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wwmnw
13-09-17, 05:51 PM
So as the wet season is fast approaching and I need some tyres for the alloys I'm putting on the car, what would people reccomend for a good wet/winter tyre? I was thinking something like Uniroyal rainsports. Car is MK4 Astra estate.
Iain
13-09-17, 08:53 PM
Rainsports are still a summer tyre but are excellent in wet conditions. Not sure how they are in subzero wet conditions though
marc69
13-09-17, 10:41 PM
In all honesty unless you are doing rally driving, any decent normal tyre should be fine if you are driving according to weather conditions. The manufacturers want us to swap them more for business reasons.
Andy
14-09-17, 05:50 AM
Agreed
iv never ever considered changing to winter tyres
Just drive to the conditions
EwanG
14-09-17, 07:16 AM
I run Dunlop sp winter sports 4d's. They are very grippy on greasy and wet roads and if we do get snow they make a massive difference.
Stuart
14-09-17, 08:35 AM
Pirelli sottozeros were epic on the cars I've driven with them, proper snow, un gritted road and able to still put 500bhp down through the rears and still live lol
regular tyres go rock hard below 5 deg, so that's more the urge to get winters on than for snow.

that said, I don't bother with my own cars as the only in gritted bit of road is our estate and I tend to grit that myself as I'm a nice person (well ok, selfish but it happens to benefit others).

id just opt for a good quality wet tyre and then skive work if it goes white
RallyMarshal
14-09-17, 03:47 PM
Im very much an advocate for winter tyres after experiencing them myself.

I have 2 sets of alloys so I dont have to pay to swap tyres each time - one with summers and one with winters. Usually fit them end October and take them off end of March depending on temperatures.

Make a huge difference for braking and cornering in the colder conditions and obviously on snow too. In the past Ive simply driven past stuck summer tyred 4wds on not particularly steep hills in various 2wd cars like Octavia VRS, Fabia VRS, Fiesta ST. In fact, my current Ford Ranger has only ever come out of 2wd on the road in the snow/ice maybe 2-3 times in the 5 years Ive had it as its not needed to with the winter tyres.

Paul..
EwanG
14-09-17, 06:16 PM
Same here I have two sets of alloys and from my experience I wouldn't own a car without having them.
wwmnw
14-09-17, 06:43 PM
Well part of the reason I ask is because one of the alloys I bought has a 'champiro winterpro GT radial' tyre on it already so kinda made me think about buying another one but asking on peoples personal experiences first.
EwanG
14-09-17, 07:24 PM
I run four winter tyres. If you just have front ones and you have to brake hard then the rear might oversteer.
wwmnw
14-09-17, 08:58 PM
Yeah I was thinking that might be a better option but they seem quite expensive, last time I bought tyres brand new I bought 4 Toyo T1-R and they came to something like £60/70 that online tyre shop doesn't exist any more though and black circles and camskill only seem to set you search by size or reg
Stuart
14-09-17, 09:17 PM
Do not by t1-r or s tyres, they are shite lol would feel like winter all year round
EwanG
14-09-17, 09:26 PM
I had t1-s tyres. They were skitty as hell. They also made a drone sounding like knackerd wheel bearings lol
wwmnw
14-09-17, 10:01 PM
Do not by t1-r or s tyres, they are shite lol would feel like winter all year round


I had t1-s tyres. They were skitty as hell. They also made a drone sounding like knackerd wheel bearings lol

Haha that was a lot of years ago I bought them I certainly wouldn't put them on the Astra.
RallyMarshal
15-09-17, 02:22 PM
I had Vredstein snowtrac 3 on the Octavia vRS, Goodyear Ultragrips on the Fabia vRS, Have some Michelin Alpins on my Ranger and some Nokian WR on the wifes Fiesta

Paul..
wwmnw
15-09-17, 06:19 PM
I had Vredstein snowtrac 3 on the Octavia vRS, Goodyear Ultragrips on the Fabia vRS, Have some Michelin Alpins on my Ranger and some Nokian WR on the wifes Fiesta

Paul..

So which would you recommend on for a MK4 astra estate? Vredstein?
RallyMarshal
19-09-17, 09:47 AM
What wheel / tyre size? I just stuck with the decent brands and models from the various online tests like autoexpress and looked at the best match price-wise. Not all models make the same range of sizes..

Paul..
Stuart
19-09-17, 09:54 AM
There was a thread on another forum about crap winter tyres vs good summers, and the general verdict from the swiss folks was, "any" winter will be better than a summer, but ideally go with a recognised brand.

Also, bera in mind they will be like sponge over 5-10DegC
RallyMarshal
19-09-17, 01:09 PM
There was a thread on another forum about crap winter tyres vs good summers, and the general verdict from the swiss folks was, "any" winter will be better than a summer, but ideally go with a recognised brand.

Also, bera in mind they will be like sponge over 5-10DegC

Funnily enough, I didnt find so on my truck. Had a pair on the rear which got down to around 3.5mm (they reckon to run min depth of 4mm through winter) so thought I would just leave them on for a month or 2 to wear them out in the summer before binning them. Kept checking them and got to the end of the summer and 6k or so later and theyd gone to 2.5mm so only worn a mm and werent much worse than the summer Goodyears for overall dry grip. Might have been due to the tyre size which is 265/65/17 on the truck but I was surprised for sure.

Paul..
Royston
19-09-17, 01:17 PM
I've always used winter tyres for many years, just bought some Kumho's for my Saab daily, to replace the worn out Goodyear winters I use the Range Rover if really bad :)
Stuart
19-09-17, 02:05 PM
Funnily enough, I didnt find so on my truck. Had a pair on the rear which got down to around 3.5mm (they reckon to run min depth of 4mm through winter) so thought I would just leave them on for a month or 2 to wear them out in the summer before binning them. Kept checking them and got to the end of the summer and 6k or so later and theyd gone to 2.5mm so only worn a mm and werent much worse than the summer Goodyears for overall dry grip. Might have been due to the tyre size which is 265/65/17 on the truck but I was surprised for sure.

Paul..

Not so much the wear, but the handling is appauling when they get warm lol
wwmnw
19-09-17, 06:49 PM
What wheel / tyre size? I just stuck with the decent brands and models from the various online tests like autoexpress and looked at the best match price-wise. Not all models make the same range of sizes..

Paul..

I think the winter tyre already on one wheel is 185 60 15 so I'll just get one the same size and put them on the front.
Stuart
19-09-17, 10:04 PM
Lost back end and death
wwmnw
20-09-17, 06:15 PM
Lost back end and death

Lost back end hold slide look cool come to standstill get hit by truck annnnnnd death.