Time For Winter Tyres.

[sir john]

I will be having Winter Tyres fitted in the next week. If you have had these fitted to your LS, which make did you go for and do they really make a big difference to the drivability of the LS on snow?

I have always sworn by Avon Tyres but have never bought winter tyres before.

[SAD]

I will be having Winter Tyres fitted in the next week. If you have had these fitted to your LS, which make did you go for and do they really make a big difference to the drivability of the LS on snow?

I have always sworn by Avon tyres but have never bought winter tyres before.

I dont have an LS but an IS220, absolutely rubbish in last years snow.

From this forum I have fitted Pirelli Sottozeros - first year with winter tyres (I was thinking of changing my car!!!). If they dont make some kind of difference I will be getting rid of the Lexus!!!

[TigerFish]

Again, not an LS but I've just had my spare set of wheels refurb'ed for my GS300 Sport and had Kumho KW27 fitted (275 35 18 for the rears, 245 40 18 for the front). Temps haven't dropped enough yet to put them on, but the reviews I've read have all been good. I wouldn't hang about too long to get them ordered as winter tyres become very thin on the ground once winter sets in.

[Chris Skelton]

Lucky me! My 'winter tyres' are fitted.....to a BUS!

I SORN my car every winter!

[itarumaa]

I have in my Ls400 Bridgestone Ws70 tires, they are Nordic spec winter tires, so a bit too much for UK I think.

Good tires but since I drive in Northern Finland, they have issue with grip, rear end is quite loose and lacks grip, but cannot be avoided without studded tires. Good thing is that since Ls400 is front heavy car, the grip in braking and cornering is really good.

And thanks to -5 temperatures, missing block heater and short trips my ls400 takes about 13,5 mpg at the moment.

[mikesands]

absolutely transformed ny LS430 I can get almost anywhere my daughter can in her Rav 4 And my tyres were cheap £72 each. Theyve gone up a bit since but still good value. Nankangs - now £82 each. I swap them over each spring and autumn

Plenty of threads on the subject if you do a search

Mike

[John N]

Last year I bought 4 Nokian WR G2 winter tyres.

Nokian are the Finnish company that originally developed winter tyres, see http://www.nokiantyres.com/products and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokian_Tires

What a revelation! No problems with traction and braking on slush or snow, and a good degree of control on ice! In the dry and wet they are as good as normal tyres as long as the temperature is below 7 or 8 degree C, when the average temperature warms up above 8 deg you are better off on normal tyres.

In the snow and ice they transform the car from a useless chunk of metal into a perfectly usable car. It's not just about traction, it's about having good directional control and braking on ice and snow. I really did pass Land Rovers struggling to keep control in slush lying on top of frozen compacted snow!

I've got them on a spare set of wheels, and I'm just waiting for a snow or ice forecast to fit them to the car.

The model WR G2 tyres have now been superseded by WR A3 or their 'top of the range' Hakkapelitta R tyres.

I would definitely recommend the Nokian winter tyres, but you may struggle to get hold of them at the moment. Nokian hold 25% of the Russian winter tyre market and sell 15% of their annual production within 10 days of the first snow fall of the season. So I bet they've sold out. I bought a set for the wifes' Yaris 2 months ago.

John N

[mikesands]

Must get myself a spare set of wheels as the cost of tyre changeover has gone up to £50 now. Where would I get a set of wheels at a reasonable price then?

Mike

By the way I absolutely endorse what John N says. And if you read the science everybody should be using them all through the UK winter as ordinary tyres do not compare for grip in the wet and cold below 7 degrees. Most people think of them as snow tyres but they are cold weather tyres.

[John N]

Must get myself a spare set of wheels as the cost of tyre changeover has gone up to £50 now. Where would I get a set of wheels at a reasonable price then?

Mike

By the way I absolutely endorse what John N says. And if you read the science everybody should be using them all through the UK winter as ordinary tyres do not compare for grip in the wet and cold below 7 degrees. Most people think of them as snow tyres but they are cold weather tyres.

I found mine on eBay, in an auction, advertised as 4 refurbished 17" LS430 wheels, with tyres. Ended up paying £350 for them, which was only a bit more than the tyres would have cost, and the wheels were 'as new'.

Try the 'breakers', or this is another option; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-LEXUS-LS430-AUTO-12-months-MOT-FANTASTIC-LOUNGE-WHEELS-/280781267818?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4 given that you could spend £3,500 on four new fancy alloys.

John N

[sir john]

Sourcing these winter tyres is a nightmare.

So far Ive been told that they are sold out, there is only 1 set left in the uk or what sort do you want sir.

Prices valy a lot as well. So far I have found;(225 60 16)

* Fulrun £105 each

* Goodyear £170

These are from Kwikfit and ATS.

I have also found another suppier with the following;(215 65 16)

Avon Ice Touring ST

Goodyear Ultra Grip 8

Dunlop 4D

All at £118 each fitted and balanced.

Ive been told that these are the same rolling circumferance as the original 225 60 16s.

Any thought????

[John N]

Sourcing these winter tyres is a nightmare.

So far Ive been told that they are sold out, there is only 1 set left in the uk or what sort do you want sir.

Prices valy a lot as well. So far I have found;(225 60 16)

* Fulrun £105 each

* Goodyear £170

These are from Kwikfit and ATS.

I have also found another suppier with the following;(215 65 16)

Avon Ice Touring ST

Goodyear Ultra Grip 8

Dunlop 4D

All at £118 each fitted and balanced.

Ive been told that these are the same rolling circumferance as the original 225 60 16s.

Any thought????

Try Mytyres.co.uk they are showing stock of the Nokian WR A3 tyres that I would recommend at £110 each :

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl

John N

[John N]

Oops; Pasting that link to the search results didn't work very well, unless you speak German.

Try this instead; http://www.mytyres.co.uk/Winter_Tyres.html

John N

[sir john]

Oops; Pasting that link to the search results didn't work very well, unless you speak German.

Try this instead; http://www.mytyres.co.uk/Winter_Tyres.html

John N

Thanks for that John, I see that is the none fitted price. Fitted they are £143 ish. Still a good price but the place up the road (31 miles) is £118 fitted and balanced for Avon Ice Touring.

When i have them on the car ill post the contact detials for other members.

[cleverdick]

Interesting...

Do we have the diversity of temperature in this country to actually warrant winter tyres? Agreed, the Met Office predicted one of the coldest winters on record starting in October, which, funnily enough has yet to materialize. Not sure what Piers Corbyn has to say on the subject but it might be more accurate. As for which tyre to choose, well, I'm holding out for some Conti PC2s as an all-rounder - for grip, ride and quietness. There seems to be a shortage at the moment though, which is just as well because I'm still saving up! According to various reports (including Which?), some of the cheaper tyres just don't have the requisite grip or stability (especially for such a heavy car), and of course this could mean the difference between having a crash and avoiding one. I'd say go for PC2s. If the roads are that tracherous then do you really want to take your car out? Consider the state of the tyres on the average Ford Fiesta!

[GEN]

Interesting...

Do we have the diversity of temperature in this country to actually warrant winter tyres? Agreed, the Met Office predicted one of the coldest winters on record starting in October, which, funnily enough has yet to materialize. Not sure what Piers Corbyn has to say on the subject but it might be more accurate. As for which tyre to choose, well, I'm holding out for some Conti PC2s as an all-rounder - for grip, ride and quietness. There seems to be a shortage at the moment though, which is just as well because I'm still saving up! According to various reports (including Which?), some of the cheaper tyres just don't have the requisite grip or stability (especially for such a heavy car), and of course this could mean the difference between having a crash and avoiding one. I'd say go for PC2s. If the roads are that tracherous then do you really want to take your car out? Consider the state of the tyres on the average Ford Fiesta!

I have a 98MY Mk4 with traction control and snow mode which were completely useless in the snow the year before last. I then switched to Vredstein Snow & Mud tyres and the improvement was unbelievable - I can now drive in the snow with confidence and so would highly recommend these tyres which are, interestingly enough, also recommended as winter tyres by Porsche. Of course not driving at all in difficult conditions is a much better option, if available. As for the Fiesta - if you are suggesting (and I simply don't know) that their tyres would be unsuitable I suppose you might have to worry about that in the summer also!

[m1pui]

Interesting...

Do we have the diversity of temperature in this country to actually warrant winter tyres?

Of course we do. Think that most commuting is done between 8-10am and 4-6pm when it's mostly dark and I'd bet that ground temperatures on cold days are easily below 8-9 degrees.

For a lot of people too, it's not so clear cut as the difference between summer & winter tyres. Often it's well worn summer/all season tyres they're coming from which are a considerably more of a liability.

I've just had some Vredestein Wintrac Xtremes fitted to my RX300, but what came off the car was a set of Pirelli Scorpion STR's which I couldn't fault during the past couple of winters they were fitted, but they were down to 2mm across most of the surface and, whilst still legal, I certainly didn't fancy chancing them for another winter. Even in the non-winter temperatures we've had since they were fitted, the difference in stopping/cornering & general comfort is positively night and day.

Back to the OP. My sister has had some Avon Ice Touring ST's fitted to her BMW 330D and they're great tyres. Took a couple of hundred miles to scrub them in (but you had to be quite deliberate to get them to squirm) but now they are, they're a very nice tyre. A lot quieter than the ContiSports that were fitted beforehand.