Snow joke

Hi guys,

I live in Scotland and drive a TD5 110. I didnt have it last winter but lived next to a chap with a very aggressive set of offroad tyres, albeit on an L200, who made a tidy living towing people about the place, especially those arrogant types who thought a foot to the floor in their X5 would give them a hope in hell's chance.

So now its my chance to be the saviour of scottish motorists, but need some advice on snow tyres. I have read through the forum 'debates' on the subject, but for a relative new comer, what tyres do people rate the most? I understand thinner is better for best pressure over a smaller area, and how the more nobbly the tyre, the more rolling resistance, noise levels etc.

It would also be good to get tyres with rims, so I can change them myself.

Any advice or links to sites would be great.

Thanks guys

Adam

If you're going to use it mostly for normal road use but want to take it off road from time to time and cope better in snow conditions, I'd suggest General Grabber All Terrains. Mud Terrains have one of the most aggressive tread patterns but they're very noisy on road and will hurt your fuel economy and don't give great on-road performance. However, neither are the best performers for snow/ice conditions. If you want to be best prepared for this, studded tyres would be your best bet but few people bother going to those extremes here in the UK!

So with all that in mind, I'd say All Terrains are generally the best all-rounders for 4x4s here in the UK.

I think theres already a thread on this but…………… BFG AT's (Non Radial) are my weapons of choice

Dad prefers his Pirelli Scorpion ST's though due to the added road comfort and economy yet the soft compound helps in the snow (they do, I drove it through the last two winters but they're **** in the mud so hence my BFG's)

Snow chains?

Snow chains wouldnt be an option with the amount of road use, but I understand that a sticky compound would be better for icier conditions? I have grabber LT tyres at the moment but have spun out in a grassy ditch before and am worried that something similar could happen in winter conditions. I won't be using them for mud but could be anything from the roads that don't see a gritter truck all winter, to fresh snow on the forest tracks.

Well the Pirelli's work well for snow in cumbria so should be alright further north, the only way you're going to get true snow grip is with a set of rally tyres with studs but thats not really a good idea with road use so you might want to consider snow socks too

Inca turbo rangers is what I use never had a problem in the snow or pulling other cars up steep hills.

The best bet is a set of good A/T's I am using Kumho Powerguards on my Disco, and these have worked really well on mud, snow, ice and tarmac. The biggest factor when it comes to driving on snow or ice is the drivers skill. If you drive like you are wearing lead boots, then no tyre in the world is going to keep you out of the ditch for long. How you drive is far more important than what tyres you have fitted.

Don't know how many of you are aware of this, but studded tyres are not legal for UK road use.

Everytime a thread like this comes up there seems to be a huge range of tyres that people recommend as being 'the best'. It might be worth getting peeps to post what sort of surfaces they drove on (deep snow, 6 foot drifts, compacted snow, sheet ice etc) and also how much mileage they were doing and also what they were towing and what percentage of the mileage they were towing for.

ratty said:

Everytime a thread like this comes up there seems to be a huge range of tyres that people recommend as being 'the best'. It might be worth getting peeps to post what sort of surfaces they drove on (deep snow, 6 foot drifts, compacted snow, sheet ice etc) and also how much mileage they were doing and also what they were towing and what percentage of the mileage they were towing for.

Click to expand...

I Agree with that

So compact snow and ice on tarmac towing different form a mini to a bmw 3 searies touring up a slope.
On inca turbos I have snow chans but never had to use them
Only driven work 110 gs land rovers on drift snow pulling a full 3/4 ton trailer in drifts up to 4"