the snow is a bastard.

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Proper snow tires do well on snow without studs (soft compound + lot of small sipes in thread). If you see also lot of ice or do trackdays on ice tracks, and it's legal in country i'd think of studded. Studs won't help on snow though.

Definitely not fan of adding weight. It may increase a bit pressure on contact patch, but also adds mass inertia to counter when accelerating/braking/turning. In rare cases when grip of current tires need some extra (usually always fitting good proper winter tires at winter season), from hacks one can try rather temporary let out some air pressure from tires.

Imho if traction is insufficient without adding weight, main issue is because of too wide tires for car weight. Which might be often the case, if stock size choice might be sporty/summer oriented or even more so owner applies to winter tire sizing same thinking as for summer ones, going too wide, maybe even wider then stock, as result making car/tires snow-plane over snow slush, not pushing through to grippier pavement beneath. Wide tires can add grip in winter too .. but on tarmac. On actual snow & ice - a bit different story. Cars of common 1.5t weight do well on 215 wide tires. Imho 215 is a bit too wide for 1.2t our cars weight, with 195 being more optimal. Most 17" winter tires start from 205 though, so that's what i would go with on stock wheels (with upping profile height one notch 45>50 to compensate width change).

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30 minutes ago, Church said:

 Most 17" winter tires start from 205 though, so that's what i would go with on stock wheels (with upping profile height one notch 45>50 to compensate width change).

Very few seem to be @205 - and 205/50 even rarer.

After reading various reviews I am tempted by

Kleber Krisalp HP 3
215/45 R17 91V

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&typ=R-342843&partner=1&ID=psm_rd_uk_tyrereviews&Country=UK

or

Kleber Krisalp HP 3
205/50 R17 93V

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&typ=R-342908&partner=1&ID=psm_rd_uk_tyrereviews&Country=UK

Has anyone tried these?

 

 

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Twigman: might be local shop offering specific. Here in LV i can easily find online Xi3, WS80, R2 in 205/50R17 size. Of course what i'm actually buying are for my 16" winter wheels, but i see those sizes for 17 offered too.

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34 minutes ago, 86iain said:

 

Been driving nearly 20 years and never had a problem.

I've been driving 37 years and never had a problem until I moved to where I live now (in 2011). Now, every year, I wish I'd fitted winters. Getting into and out of the estate I live on doesn''t happen if you're on summer tyres and there's been a light dusting of snow and the temp is sub-zero.

 

years ago when I had a Triumph Spitfire I used to go out in the snow and deliberately do 360s on the Watford ring road in the snow....155 wide(narrow) tyres helped

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I'd happily recommend the Nokian WRA3 or the newer WRA4's. I ran them on both my previous car and on the 86 and they're excellent tyres which seem we'll suited to the UK climate during Winter. 

I also did the CAT driver training day on them in 30° heat and, while totally out of their comfort zone, they were actually pretty good for that too. 

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It snows a lot where I live, but the whole thing only lasts for two weeks otherwise being very wet throughout winter.  For that, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons in 215 size on stock wheels is outstanding in those conditions and got me up a nasty incline in our lane which had me stranded the winter before.

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I've taken the plunge and will have a set of Dunlop Winter Sport5 215/45-17 tyres fitted to my OEM rims on Monday.

They'll sit in the warehouse here at work until the time is right to swap 'em over.

 

 

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Since we are now winter-tyre buddies, they get (more) uncertain above 7 degrees in the dry, so hang on with your summers until October/November or so. Their wet performance is extremely good and they also make gravel drives dead easy. The handling will feel weird for the first couple of days when you fit them, but they're a hoot on cold damp mornings. Braking performance is less confident than the standard Primacy due to small tread blocks moving around.

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2 minutes ago, nerdstrike said:

hang on with your summers until October/November or so.

I knew that as soon as I bought them summer would return and how right I was. The winters will sit on the pallet in the warehouse for a few weeks yet, I suspect. I do 90% of my driving in the morning before 10am and in the evening after 7pm - when the temp drops to 8C or so at these times of day is when I'll swap. Expecting to have to do that early to mid November.

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Fitted the winter wheels/tyres last night.

First impressions:

The Dunlop Winter Sport5 (215/45-17) are much quieter and give a comfier ride than the PS4s (225/40-18). I'm quite surprised by this as the Dunlops are directional and have lots of grooves.

I haven't pushed them yet so can't really comment on what kind of grip they give but the feedback is good so far.

 

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I swapped over on Saturday. The ride is a little squidgier but it won't be as big a difference as you'll feel from gaining an extra half-inch of rubber to the rims. The softer ride might equate to how much sound conducts through the structure into the car, and the extra convolutions on the surface will damp the acoustics of the wheel arch a bit. They do whirr a bit at lower speeds.

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I've got a set of Dunlop sp winter tyres 205/55/R16 on some fox motorsport wheels fitted. I do prefer the ride to the OEM primacies. Have lost the tyre roar at motorway speeds but can hear typical winter tyre whirring sound at lower speeds. The ride is much better and you lose some feedback on initial turn in and I feel like the rear tyres breaks away far more progressively. So I'm enjoying the change. I'm expecting a delayed bad winter for the daily commute which I'm sure these tyres will serve me well. 

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@Twigman Maybe a heated driveway will solve the problem? 😁😂
I live in Micro Siberia, as it concerns just a few square miles. Over here the sky tends to be clearer, so at night temperatures often drop below the freezing point, while 5 miles from here the temperature remains well above zero. Luckily this part of the country is as flat as a pancake, so I don't encounter severe grip problems.

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