DrEvil

It took me 40 mins to travel 2 miles, incident after incident..
fortunately the only biker I saw wasnt hurt badly...

Hope you are all ok, and got in safely.

Is it legal to put stud'd tyres on in the UK??

Alex

SiPie

AFAIK it's perfectly legal.

johnfelstead

No it is not.

This is why the RAC rally used to be such a nightmare for the drivers in snow/ice, they could not use studded tyres due to UK traffic laws.

DrEvil

John - cheers, thought you'd be one of the ones that know.

Shame really, as they work really well, drove a car in Sweden with them on, made soo much difference.

Might be leaving work early today, hopefully.. its a mad amount of snow round Reigate to Woking.

johnfelstead

No Probs, your dad is a very naughty boy. LOL

Have you ever driven on roads where they allow studded tyres? Seattle is an absolute nightmare on some of the highways because of the big grooves worn away in the concrete roads. It's pretty deadly driving there in heavy rain.

I have driven on studs on a frozen lake, it's wierd how much grip you have.

Edcase

Alex - only just in one piece!!! Discovered that wide tyres + ABS + ungritted roads = hell. Had REAL problems this morning, and was glad to get home safe. UNlike lots of others. Could really feel the front / rear torque split too, which was fun, but totally outwieghted by buttock clenching fear!!!

It was like a slalom course weaving in and out of cars with totalled wheels and bent track rod arms.

PS Wheels are 8-10 days so wont have em for sunday

carl

Didn't see any incidents (I went to Hayward and Scott in Basildon today -- lots of snow round there) but I suffered the same wide tyres + ABS problems.

Amazing how many people still tailgate you when the stopping distance is about 100 yards from 30 mph

Stephen Read

Get over this wide tyre thing people!

OK so in theory, a narrow tyre will be able to cut through snow better and there will be more weight per square inch which should give you more traction but these days modern 'winter' tyres are the same width as your summer ones. It is the tread design and compound that make the difference. The tread block are smaller and there if you look closely, each treadblock is often split-up into enven smaller divisions that appear to touvh each other. I beleive that this design allows them to squirm more which throws off any accumulated snow and would probably help to keep the temperature up. The actual tyres themselves are made of a different compound which again stays supple at low temeperatures.

I'll be putting 255's on the back of my Boxster tomorrow which are the same size as my summer rubber.

P.S. The only reason to go narrower would have been if I wanted to make room for chains.

jaf01uk

How much snow have you got that people are talking about going home early? I mean no disrespect but the news that I saw today had about 1 to 2 inches. That would hardly even warrant a mention up here, we had 3 inches of the stuff last Thursday night. Just that my late brother used to stay in B Stortford and was horrified by people dumping cars at the side of the road and walking when there was about an inch of the stuff?!, guess that's not normal?,

Edcase

Yeah, I've seen plenty of 255 snow tyres

Narrower tyres cut through the snow better...you dont want the tyre sitting ON the snow, you want it cutting THROUGH the snow. Why do you think rally cars have narrow tyres for mud / snow.

As for depth, here in east london we have a good 5-6 inches, and very few treated roads. Idiot council.

Had to laugh at a guy opposite this morning taking his classic (with Zeemax bodykit ) 911 out...

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

So why do the WRC's use thin tyres on the snow?

rb5 286

iTrader: (2)

cos they drive with their foot flat on the floor

road users should be taking it a bit easier

Pete Croney

I think these are 255's

Edcase

Heh...

LanCat

Lots of cars in Norway now are starting to use "Winter tyres" rather than studded. Different tread and softer(?) compound.

The hire car I had over there last week had them and even in heavy snow (1/2 metre in less than 24 hours) they worked really well.

storm555

I have worked in London for last 10 years and first time I have seen this much snow in Central London for along long time.

skiddus_markus

LOL at Pete Croney.

There isn't much snow around here at the moment but it's really powdery on top of ice which is making it difficult to get up the hills in my RWD van.

323GTR

Lucky sods! Got no snow at all here....

DanTheMan

I was stationary in traffic on the A3 heading into London at lunchtime when a repmobile coming down the sliproad passed me going BACKWARDS then sideways before coming to a halt accross the carriageway. He didnt hit anything and just did a 3 point turn to rejoin the road in the right direction, I bet he needs a change of pants......

As I watched this two cars collided a few yards away, and yesterday some baffoon who hadnt de-iced his car just reversed straight into my stationary van, there are some idiots out there at the moment.....

SiPie

Apologies Dr Evil/John

That seems strange

The reason I posted AFAIK is that my old man had 100 studs fitted last year and used them for 3 months on his Merc over the winter and swore by them. Just said you had to keep speeds down on normal surfaces (obviously)

Apologies for misleading info

[Edited by SiPie - 1/8/2003 1:13:20 PM]

DrEvil

John - was that in the Aston or Jag with the studded tyres? Heard they had to take the studded tyres off to do some of the filming! eh.. hem..

Back on a serious note, they use them in Sweden and Norway, I've only driven in Sweden, and the roads seemed in better nick that a lot of our A/B roads...

Drove from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe once as well, but don't think we had studded tyres on the rent-a-car. That was an interesting trip... thought we were gonna get stuck up in the mountains...

[Edited by DrEvil - 1/8/2003 2:50:42 PM]

carl

Well it is a good point that the tyre contact patch is only dependent upon the vehicle weight and the tyre pressure -- not the width of the tyre. So in actuality there should be more weight per square inch on a Scoob tyre because it's about 300kg heavier than a Pug 106 1.1, even though the pug has skinny tyres.

Edit: I reckon around 1 inch or so in Bishop's Stortford (where I live) -- none on the roads: they're just wet. More like four or five inches in Basildon, and the roads are covered with compacted snow underneath which is ice

[Edited by carl - 1/8/2003 4:02:58 PM]

Stephen Read

Nice picture Pete and it's great if you can optimise your tyre choice based on a reccy of snow depth/temperature/compactness/ice etc. for the next few kilometers of a special stage. I can't but at least with my 205/50/16 Michelin Pilot Alpin shod Scoob, I could drive up to ski resorts when there was approx 6cms of fresh snow on top of a hard base without chains and let me carry out an lane change manouver at approx 70mph on a slush covered motorway without 'too much' browning of the underpants!

In 'the real world' winter tyres need to cope with a variety of conditions that you might expect to se over the course of a 4 month winter ie. December to March.

'Winter' tyres are available these days in pretty much all sizes (e.g. 265/35/18's for the back of the 996 !).



http://www2.us.porsche.com/english/u...28_033_usa.PDF



[Edited by Stephen Read - 1/8/2003 6:12:05 PM]

Stephen Read

I'll get my coat....

[Edited by Stephen Read - 1/9/2003 5:29:11 PM]