Winter Driving

[Silversalmon]

As a courtesy to members would anyone care to share their tips for snow and general winter driving. I have ordered a pair of winter tyres for the rear of my IS300, automatic, what is the best combination for driving an auto re the TRC and snow buttons. I'm sure this will be of great interest and timely for all is owners.

Happy Xmas to the club members from freezing Glasgow

Ed

[The Transporter]

Ideally you'd be best off with four winter tyres... If you fitted your two on the rear, then you'd get yourself moving but wouldn't benefit from the enhanced braking and steering... Stick them on the front and you'll have less drive. Get plenty of weight in the boot, a bag of grit, shovel, bits of old carpet to shove under your wheels for traction... I'm afraid that the IS with wide low profile summer tyres ain't great on ice... The "Snow" button reduces the sensitivity of the throttle for those who think that the throttle is a tap that is either closed or wide open and if your car is an auto will alter the gear change characteristics, it will start off in a higher gear than usual to try to minimise wheel spin.... In reality, it doesn't do much.

Accelerate gently, brake gently and look further than the end of you bonnet to anticipate the need to slow down and hope that the guy behind you is doing the same... My car will stay on the drive but I am fortunate that I have a Van with Winter tyres all round and a Jeep that I use for off roading so I don't mind picking up a few dents in that..

Good luck, stay safe..

[TonyGoose]

Agreed best to fit all 4 winter tyres and they're not just snow tyres but definitely help there.

I was struggling around last year in my IS200 when it snowed.

Meanwhile my brother in his 7 series BMW and his mate in a 911 Porsche were having no problems.

They drove back from Germany where they had to have winter tyres by law.

Over here the police advised against a piece of road where cars were all getting stuck on the slope.

They just carried on as if it was normal and smiled as they passed the stuck Chelsea tractors. :duh:

So, this year I've fitted some of the base model 16" wheels equipped with winter tyres.

Hopefully won't be suffering any problems this year.

Here's some info from Lexus on the subject. Lexus winter tyres

TG

[eddieblock]

well I've just had 4 winter tyres fitted today so hopefully they will make a difference. wasn't sure if it was worth it, time will tell.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

If you fit only two tyres you will probably ending up spinning the car into a ditch - don't do it. It's because one axle will get more grip than the other and you will end up with a very difficult to control car. Don't take my word for it ask the experts.

[Silversalmon]

I'm convinced i need to go for 4 winter tyres, i see i can get a pair of Yokohamas for £184, hopefully it'll stop me slithering around, also guys, what is the thinking on use or non-use of TRC, i've seen some say turn it off? Thanks

Ed

[ormi]

traction control in the snow is a waste it just keeps cutting the power till the car stalls or doesnt move switch it off...

[eddieblock]

is it worth keeping it off through the winter ?

[ormi]

i hardly use mine in the winter as it is a nightmare....good fun but a nightmare

[jay_russell]

i use mine with winter tyres, 3 years with no problems or ditches. just get your self a bit of weight in the boot, a big bag of sand or cat little and just easy driving all the way. summer timer is when you can have fun, winter time is staying alive

[djanderso]

Only tip I've got really is keep your Lexus fully fuelled - adds weight over the rear wheels and made a real difference to me for the last couple of years.

[Silversalmon]

that's a very good point, i'll put a couple of paving slabs in the boot as well, that'll empty the tank even faster than normal!

[paulos]

If it's not a totally stupid question, what is the benefit of putting 'summer' tyres back on when the cold weather has abated? Do winter tyres wear faster or increase fuel consumption in normal conditions?

[djanderso]

Softer compound, so yes, they will wear out quicker. Are they also rated for lower speeds? ?

[jay_russell]

braking distance is longer and corner holding is worse for softer rubber, also if you slam on the brakes when there is no snow or ice on the road your tyres will get hot and it melts it,s dead, flat spot, have thrown many away in my job because of this

[djanderso]

Are all-weather tyres a compromise or do they still tend to wear quickly?

[Silversalmon]

For what it's worth, i've had my winter tyres on for a week now, biggest difference i noted was they are much quieter than my Bridgestone Potenzas, they do seem sure footed in the rain, no opportinity for snow yet. I'll let you all know

[Ray de Bourbon]

I haven't fitted my winter tyres yet - but will be fitting them this weekend.. I've had them stored nicely in the garage waiting for the temps to be consistently below 10 (read somewhere they perform best below 10, and wear too quickly above it).. Also been waiting for the regular morning frost to know for sure its time to fit them..

Anyway, had them on last year, and got caught a couple of times in some heavy snowfall on the daily commute.. while other rear wheel drive cars were struggling with spinning tyres etc I had no such issues.. I will say that I found the best strategy to be to have both traction control and snow mode on, then pull off in second slowly feeding in the power.. First gear seems to put down too much torque and causes an initial wheel spin which would cause a little fishtail..

I cannot recommend the Nokian range highly enough.. Absolutely Fantastic tyres..

[Silversalmon]

Well, the snow and ice are here and the winter tyres on the rear of my Sportcross have been nothing short of outstanding, last year the car couldn't get out of the drive, this year up icy snowy roads with ease, can't recommend them enough..Ed in Glasgow

[matt-c]

This winter will be the first with the IS (only had it just over a week so far!) and never driven a RWD in snow before!

Got 4 new tyres on it (Hancooks, standard size, fitted shortly before I bought it) but thinking about winter tyres after reading a few threads of people saying the difference is night and day with and without them. Think I'd rather get a set of 4 spare wheels to put the tyres on a) so I can just jack it up and swap rims over, and 2) my current rims were all refurbed (again before I got it) and it's be a shame to spoil them in winter

Whats a good wheel/tyre size recommendation, and also what tyres (model etc) are recommended?

[J Henderson]

If you're going the spare set of wheels route, I'd recommend downsizing to 16" wheels shod with 205/55R16 for a Winter setup.

- 205/55R16 has a very similar rolling radius to 215/45R17 so speedo reading will be unaffected.

- It's one of the most popular sizes for Winter tyres so there's plenty of choice available and prices are way cheaper than 17" tyres.

- The smaller wheel and taller sidewall will provide better traction & control in poor conditions. The narrower width will also help.

Certain IS200 and 2nd-gen IS220d models came fitted with 16" wheels as standard and plenty of people dump them in favour of bigger ones, so a set of those can be bought quite cheaply. So too can the 16" alloys from an early model RX300. The RX wheels are probably the most desirable option. They're 5-spokes and look pretty damn good on an IS.

After seeing this pic, I just had to find a set for myself and did a few months ago, along with some Michelins for them to wear. :)

[ndrk]

Never had problems in winter.

I turn off TRC in city as it only pisses me off. I have spiked tires all around and boy is that fun...

I also dont see need for putting sandbag into trunk. You just keep your tank full of fuel and you´ll have constantly extra 70 kg on rear wheels.

ooh, I forgot...we have snow during 4-5 months...

[matt-c]

Thoughts on running 205/50 17" winter tyres?

Initially, I wanted to run 16's (ideally the Harrier wheels as pic'd above) but they seem to be an expensive option! Found a couple sets second hand, and the cheapest, even without tyres, are over £200! Plus tyres, plus fitting and balancing, makes them an expensive option!

I've spotted a set of standard IS 17's, in not so great condition, for a bargain £50 (no tyres) and potentially found a set of (I hope) half decent, part worn (thread looks good, says all are above 4mm) winter tyres, so with those two, and another £40ish quid for fitting and balancing, I could have an identical looking set of wheels with winter tyres for not a whole lot more than just buying the Harrier rims without tyres (I reckon total should be about £265 - still a lot of money for only a couple, maybe three, months use - but on the other hand I don't have to possibly ruin my nicely refurb'd standard rims, and should have a lot more traction, and thus safety)

So will there be much more difference between 205/55 16s and 205/50 17s, in terms of driving, grip, etc?

Tyre calculator suggests that 205/50 17's would be a good match to standard, but I'm more thinking on what's best for the snow...

[matt-c]

On a different line of thinking, what about retreads? Not remoulds, retreads;

Although the words "retread", "recap" or "remold" are often used to describe retreaded tires, there is a difference in their meaning. "Retread" is the generic term for tire reconditioning which extends the useful life of a worn tire for its original purpose by the addition of new material. "Recap" specifically refers to retreads where only the tread is replaced (not the sidewall. The term "remould" refers specifically to tires manufactured using the hot cure (mold cure process).

Retreads are signficantly cheaper than new tyres, but still more expensive than part worn. For example - http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4d01effd3f

What's got me thinking about them though is the 10mm tread depth, over part worns that are going to be 4-5mm, 6mm if you're really lucky

My wondering is how long they will last. I'd only have them on when the temp is steadily below 7-10deg and come off again when the temp is steadily above 7-10deg, so probably only 3 months (4 max) of the year. I do about 2000, maybe a little over, a year, so I'm expecting to only do 600/700 miles in that time. So I'd expect winter tyres to last YEARS (the Dunlops I was looking at had real world life results of as much as 16k - at 600 miles a year that'd be 26 years before they wore out (ok, so I know tyres won't last 26 years, but you get my point!)

So question is, £135 for 4/5mm part worn "proper" tyres, or £180 for 10mm "retread" tyres?

For comparison, brand new, cheapest I can find is £47 each (inc del) from mytyres - http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details=Ordern&cart_id=52515289.110.6010&typ=D-119446&ranzahl=4&Breite=205&Quer=50&Felge=17&weiter=0&Ang_pro_Seite=10&Transport=P&dsco=110&sowigan=Wi - so £188 for 4 brand new tyres (although the brand is completely unknown to me, so no idea if they are that good or not)

[dave1]

The trouble with part worn is that you don't know anything about them. Retreads have to conform to strict standards and are no risk option.

Incidentally, after around 5 years tyres degrade and then need replacing, so if anyone does go for the awful p/worns then check the date code on the sidewall to see how old they are.