harvey

iTrader: (48)

Stratone: As Si said we do not get much snow here, certainly South of the Scottish Highlands and even when it does snow it is often gone in a day. For that reason it is very rare for most people to have a separate set of winter tyres. Where I live, about 15mls from the accident site, there has been no snow that has layed this winter so far.
When it does snow hard it causes chaos as most people are not prepared. At the beginning of the year heavy snow in the London area resulted in people on their way to work in the morning being trapped overnight in their cars.!!!
Most drivers will have no idea how much difference a set of snow tyres can make but as I said, the conditions rarely warrant it.

[Edited by harvey - 12/31/2003 4:48:39 PM]

jabbroni

Phil glad you r ok and that the van driver's ok not a very nice christmas and new year.Just hope everything turns out ok and hope to see u in another scooby soon.

chrome

hayzeus christianay.. thats was a monster 'bump'

good to know no-one was seriously damaged


snow. uk is the only country I know of that grinds to a halt when snow arrives..


good points about winter tyres too... hmm time for a tyre thread..

stratone

I kind of understand the problem with tires... I see the same thing here in Sweden. I'm from the north of Sweden where people are used to snow, and knows you can't drive with summer tires. It's very rare with accidents caused by "bad judgement of grip" up there. Totally different thing in Stockholm where I live now. Here people wait until the first 100 cars goes off the road before changing tires... I don't know... To me it's so obvoius not even thinking about going out in the snow with wrong tires. You're a danger to everyone else as well.

Oh well, just my thoughts. But it upsets me a bit

/Claes

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Stratone: You are 100% right. The difference between normal tyres and winter tyres is amasing. running normaltyres in the snow can be fun on deserted roads, with caution however. What snow/winter tyres do you recommend?

stratone

I'm running studded 185/65 on 15" alloys. I find it a good compromise for the different winter conditions I drive in. But maybe a studless winter tire would be better if you don't see that much snow?

/Claes

stratone

One more thing... Practise! Find a big parking lot or something, and find out how slippery it really is And of course, how much fun it is

/Claes

cheeseboy

Sorry to see you had such a big accident, but good to see you are alive - however, if you even considered making an insurance claim here the company would laugh at you....

due to being on SUMMER TIRES in winter! AND driving on snow!

-- What were you thinking???

scooby_si

UK insurance in being better at sumin shocker lol.
They'd probably charge you more premium for after market wheels
Si

PhilA

I did have 5 years no claims bonus. 3 more months till 6 yrs. When I booked the policy the broker I used wouldn't let me protect them as I was under 25. I'm not sure how a claim works exactly but I think I will lose 2 years no claims bonus leaving me with 3.

greasemonkey

That's correct, you should lose two years NCD. However, it might be a good idea if you were sitting down when your renewal notice arrives. Hope you also have legal cover on your policy.

Harvey - the range of winter tyres available through high street dealers here is crap, and finding some to fit the large, wide rims used by many people is even harder. What is really needed is a narrow tyre with a reasonably tall sidewall.

While there may be better around, if snow is settling on the road I've had good results with a set of old Yokohama 195/65 x 15 A035 gravel rally tyres (tried them by chance and found they worked!). Don't go hooning around on them, as there's still too much risk of being caught out on ice, but they're enough to get from A to B in safety and with reasonable confidence.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Thanks Greasemonkey. I do not think that you can reasonably run snow/winter tyres without having a second set of rims for a narrower fitment. I am interested to hear what our Scandinavian friends think an all round good tyre would be for winter, not just for snow but in the rain too. I only have brief experience of Vreederstein (sp?) apart from rally and snow stud tyres, neither of which are practical in the UK for fitment in November and removal in March although the Vreederstein would be.
Is there something better for our conditions?

rapiddescent

just a quick answer to the swedish bloke who posted about studded tyres: they are illegal in the UK except for very limited circumstances, e.g. Rally cars on way to a competition. We can use the heavy duty snow tyres, e.g. Nokian, but I have no idea how that will affect a UK insurance policy?

two days of snow in London last february brought the whole road system to a halt even though they snow was only about 3" deep. Many of the roads had not even been gritted, never mind cleared!

A turbo scoob with 215 Goodyear f1's or SO2's is f**ing lethal in the snow because they accelerate well, but the ABS just screws up and it is very hard to stop.

rd

greasemonkey

It's not the acceleration and ABS alone that makes these cars such likely accident victims RD. It's mainly to do with the utter unsuitability of modern summer sports tyres to snowy/icy conditions, allied with the false sense of confidence that the Impreza's handling/transmission and the performance of these tyres on dry/wet roads gives the driver.

Harvey: The biggest problem as far as getting a decent winter tyre setup isn't just the wheel width, it's the diameter too. 15" probably ideal, but you'd never fit a rim that size over the AP front brake conversion, so compromise is inevitable somewhere.

If you're thinking about fitting tyres in November and removing in Feb/Mar, MyTyres have the Nokian WR in stock in 195/65 x 15 for £56 a corner. Would need the standard Subaru four pots refitting for a couple of months, but given the it'd save the decent calipers from a deal of salt corrosion, would that be a workable solution?

Gedi

I don't really see snow tyres as an option here in the UK

In the past 2 years I think we (NW) have had 1 or 2 days of snow. During our winters our roads are normally either dry or wet the same as summer, therefore we have tyres to suit all year round.

I can't imagine someone buying a set of alloys and snow tyres for 1 day a year, then going out into the snow to change the wheels when it does decide to put a layer of snow down.

greasemonkey

The tyres I referenced above aren't out and out snow tyres by any stretch of the imagination. What they are is tyres that will work in a much wider variety of conditions than most sports tyres.

As for changing them when the snow starts to fall, why not? It takes all of 10 minutes to do, and it's a far better option than doing what Phil did, don't you think? If nothing else, if you do have a slow "off" on a patch of ice, you'll be kerbing a cheap old alloy rather than a nice one...

[Edited by greasemonkey - 1/2/2004 8:33:31 PM]

stockcar

harvey, if you're still tghinking of the 16" route then i can source you some "forest" rubber no probs........if scrubbed, work better than you'd imagine on damp roads...
alyn - asperformance.com

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Gedi: What we are talking about is tyres to put on for the Winter.
Greasemonkey : Thanks for this information. 15" is not an option for me but I can manage on 16". Can you give more details of the company selling the Nokian? Presumably they do 16" so I will do a search for a Nokian technical site.
Alyn : I will give you a ring Monday.

greasemonkey

Harvey: Nokian's website is here, and Mytyres are here.

If Alyn can find you some gravel tyres that will fit on 16" rims though, I'd go that route IIWY.

matty01

What about 4x space savers?...ok i'll get my coat

bdolgu

First, I'm really sorry for you, and I hope everthing works out with the insurance (I don't understand how UK insurance works)
The only thing that really matter is that no one had any serius injury, everything exept people can be replaced.

Second, I'm shocked to hear that most of you are driving around in high preformance summer tires all year round!
I am from the central parts of Sweden and any large amount of snow here is very uncommon these days Exept from this year we haven't had this much snow since, well ages...

Even without snow I would not drive my car with high preformance summer tyres this time of year. The differnce in grip, even on a cold dry road is huge. The high preformance summer tire start to loose out below ~10*C, then add some water or snow to that and the summer tire is lethal. I acutally thing that even a low preformance summer tire would be better than tires like the GY F1 and Toyo T1.

I am running Bridgestone Blizzak studless in 205/50-16. It is not the best on ice, but it works if you are careful. I choose a wide studless due to the fact that my winter driving conditiones sounds very simular to what you appear to have in the UK.

But whatever tires you are using, be careful. A fellow clubmember had a sad meeting with a truck a few days ago: http://bbs.impreza.nu/dc/dcboard.php...topic_id=10999 (I know you probarbly cant read the text, but a picture do say more than a 1000 words)

With that said:
Find a big empty area and have fun! (I will)

all the best
/Ola


Edit to att click

[Edited by bdolgu - 1/2/2004 9:39:54 PM]

greasemonkey

Lol! Get to work on them with a tyre cutter (assuming there's enough meat in the carcass) and they'd probably be the thing to have in deep snow!

Mr.M

I had a full claim (right off) over 3 years ago. Nobody was injured.

Getting insurance is a right mare now. Have had quotes from £1200 right up to £2500.

I think i've paid over £4000 in insurance since the claim. I'm 34, married, with child. As soon as you have a full-claim, insurance companies don't want to know you.

Chuffed this year because i've finally got insurance down to £1200.

Good luck with the insurance company.

Scooby96

First dibbs on the bonnet scoop

Only joking - glad to hear no lasing damage to driver / passenger(s)

stratone

With 1 day of snow I wouldn't buy proper winter tires, but I would leave the car at home! Hope the rest of you do that for our others safety. Umm... Not that I drive that much in the UK...

Ola has a great point as well. It doesn't have to be freezing, the rubber compounds are very different.

/Claes

mrklaw

curious about the insurance

Sounds like if you have a claim, it doesn't just lose you a couple of years NCD, but it also bumps your quote as well?

So if you have protected, does that stop it, or only the bonus part - you still get a quote hike?

forest172

My wife wrote of the STI8 and I have 6Years NCB protected, it has made about £100 difference to the policy which was £1150 now taking it shy of £1300, I don`t mind paying that though after a £30000 claim.

Gedi

Then my car would be dangerous in the winter. The roads are not really any different in the winter as they are in the summer. I don't really get any wheel spin in summer or winter. Traction is pretty much the same all year round. I am using Toyo P1's which are a good all round tyre, wet or dry. This is on a TypeR, so its not really underpowered.


You live in Sweeden, it might be colder. I wear a t-shirt pretty much all year round. I sometimes wear a coat in winter if i'm out after dark and the temperature has dropped low. Say to about 5 degree's celcius. IMO we have no need for snow tyres. I have never known a crash due to snow. We don't really get any ice. If you do happen to hit a patch of ice, then what use are snow tyres gonna be anyway, you'll need studded tyres to avoid that......I belive that is not an option in the UK.

PhilA

What caught me out was I was too confident in the car, won't be in future though.

Yeah, the protected no claims bonus just saves the bonus. You will still receive a price hike for making a claim. You have to tell the insurance companies for 3 years.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Gedi: We have ice regularly on some of the roads I drive on. We are not advocating snow tyres for the UK but winter tyres. Until you have tried winter tyres you will not believe the difference on cold days, wet or dry. Below about 7 deg cent the performance of the summer tyres ie Toyo Proxies, Goodyear F1 GD3 etc is degraded and the material the winter tyres are made from is specifically intended to give good adhesion at lower temperatures.
Phil: You make a very good point about over confidence which is why I urge everybody with a Scooby to find a deserted road in the snow and check for themselves the limits of adhesion when cornering and how long it takes to stop in an emergency with ABS in the snow. Frightening, even more so when you are accustomed to fantastic performance in the worst rain conditions.