Tyre snow grips

Lozzy15

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Mar 24, 2015
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Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Hi guys & gals,
With my job I often have to drive to work in bad weather conditions, mainly snow/ice. I've seen tyre grips before and wondered if anyone's used them before or has experience with them. Are they any good, do they work?
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about:
Screenshot_20191207-073742_Samsung Internet.jpg


Thanks,
Lozzy
 

Dr.Dash

Active Member
Aug 30, 2015
342
73
Midlands
I had some as an emergency measure, only used them for going up one hill covered in compacted snow. Handy for that but I wouldn't want to do any distance on them or much more than jogging pace.

If you drive regularly in snow/ice then it's time for some proper winter tyres or Michelin CrossClimates.
 
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RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,784
983
South Scotland
None of these sorts of things are for driving on, only for getting out of trouble, way back, maybe in 1980s I bought a pair of snow chains, used them a few times, but in reality the issue comes when you need to get off the road/out of a queue of traffic - which always builds up in adverse conditions, and take the chains off, then have serious trouble getting out of the side of the road and moving again.

As said, winter tyres is the only answer and maybe, if you need to get out of trouble in the back of beyond, a set of these.

Remember this, when you end up driving into severe areas in winter, grip is not your only worry, drifting snow can be a problem and even deep standing snow which will start to lift the car wheels off the road - so game over. Obviously other issues like if conditions are that severe the roads will probably be already blocked, so why try to be a hero and mess things up for emergency services as allowing them to move about is a lot more important than your need to get to work.

If you only ever need to drive on snow conditions where the snow ploughs and gritters tend to work, then winter tyres should be all you ever need, these grips would be handy on grassy soft ground though.
 

AndrewJB

Friend to SEAT UK & Cupra Racing
Aug 16, 2007
11,211
484
Maranello
Never used them, my Stage 2 MK3 Cupra managed quite well in the deep snow, as did my previous MK2 LCR.

I drove my Porsche in the snow in Austria earlier in the year and that was quite bad.

Tempted to try something like this myself!
 

Lozzy15

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Mar 24, 2015
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Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Cheers for the replies. My job is driving the gritter and ploughing roads, hence the need for me to potentially go in in such conditions. That being said I stick to main roads that are gritted and ploughed should it be that bad, was just thinking these in case I get into a spot of bother en route to the depot.

I have got a spare set of alloy's that I intend to fit with winter tyres. Any recommendations for decent brands/makes? I've had snow tyres on another car in the past but found them more dangerous than regular tyres, they were a cheap brand however. I'd rather get something that will work this time.

Cheers for the replies.
 

Oldbutswift

Active Member
Mar 23, 2016
285
91
Peoples individual opinions don't count for a lot because they don't have experience of every tyre available.
Look up the winter tyre tests.They rate each tyres performance in different conditions,so if snow traction is the most important to you then obviously go for the a tyre that comes top in that discipline.
(Price can also come into it,you might find a tyre that rates 99% as good in snow as the best one but is quite a bit cheaper,so you can pick that.)
 

black_sheep

Active Member
Mar 10, 2013
1,256
585
Peoples individual opinions don't count for a lot because they don't have experience of every tyre available.
Look up the winter tyre tests.They rate each tyres performance in different conditions,so if snow traction is the most important to you then obviously go for the a tyre that comes top in that discipline.
(Price can also come into it,you might find a tyre that rates 99% as good in snow as the best one but is quite a bit cheaper,so you can pick that.)

A good piece of advice. However, in my opinion, having driven on a number of brands, both winter and all season (Continental, Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Vredestein, Kleber, Hankook, Khumo) all winter tyres provide good levels of grip in the snow - it’s how they perform in the cold/dry or cold/wet (especially) that separates the good vs poor winter tyres. Rather than go for a tyre purely on snow performance, go for a tyre that scored well across the board.

I once purchased some Kumho tyres on the recommendation of the tyre fitter - they had large blocks of tread missing which afforded good performance on snow, but they were awful/dangerous off the snow, as there was not enough rubber in contact with the road surface.
 
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Kinetic

Active Member
Nov 18, 2017
118
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I've recently fitted Cross Climates to my FR and they've been brilliant so far in the cold and rain. Not sure how they'd perform on a Cupra with twice the power but I think they're going to be my tyre of choice from now on.
 

Legojon

I only wanted a remap
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Jul 7, 2015
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I've recently fitted Cross Climates to my FR and they've been brilliant so far in the cold and rain. Not sure how they'd perform on a Cupra with twice the power but I think they're going to be my tyre of choice from now on.

Similar, I've got them on the 1.6. And last year when it snowed, I drove into work listening to the radio, parked up in my usual space. When I got out, the car park was empty of cars but packed with people talking and starring at me. As I wondered what I'd done wrong, I noticed all the cars abandoned at various stages up the road and not one had even made it to the car park entrance. But ye, not sure how they would fare on the Cupra.
 
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RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,784
983
South Scotland
I cannot join in on this conversation since I guess most of the stuff we get here up North is not even available in the South ;)

Oh I think that people living South of you are indeed buying "frozen North" snow tyres instead of winter tyres, the power of the internet allows that to happen!
 

RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,784
983
South Scotland
One thing about what winter tyres to buy with a car like the Leon Cupra is, stick with winter options for performance tyres, like Michelin sell Alpins, but they also sell Pilot Alpins for higher powered cars. Also most people choosing to buy and fit winter tyres/wheels, do not try to be heros/idiots in winter, so live within the safety envelope these winter tyres provide.

I have Michelin Pilot Alpins on my Audi S4 and work okay and last for ever, though so have normal Michelin Alpins on my wife's previous and current Polo 1.2TSI 110PS.
 

RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,784
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South Scotland
Cheers for the replies. My job is driving the gritter and ploughing roads, hence the need for me to potentially go in in such conditions. That being said I stick to main roads that are gritted and ploughed should it be that bad, was just thinking these in case I get into a spot of bother en route to the depot.

I have got a spare set of alloy's that I intend to fit with winter tyres. Any recommendations for decent brands/makes? I've had snow tyres on another car in the past but found them more dangerous than regular tyres, they were a cheap brand however. I'd rather get something that will work this time.

Cheers for the replies.

Ah, right!

My daughter bought a set of Goodyear Ultra Grip Gen1 for her Cupra, but as said earlier, check what the current winter tyre test tables say about this, bearing in mind that your car does not need high performance versions of the "best buy" tyres. Auto Express tend to have the results of a winter tyre test, and looking up sites like www.mytyres.co.uk should lead you to a test table I'd think.
 

Invertigo

Active Member
Nov 19, 2019
169
77
No point using something like CrossClimates if you have a spare set of wheels, best off going for a full fat winter tyre as you'll be removing them when it warms up.
In terms of tyres, heard good things about Michelin Pilot Alpin and Continental Winter Contact
 

The Daily Meme

Insta: @thatredcupra
Jan 3, 2018
912
466
Cambridge
One thing about what winter tyres to buy with a car like the Leon Cupra is, stick with winter options for performance tyres, like Michelin sell Alpins, but they also sell Pilot Alpins for higher powered cars. Also most people choosing to buy and fit winter tyres/wheels, do not try to be heros/idiots in winter, so live within the safety envelope these winter tyres provide.

I have Michelin Pilot Alpins on my Audi S4 and work okay and last for ever, though so have normal Michelin Alpins on my wife's previous and current Polo 1.2TSI 110PS.
My boss is great, we were having the winter tyre debate the other day. He says "if the weather is bad enough for you to need winter tyres, just work from home"

Some people don't have the ability to work from home but luckily I do, which will save me a few quid on a second set of tyres. I can walk to the shops from where I live so wouldn't need the car for any everyday activity that can't wait till after the snow clears.
 
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RUM4MO

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Jun 4, 2008
7,784
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South Scotland
I seem to remember many years ago, when some employers were not quite as bothered/aware of the problems that some winter weather could bring, and we would see the snow building up on a wall (mainly closed off area of operations unit due to the work we did), and nothing was being said by management, then anyone listening to the radio could of all the big local firms sending people home early and we could hear that the local buses were being withdrawn from service - but still we would lose time/money if we thought it was "time to go" - still the roads were a lot quieter when we finally got the nod to leave, even although most of the roads were probably not ploughed and gritted as that costs money! Then we moved onto flexi time - as long as work load allowed it, we could disappear but would need to make the time up later, fair enough, and there was a generous set of conditions that allowed you to fight through snow/ice and stay for maybe 3 hours and get credited with core hours - so as you might expect, most if not all the people that lived locally and who were not involved with needing to travel "out of town" caught onto this scam and came in for 3 hours all dressed up to spend most of the rest of the day partying and getting paid. Ah well, as my company (under one of its many owners) said, "we employ you to work locally - it is up to you where you chose to live" - which is fair enough, but when really local house prices do not work out very well on average wages, where did they think their employees lived? Funny old world.
 

Titchy

Active Member
Jun 10, 2017
520
208
Buckinghamshire
I have vredestein wintrac pros on my ST. Anything under 10°C you can tell an immediate difference in the level of grip compared to my summers PS4s. Its costs a bit to do it but once youve invested your sorted.

I have used 'Snow socks' in the past to get me home but they are destroyed once you get onto the main roads. Got for an emergency though.
 

Carbonara

Active Member
Aug 19, 2018
81
21
No point using something like CrossClimates if you have a spare set of wheels, best off going for a full fat winter tyre as you'll be removing them when it warms up.
In terms of tyres, heard good things about Michelin Pilot Alpin and Continental Winter Contact

Mostly agree, but don't forget that all-seasons can give you a longer operational window. I've got them on my Cupra and would pick another car if there's any settling snow - mainly because I'm precious about my carbon splitter. It also means they're a bit less squirmy on the warmer days. Some all-seasons are very winter biased whereas others aren't. Depends where you're happy for the compromise to kick in.

There's no doubt though that for winter conditions a full winter is best, but we do get plenty of days where you drive below the nominal 7deg C "crossover" (which might stretch a little higher with some all-seasons).
 

The Daily Meme

Insta: @thatredcupra
Jan 3, 2018
912
466
Cambridge
I seem to remember many years ago, when some employers were not quite as bothered/aware of the problems that some winter weather could bring, and we would see the snow building up on a wall (mainly closed off area of operations unit due to the work we did), and nothing was being said by management, then anyone listening to the radio could of all the big local firms sending people home early and we could hear that the local buses were being withdrawn from service - but still we would lose time/money if we thought it was "time to go" - still the roads were a lot quieter when we finally got the nod to leave, even although most of the roads were probably not ploughed and gritted as that costs money! Then we moved onto flexi time - as long as work load allowed it, we could disappear but would need to make the time up later, fair enough, and there was a generous set of conditions that allowed you to fight through snow/ice and stay for maybe 3 hours and get credited with core hours - so as you might expect, most if not all the people that lived locally and who were not involved with needing to travel "out of town" caught onto this scam and came in for 3 hours all dressed up to spend most of the rest of the day partying and getting paid. Ah well, as my company (under one of its many owners) said, "we employ you to work locally - it is up to you where you chose to live" - which is fair enough, but when really local house prices do not work out very well on average wages, where did they think their employees lived? Funny old world.
Previously I worked for a company similar to this.
On days of bad weather, some people simply couldn’t make it in. I cycled because I only lived about 6 miles away. But anyone tha didn’t make it in before management decided to close the site, didn’t get paid for the day. Anyone that did make it in, but clocked off at 12:00 some days earlier got paid for the whole day.
 
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