![]() | Home > Wheels & Tyres > Winter set up.. AT vs winter tyre vs all season |
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Martin2 Member Since: 15 Jun 2020 Location: Northamptonshire Posts: 741 ![]() ![]() |
Mine was brilliant in snow and more normal winter conditions running on Pirelli All Season tyres, it’s the first car I’ve had in years where I didn’t even consider a set of winter wheels/tyres.
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Proftinkerpot Member Since: 23 Dec 2022 Location: County Antrim Posts: 175 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Everyone says the Pirelli Scorpion Verde is an excellent all round tyre. Others seem to go for more off road focused rubber such as the AT3. There arexalso things like the Falken Wildpeak which are a genuine 3 peaks marked tyre suitable for continental use where winter tyres are mandatory.
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Alistair Member Since: 11 Feb 2011 Location: Peterborough / Bordeaux / Andorra Posts: 7884 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I live in a ski resort (colder than the England) in winter and spend my summers in warmer places - so I run dedicated winter & summer sets. However, in England, I'd probably just buy a decent set of all seasons these days.
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GraemeS Member Since: 07 Mar 2015 Location: Wagga area Posts: 2377 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Have you considered using your 19" rims for AT or winter tyres and use 20" for general driving tyres once the current 19" tyres wear out? 255/60R19 are 31", the same diameter as 255/55R20 but the slightly taller 19" sidewalls would be better for the sloppy stuff and the shorter 20" sidewalls better for higher speeds.
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Ennoch Member Since: 26 Dec 2015 Location: Scotland Posts: 109 ![]() |
My experience on various cars (Fronteras/L322/Troopers and a rogue Hilux) in the past is that all terrains are fine for pottering about in bad conditions, and absolutely fine in deep snow. However, on icy roads, they're no better than summer tyres while proper winters can allow you to take absolute liberties in horrendous conditions. My 2c is that a set of good winters will be by far and away the best choice if you drive in winter conditions a lot of the time, and by that I include frosty and icy early morning and late night roads. The ability of a winter tyre to keep control on an icy road is quite incredible the first time you experience it, it's like things happen in slow motion. Whether this is slow enough for you to regain control comes down to how much space you have, the vehicle and your talent, but even with wildly inappropriate cars I've never been stuck with winters on.
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JayGee Member Since: 27 Jul 2021 Location: London Posts: 3028 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
'Summer' tyres start to loose grip below 7deg C so in the UK all-season tyres are a sensible choice for year round use even if you never see snow. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322) |
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Dixy Member Since: 09 Apr 2009 Location: Somerset Posts: 1081 ![]() ![]() |
You can pick up a second set of rims quite cheaply, as long as you keep the car long enough having 2 sets of tyres is no more expensive and the difference bellow 7 degrees is astonishing.
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stan Site Moderator Member Since: 13 Jul 2010 Location: a moderate moderated moderator moderating moderately in moderation Posts: 35086 ![]() ![]() |
great picture Andrew... |
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MikeyB48 Member Since: 10 Jan 2023 Location: UK Posts: 10 ![]() ![]() |
Thanks one and all for such detailed and quick responses. What a great forum!
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Westminster Member Since: 23 Mar 2017 Location: UK Posts: 130 ![]() ![]() |
Great car you've got yourself, I had the same vehicle and fitted Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs which I've also had on my L405 for 3 years and they save the need for different summer/winter sets of wheels.
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Ennoch Member Since: 26 Dec 2015 Location: Scotland Posts: 109 ![]() |
I feel like I'm disagreeing for the sake of being awkward here, but I'm not. Honest! My experience is that cheap tyres do have quite a high cutover temperature, but that any decent performance tyre like Michelin, Good Year or Conti (Pirelli are crap in the wet even when warm) will have enough silica and other expensive additives in there to give them really good grip, even on cold and damp roads when compared to almost all winters. IME I've found the crossover to be around the 1-2c mark when comparing a UHP summer with a HP winter, but when it's frosty etc then that goes out the window. Some people use this as an argument to say that winter tyres are a bad idea, but it's much easier to drive around a little less grip when there's lots of it around and visibility and conditions are good, than it is to drive around a lot less grip when there's already lots less of it around. In general though I agree, although I tend to hold off changing my wheels over until I see the first signs of frost forecast or I'm heading into areas where it's already forecast, and then leave them on until all traces of overnight frost have gone. It's surprising how late in the year you still get road surfaces cold enough to ice or frost over. I've driven up to Fort William at 3am to go ice climbing on the Ben before in May with a friend who had thought it safe to remove the winters from his RWD AMG. Suffice to say no speed records were broken that morning! It's funny how some people can be so oblivious to road conditions just because they don't normally see them, and then extrapolate that out to a blunt 'nobody needs it/them'. |
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JayGee Member Since: 27 Jul 2021 Location: London Posts: 3028 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Interesting. Always run premium rubber (Goodyear F1 Asymmetrical) year round on previous cars and only once used a set of winter tyres when I had to actually drive in snow and they did the job superbly. Not seen any other obvious choices for L322 sized tyres from other manufacturers that make me want to fit an alternative to the Pirelli's for year round use. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322) |
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Ennoch Member Since: 26 Dec 2015 Location: Scotland Posts: 109 ![]() |
@JayGee Oh, I was referring to UHP rather than A/S or SUV Pirelli's (I'm great at going OT). The A/S Pirelli's seem to be a lot better, and I used to really like their Sottozero 3's on the Impreza, less so as RFT's on the BMW but they were still decent. Something about the compound that they use on the P-Zero's (of all versions) just doesn't seem to work in the average British condition, even when various tyre tests from the likes of Tyre Reviews and Auto Bild rave about them. Nothing in my experience comes close to the all round ability of Michelins for performance in UHP tyres, regardless of how they rate in reviews. Whether it's my driving style, vehicles or the roads I'm on most, Michelin are outstanding, Good Year are still pretty decent (got them on the Impreza currently as only the much softer side walled PS4 was available in 17", not the better PS4S), Continental reasonable (but seem to wear quicker than Michelin/GY for similar performance) and Pirelli just feel poor on damp roads while not giving much feedback when pushing on in the dry either.
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MikeyB48 Member Since: 10 Jan 2023 Location: UK Posts: 10 ![]() ![]() |
Ennoch, have you any experience with the Pirelli scorpion all season SF2 tyres? Your last point re longevity has just made me wonder how many miles I can expect to get out of them.. I’d probably be looking at well over 10k per year and spending near £800 every 10-12 months on tyres is not going to fly with the other half! |
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