Hi Chaps,
I just come back from France with my 4.4TDV8 , on my last day I took from Nice to Embrun which involve alps mountain roads, I think Embrun is the lake on the mountain and would like to see it. however, as we just started to see the mountain snow and started to climb, the narrow mountain roads was covered by snow and I can tell that no car has been passed for quite some time as at the beginning of the mountain road, there is a snowdrift on the middle of the road and no tyre marks on it. we climb just for less than 20 minutes the snow on the road get thick, I selected low ratio gear, raise the height, put in snow mode, and the car is spinning!!! I tried in Mud mode, and still spinning! I get out and found the snow was about 20-30 CM height on the road. I did not try again on the side of the narrow road was deep cliff and I certainly don't want it out of control by spinning. I guess if I reverse some distance and try to climb it could pass that section but my girlfriend suggested that snow condtion will be worse as it gets higher and its getting dark, so I took the advice and reverse back......
my RR is on 250 55 R20 scorpion stand tyre, is the spinning normal for this? I guess this tyre doesn't have much grip for 20-30 CM snow? if I change to GG AT tyre, is that going to get any better and ok for this situation? to be honest, I was a bit disappointed by this, as it just stated to climb and failed. maybe because my off road skill not as good.....
any suggestion guys?

Henry

Last edited by x-box on 19th Mar 2015 11:13am. Edited 2 times in total

Why are you driving in those conditions on summer tyres - never mind without chains?

how many mm on your tyres ? ........... snow/winter tyres would have been more appropriate and as would snow chains.. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

there were 6/7mm left on the tyre, initially I didn't intend to drive on those road and didn't expect the road was covered by such thick snow neither, and also I was expecting the RR should be ok for those tarmac road + snow conditions.
winter tyre + snow chain or summer tyre + snow chain?

with that amount of mm you should be ok on a flat snow covered surface but certainly not for an incline or hill.... ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

should I change to GG AT tyre plus chain?

I think for these conditions, normal AT tyres are not even enough. You really need proper winter tyres with the specific profile and rubber.

The normal and AT tyres just can't get any grip on the snow and that has nothing to do with the drivetrain, TR etc. It is like ABS, if the tyres are sliding sideways because you're on ice, ABS makes no difference to you sliding of the road.

I bet if you had proper winter tyres, you would not even have needed that TR system much. I drove a XC90 in Sweden in various road conditions with proper studded winter tyres and on every surface I could go like a lunatic almost without ever needing anything like TR or playing with diffs/low range. You can drive a 2wd on snow and ice with proper studded winter tyres, people in the Scandinavian countries do it all the time.

So it is the tyre, not the car IMHO. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

For winter conditions you need winter tyres, not Grabber ATs (although chunky tyres are good in fresh snow).

Chains on what you have sounds sensible - can't imagine the French police would have been very amenable if you'd got yourself stuck up there without them.

ic ic tyres are the most critical thing when driving in the snow......
any R20 tyres you guys recommend for this? please......

Snow/winter tyres.....

Just because it's a four wheel drive it doesn't give you any more grip in the snow, just more traction.
Which isn't the same as grip.

I have driven to the Alps in my old 2002 TD6 and my 2004 V8 and have only ever had M&S tyres on - never had a problem. coped with snow over 30cm deep and got up icy back roads in St Anton. Maybe the electronics were trying to be too clever? (My old girls don't have any of that new-fangled gizmos, just pure British pluck (or stupidity ??)

It's stupidity. Almost the only cars I see skidding around the ski resorts are British 4x4's on summer tyres.

any good winter snow tyre you guys recommend for R20 rim?

thanks

x-box, there are some excellent winter tyres in that size, Michelin LATITUDE ALPIN, Pirelli Scorpion Winter, Vredestein WINTRAC XTREME S.

I have 18's so not sure about 20's, but I'm very happy with my Vreds.

many thanks,
I think I will choose one of them.
regards
Henry