Fall - Winter Preparations

[Yorkshire Andy]

Just bought winter tyres for car, bit early but needed new ones

what did you go for? and what type of car?

found from reading about over a good few years some are great in a smaller size but naff in a larger one...

germanys ADAC give good reviews and are size specific

[Stasher]

Nickdutch, point 10, excellent, never realised you could get a red light cover. Will hunt one out, thanks

The stuff in question is "rubylith" its not an actual red light cover, its a sheet of plastic that came in the dimensions of a large 16:9 aspect ratio computer screen. Its for laptops when you are having a stargazing astronomy setup with seriously expensive cool toys and hanging out with geeky nerdy types.

The "rubylith" I purchased on ebay nice and cheap and then cut to the shape of the round plastic lens of the 99p stores LED head torch which with new batteries is quite bright.

I figured that as blue tinted light is reputed to reduce the ability of the brain to produce the hormone of sleep (melatonin) I needed not only some whitish light sources of night, but also at least one that wouldn't screw with my melatonin levels which i could use with candles before bed, and because this stuff is also used to preserve night vision (got to be rubylith as thats a pure red), I figured I could double the purpose of it.

On another note, I am still using yellow lensed spectacles ("drivewear") in the evening to block blue light from the TV screen, computer screens, my mobile phone and any artificial light to help me produce melatonin on the run up to bed time. It does seem to help me as one out of many factors, to get off to sleep nicely.

Thank yu for this

[DustyDog]

Yorkshire Andy, car is a Mondeo TDCI, bought Hankook, not sure which ones but they were approx £85 each, they are on the back at the moment but will swap them around in a few weeks. They seem ok, not to much road noise.

[Fozzie]

Just bought winter tyres for car, bit early but needed new ones

what did you go for? and what type of car?

found from reading about over a good few years some are great in a smaller size but naff in a larger one...

germanys ADAC give good reviews and are size specific

Hi, I hope you don't mind me adding my 2 cents

I've been running winter tyres for the last 4 years and had the chance to use them in deep unploughed snow to great effect.
I've been running Hankook W310 and their newer Icept versions. On ice the difference between performance summer tyres and the W310 and Icept is like night and day, or rather the difference between stopping or suddenlly becoming very reiligious at a roundabout.
When they're part worn they can slip a little when you're making good progess through tight corners/roundabouts etc when the weather's above 14c. With the Hankook winters on ice/snow, I've yet to get stuck, even while towing a Ford S-Max uphill

I would also look at Nokian WR A3 and their D3 versions, depending on your wheel size as these are arguably some of the best winter tyres you can buy. My next set will be Nokian WR-A3 which works out about £84/corner

This is based on a Forester petrol turbo with AWD @~1.5 metric ton

Fozzie
(As I'm new I'm unsure if I can post links to companies selling items, if the moderators are happy, I can post a link to where I source my tyres from)

[Yorkshire Andy]

I've used http://www.mytyres.co.UK in the past

Last two I found our local vredestine dealer and they came out cheaper than buying them and paying someone to fit them

Just watch your rear view mirror carefully as although you can happily drive and stop from x mph be aware of the sheep like driver behind you brake early and gently to allow them time to stop and not stop in your car boot


I did witness an Audi come off the road behind me in a s bend..... I had enough grip and made itvround the bend he used a coppice of trees to stop