What tyres are best for snow?

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
the_wolf

the_wolf

Well-Known Member
Posts
16,809
Location
Stonehouse, Scotland
This isn't a normal tyre question so no need to panic. I'm currently running 255/65/16 at the moment, not because I know bugger all about tyres but purely because they were cheap. I'm quite keen to change to 7.5x16, which I had on previously, in time for winter. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that 'skinny' tyres are better in snow and I was just wondering why?
 
yu wanna start an argument?

its like the viscous fan Q!

The argument is that thin tyres cut through the snow to solid ground underneath. Others argue that wide tyres give a snow-shoe affect and spread the weight across a larger area.

On ice, neither are much good. and 2 tonnes wont stop easily. :(.
 
It depends on what kinda snow and ice you are traveling on really.

Suppose the easiest way to settle it is to look at ice race cars and rally cars and what they use for snow covered stages. Pretty narrow tyres with studs for the ice if needed. These kinda cars are trying to get as much grip as possible on snow and ice covered roads (or just on deep frozen lakes)

Then look at Polar expedition vehicles. These have hugely oversize tyres for floatations as they travel mostly on deep un-compacted snow and frozen lakes where there is a little uncertainty about the dept of ice underneath so low ground pressure is essential so it doesn't dig into the soft snow and get stuck or break through the ice.
 
Well pretty much just the kind of snow we would experience in this country. As said I wanna change my tyres and rather than asking the same old question I thought I'd go for a different approach so that I don't discover that 7.5x16 are actually pretty **** in snow.
 
I used these on my audi
cfc510c3eb8c49d5473392da1e7c2712-900x550.jpeg


the only thing that stopped me was depth of snow, where as lack of grip stopped my friends rangerover on road tyres :)

tyre compound is critical in the cold
 
Personally I find the best way to deal with snow is to stay indoors in a comfortable armchair. On a more serious note, make sure you have 'winter' tyres fitted as opposed to 'summer' tyres. The more aggresive the tread the less grip you get, the tread will quickly fill with snow giving you next to no grip. More or less any 'winter' tyre will grip due to the softer rubber compound. It's surprising the number of drivers that don't know if they're driving on winter or summer tyres.
 
Here we change to winters in the next few weeks, below about 7 degrees your summer tyres have no grip from the compound of the rubber and its only mechanical grip from the treads. I swear by winter tyres for Road cars but I still run my insa special tracks on the landy,too big and slow for anything to make much difference imo
 
I know you can get winter tyres and they obviously have a specific tread and are made up of a softer rubber but still what would be better, fatter tyres for a snow shoe effect (which is what I would have though) or skinny ones to cut through the snow
 
Hey at least I ain't a newbie :D

I've got 255/65/16 on at the moment and like I said its cos they were good brands for cheap. I can't remember the manufacturer or exact tyre type but at a guess I'd say they were road biased tyres.

I've always liked the look of the goodyear g90 that the army run so was thinking about sticking these on and just keeping them all year round. It's not even so much as I want new tyres for the winter, just that I need some soon so I might as well get some that'll do decent enough in the snow too. I had lassa 7.5x16 on last year and they were phenomenal in the snow, even with hardly any tread left. Easily pulled a transit and numerous cars up a very steep, icy and snowy hill
 
I run 750 x 16's all the year round, and they are good in every condition I have found so far ... except for shiny ice!
 
the_wolf said:
Hey at least I ain't a newbie :D

I've got 255/65/16 on at the moment and like I said its cos they were good brands for cheap. I can't remember the manufacturer or exact tyre type but at a guess I'd say they were road biased tyres.

I've always liked the look of the goodyear g90 that the army run so was thinking about sticking these on and just keeping them all year round. It's not even so much as I want new tyres for the winter, just that I need some soon so I might as well get some that'll do decent enough in the snow too. I had lassa 7.5x16 on last year and they were phenomenal in the snow, even with hardly any tread left. Easily pulled a transit and numerous cars up a very steep, icy and snowy hill
Click to expand...
you go near the G90 you will wish you hadn't trust me I thought yer good tyre army rate them etc went up a 12 degree gradient in my 109 (on the road btw) and I got up so far and just slid down so had a run up in 4x4 high and slid down again tried again in low box got a little bit further but slid backards with all 4 wheels spinning yet my 2a 88 dragged its arse and the 109s arse from a standing start on compact snow up to the top of this hill and its about 0.5 km long on kuhmo KL71s and I have used dirt devils Pirelli scorpion AT and ST and old Deestones and believe it or not the number 1 spot goes to the kuhmos followed by scorpion AT then very closely followed by deestones the deestones are surprisingly good they don't lock up they grip well don't kick out not bad at all but yer 7.50 16 with 6 ply tyres and you will go most places that other people just wont get
 
To be fair I've driven army land rovers with them on plenty times and never had a problem with them but point taken.

So you're suggesting kumho 7.5x16? It all depends on what I can find second hand really, can't afford to buy new but I would like to stick to that size as it does seem a good all rounder
 
DiscoPol said:
Here we change to winters in the next few weeks, below about 7 degrees your summer tyres have no grip from the compound of the rubber and its only mechanical grip from the treads. I swear by winter tyres for Road cars but I still run my insa special tracks on the landy,too big and slow for anything to make much difference imo
Click to expand...
you my friend have not driven around here when we have a decent amount of snow and a decent temperature our roads don't get cleared from the main polanczyk road until baligrod so its us locals that will run a snow plow up the roads and I have been ith the grumpy git sliding in to a pond in the old 110 on dirt devils because the road can be either like tarmac or like glass hen compact the locals here do 80 90 Kph down the roads :der: I would like to see you drive on the insas down here even the hardened locals don't run insas on snow
 
the_wolf said:
To be fair I've driven army land rovers with them on plenty times and never had a problem with them but point taken.

So you're suggesting kumho 7.5x16? It all depends on what I can find second hand really, can't afford to buy new but I would like to stick to that size as it does seem a good all rounder
Click to expand...
I run kuhmo kl71 235 85 16 which is the metric equivalent of 7.50x16 and they are nice on road and good offroad I used kuhmos in the UK during winter when London had bad snow a few years ago all around Croydon was cut off from the rest of London and we got through helping people etc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

julianf
101 tyres and wheel banding.
Replies
10
Views
2K
Wildefalcon
W
Brenda__the__Defender
Advice on Tyre choice please!
Replies
14
Views
2K
Brenda__the__Defender
Brenda__the__Defender
M
Freelander 1 Winter Tyres - 215/65/16 No Propshaft at the moment, Only Two?
Replies
1
Views
856
Nodge68
Nodge68
J
Discovery II - Tyre Comparison
2
Replies
23
Views
4K
Jayridium
J
O
Freelander 1 Tyres, coolant, filter, sunroof: Qs about the FL1, please assist!
Replies
3
Views
1K
GrumpyGel
GrumpyGel
Back
Top