Any recommendations for winter tyres?

[Ascender]

I've got the original 19 & 20" wheels from the dog wagon lying in the shed, so the plan is to get someone out to put winter tyres on them soon so they're ready to go when it starts to get properly cold.

[mik]

I've only used the Vredstein Wintrac Pro recently and they were great.

Not many options in your sizes (assuming you want the same tyre front and rear).

Front and rear OEM size I think your only option is Hankoook or PirellI?
Front
Rear

Or if you go to a 295 on the rear, Conti's are a (pricier) option
Front
Rear

[Jobbo]

Whatever is available in your sizes.

I’ve had Pirelli Sottozeros on my Merc CLS and they were some of the nicest winters I’ve used, but that was a few years ago and I’ve not tried many of the premium ones.

I’d be tempted to get all seasons if you can find them so you don’t need to be too fussed about when you change them back.

[Ascender]

Thanks for those, will have a look tonight.

That’s a good point @Jobbo, hadn’t considered that and given how unpredictable winter can be is probably worthwhile.

[mik]

I’ve never tried all-seasons - they seem to offer the worst of both worlds - which is fine if you plan to run them all year, but if you are planning to swap summers to non-summers, proper winters always seemed a more logical choice to me.

[jamcg]

We run all seasons on the work vans, they’re brilliant going between warm/dry and cold/wet. As for snow they’re good enough, but full winter is noticeably better.

That’s on nearly 3 tonnes of front wheel drive van, on a powerful rear biased 4wd based in Scotland (or am I misremembering where you’re at?) I’d be tempted to run full winters

[NGRhodes]

For regularly cleared and gritted roads, even as a 2nd set, decent all seasons are all you need to deal with the slush, slime and odd patches of ice and snow. All seasons on average behave the same on ice to full winters and do surprisingly well in snow.
If you need to drive on ice/snow for majority of your journeys, then winters make more sense as a 2nd set.

Worth taking a look at tyrereviews.com, the guy who runs it is very thorough.

[JonMad]

Yeah, our cross climates have been great on occasional snow. Leave them on all year round on the Yeti. I bought a cheap set for the Fabia as well so I could use that instead in the snow. It's not snowed since then, and it's off the road currently anyway. Winters if you live somewhere guaranteeing snow or you have a performance car on decent summer tyres the rest of the time (my M5-owning mate gets the garage to store his summer/winter tyres, whichever are not in use).

That's completely not answering your original question

[Ascender]

We don't generally get a lot of snow, so it's more for the frosty/icy/slushy weather. We do live on a big hill though where even a light dusting of actual snow meant a RWD car on summer tyres ain't getting up it - see the start of this year where we had to get the Navara to tow the M2 up.

It's guaranteed we will get some snow though and it would be good to be able to have the option of the M3 during that - so I'm thinking winter tyres are the way to go. I'm also hoping 4wd will help a bit too.

Yes, we're up in Scotland and at height, so it will basically be fecking freezing from the end of this month for 4/5 months!

[scotta]

I ran Nankangs on the 3 series. Great in the snow. 6-8 inches of snow in our driveway - shared private driveway not gritted - Jumped in the 3 and just drove out. The 2 series on MPSS wouldn't move.

I had another set of smaller wheels for them so didnt have the arse of swapping tyres on rims.

[Beany]

I’ve never tried all-seasons - they seem to offer the worst of both worlds - which is fine if you plan to run them all year, but if you are planning to swap summers to non-summers, proper winters always seemed a more logical choice to me.

They're definitely a compromise. I've got Bridgestone WeatherControls on the BMW and while i don't push the car much these days, they seem fine in the summer, they're definitely a massive improvement over the Dunlop Sportmaxxes I had on previously in the winter when it's proper chilly and damp out (They basically grip as much as they do in the dry for my light use) but they aren't as good as proper snow tyres when it's actually snowy.

I had snow tyres on the Puma and they're proper 'perception changing' when you need them - you can't believe how much grip you get. The All Seasons just don't come close, but they're enough to 'keep you on the road', IE you can pull away from snowy junctions on an incline where your summer tyres would just spin and send you slipping back down.

Better than a kick in the teeth if you don't want to be spending a grand on two sets of tyres, but if you can afford decent summers/decent winters/spare wheels then proper snow/winter tyres are a better solution if you literally can't be without the car the few weeks a year we get, when snow is a pain in the arse.

[IanF]

Have a look what the Germans are putting on their M3s, they have to put winter tyres on by law so there's probably plenty of info on German BMW sites. Definitely think winters on spare wheels and summers on current wheels is the way to go.

[mik]

Actually I was talking rubbish - both our Disco3 and Disco4 were run on the OEM spec Pirelli Scorpions, which were all-season (and “mud&snow”) rated. They were great all-year-round (but wore pretty quickly). Many guys on the forum fitted full winters for the colder months, and I can recall two specific times (both downhill on pretty heavy snow) where 2.5tonnes per JG Landy just wanted to lick its wheels rather than slow down.

[DeskJockey]

lick its wheels

That's quite niche. Is this because you like the taste or does it convey some other information?

[Mito Man]

lick its wheels

That's quite niche. Is this because you like the taste or does it convey some other information?

It’s how you prep the sidewalls before you paint them white.

[mik]

It’s ‘cos I’ve already done all the windows

[IanF]

It’s ‘cos I’ve already done all the windows

[jamcg]

We don't generally get a lot of snow, so it's more for the frosty/icy/slushy weather. We do live on a big hill though where even a light dusting of actual snow meant a RWD car on summer tyres ain't getting up it - see the start of this year where we had to get the Navara to tow the M2 up.

It's guaranteed we will get some snow though and it would be good to be able to have the option of the M3 during that - so I'm thinking winter tyres are the way to go. I'm also hoping 4wd will help a bit too.

Yes, we're up in Scotland and at height, so it will basically be fecking freezing from the end of this month for 4/5 months!

What’s your low temperatures like? All seasons tend to be rated to about -5 to -10 and even the -10 ones start hardening about -5. Winters are rated much lower down to -20, but don’t like going above 7

[integrale_evo]

I’ve had Nexen winguard sports on the mito all year round and honestly they’ve been fine. I doubt you’d be able to tell they were winters unless really pushing it.

However, on a couple of early morning, snowy, ungritted road commutes they were incredible. Way better than all seasons have been in similar conditions.

If you were swapping tyres on rims I’d probably suggest all seasons as there’s a bit more leeway for when you might want to swap between them. With separate sets of wheels I’d go full winters and keep an eye on the forecast once the nights start drawing in.

[Jobbo]

I suspect Mike will have to go for full winters because all-seasons tend not to be available in the lower profile, wider figments which you get on an M3. So the point is likely to be pretty moot.