Winter Tyres for all year use.
 

Really sorry if this subject has already been covered but does anyone run Winter Tyres all year round? I've read various articles & I'm seriously thinking of buying a set to replace my run flats which will soon need to be replaced anyway.

^^ You drive in a lot of snow?

Think about the rubber compound, not just the tread pattern.

A winter tire generally has a softer rubber compound that retains traction in the cold, but wears rapidly above a 7c ambient.

Not much snow, but seeing video's & text saying winter tyres preform equally as well in the wet as summer tyres, obviously a great deal better in the snow/ice/slush, the only down side is, a bit more road noise & a slightly worse performance in the dry.

I use all weather tires for over 5 years now and they perform very well all year round.No need to have 2 sets of tires and change them every season.

I'm pretty sure thats the way i'm going to go.

All weather, or all season, are not the same thing as a winter tire.

Yes, you're right. Sorry, not going down the all weather/all season route. Will go for winter tyres. Vredestein wintrac xtreme is my favoured choice.

You are going to absolutely destroy those tires come summer. Winter tires become butter in the warm months.

:iagree:

If it isn't too warm out, the OP will just experience very rapid wear, as you say. The danger is if it gets too warm out, and the rubber distintegrates (marbles) while driving. Much longer stopping distances result.

Yes.Just make up your mind.Different opinions on the matter.

Lots of opinions on all weather or all season tires, which are the ones you mentioned. It is up to each owner to evaluate the trade offs in using specific tires or not.

Not so for true winter tires. The dangers associated with using these in higher ambient temperatures aren't a matter of opinion but rather of engineering. Just ask the tire dealer what the tread wear rating is at higher ambient temperatures, and see what they say.

If the OP wants to run a single set of tires all year, that is fine. The appropriate tire designation for that type of use is an all season.

I have read also that what makes a winter tire perform well is going to wear faster even if the tread itself will look fine. It only has so many miles of useful life. Again, it is not just the tread depth.

The OP is in Norwich, UK, if his info is correct. See below blurb on temps. I have lived in that part of the world and would not hesitate run winters year round.


August is the hottest month in Norwich with an average temperature of 63°F (17°C) and the coldest is January at 39°F (4°C) with the most daily sunshine hours at 7 in June. The wettest month is November with an average of 67mm of rain.

If you can live with the thread wear I don't think it is a big deal in such a moderate climates to go year round. Obviously if you are going to tackle the autobahn or the NB-ring it is a different story.

The cut off point recommended by tire manufacturers is to not use winter tires when ambient temperatures are above 7 C. That is the case for 10 out of 12 months of the year in Norwich. Even overnight lows are above that for six months of the year.

On average it gets down to 4c? You don't need winter tires, period. Running them in the summer is dangerous due to sloppy performance and is also just being wasteful. Get some Continental DWS'. They are good in the dry, wet, and snow.

I have driven my Tundra thru three summers with a set of X-ice tires on it. My e53 went a summer on Dunlop M2s. The M2s wore out quicker but no other issues. The X-ice didn't seem much affected, I think I got 30 or 40k miles out of them, more than adequate. The temperatures here in MD in the summer exceed 30 C in the daytime most of the June - August period. These tires stood up to it well. At the office we had a Volvo and a Cayenne owner who didn't bother swapping their winters out for summer.

So, IMO the wear is pretty much the only issue unless you drive like a race driver. I know the cut off is 7C but in most moderate climates temperatures in the winter vary significantly. Germans are OCD about winter tires and the timely installation/removal. The German winter can present sub-zero temps but also up to 15C when it swings up. I have never seen any recommendation to remove them as soon as temperatures exceed 7C. They actually use the term "consistently above resp. below 7C" to govern the swap. They clear winter tires to 210 kph (all rentals with winters will have a sticker on the dash to inform you), a vast difference with the 75 mph max speeds in the US and the UK.

I am not arguing with your opinions or your engineering facts, this is simply what I have observed during my three years in Germany and the subsequent years in MD when I realized winters bring vast advantages in the cold months and I use winter tires every winter season.

So many opinions, which is great for feedback, but also very confusing. I have thought long & hard about which tyres to use & I'm having a set of Vredestein WINTRAC XTREME S fitted tomorrow. I don't do many miles per year, the "rapid wear" won't be an issue, these tyres have excellent noise levels & I feel they will perform only slightly worse in summer months than summer tyres, in the wet, I don't think there will be much difference & of course a lot better in winter. I've used Vredestein tyres before & they are my favoured brand. I've done the NB-ring so no need to do it again (awesome experience).