Snow Tyres

[Andy Welch]

Hi All,

I've had an 04 Rav4 D4D XT3 since July 04 (35K miles) and it's a great car. Tried it out in a bit of snow last year and was pretty impressed. But last year was mild and this year is supposed to be a good one, so I'm thinking of changing the tyres. I live in rural Aberdeenshire, where we get plenty of the white stuff.

So, a few questions.

1. What would you recommend as a good snow+ice tyre? I mean a good tyre that can cope with snow+ice rather than anything studded.

2. How much better would these be than my stock tyres? The Rav came fitted with some Toyo M+S.

3. Do I need to get a second set of wheels, or would a decent snow tyre be fine all year found?

4. Any idea of a place in the Aberdeen area that knows about tyres?

Cheers,

Andy

[BelgarumVenta]

I would say that if you got proper snow tyres then they would be very significantly better in the white stuff over your current road tyres, but just about wholly inappropriate as "normal" road tyres.

The best option would be some form hybrid, but that will mean compromises to performance/comfort in both conditions.

How about snow chains? I would guess that once on the car, you may well leave them on for a bit (unlike down here where snow arrives one day and is gone pretty much the next!)

[Andy Welch]

I would say that if you got proper snow tyres then they would be very significantly better in the white stuff over your current road tyres, but just about wholly inappropriate as "normal" road tyres.

The best option would be some form hybrid, but that will mean compromises to performance/comfort in both conditions.

How about snow chains?  I would guess that once on the car, you may well leave them on for a bit (unlike down here where snow arrives one day and is gone pretty much the next!)

←

Thanks. I have used chains before (on our old Mazda hatchback) and they are great when you need to get out of the village after a big dump. But even on fairly bad days you only need to go for a couple of miles before you reach a well gritted road and have to take them off (a right pain). So I think proper (i.e. studded) snow tyres are out (and have edited my post).

The Rav did actually cope quite well with snow last year. I tried driving it into drifts at the side of the road and had snow breaking over the roof on a few occasions, without ever getting stuck. But last year was tame and there was never more than a few yards of deep stuff to play in, so I'm still not sure how well it will cope with a bad winter. But I understand that tyres make a big difference.

Cheers,

Andy

[ulysse]

I know this will be no help, but there is a website out there in cyberland that shows you the grade of the tyres it sells. I can remember searching and coming across it. Like BelgarumVenta sais, you either get good road tyres, but bad offroad OR good off road and not too sharp on road. Road Tyres are 90% onroad/10% offroad, you may want to look at a 50% each tyre like :

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/auto_produit_4x4_AT.jsp

If you are a high milage driver and you get a lot of snow, and you can afford it, go for two sets of wheels. In the long run it will be cheaper because the off road tyres wear down quickly if used on road for a long period of time.

Andy

[Andy Welch]

I know this will be no help, but there is a website out there in cyberland that shows you the grade of the tyres it sells.  I can remember searching and coming across it.  Like BelgarumVenta sais, you either get good road tyres, but bad offroad OR good off road and not too sharp on road.  Road Tyres are 90% onroad/10% offroad, you may want to look at a 50% each tyre like :

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/auto_produit_4x4_AT.jsp

If you are a high milage driver and you get a lot of snow, and you can afford it,  go for two sets of wheels.  In the long run it will be cheaper because the off road tyres wear down quickly if used on road for a long period of time.

Andy

←

Thanks, but I'm not really after an off-road tyre. In fact going off the road is precisely what I'm trying to avoid :) Rather I want a tyre to cope with snow and ice on the road.

If I understand these things correctly (big if) the off-road tyres (or AT tyres) can cope with deep mud, rutted tracks etc better than a road tyre but aren't actually any better in the snow. For example, the 50/50 tyre that you mentioned only gets two stars for snow (worse than the Synchrone "summer" road tyre) , whereas the Alpin gets 4 stars for snow, but nothing for sand, mud, etc. So maybe that's the way to go.

Anyone know where I can pick up some cheap wheels for my Rav?

Cheers,

Andy

[ulysse]

Not wishing to advertise, but eBay normally has some on there. Just search RAV 4 for best results!

[Andy Welch]

Not wishing to advertise, but Ebay normally has some on there.  Just search RAV 4 for best results!

←

Thanks, I had checked eBay using "RAV4 Wheels" as a search, but with no joy. "RAV 4" shows up a couple of interesting options though. All Mk1, so I still need to find out if these will work on my Mk2.

Cheers,

Andy

[abzd4d]

Andy,

It might be a bit late now, but I put on General Grabber AT2's - got them at Donside Tyres in Alford @ £59 a corner.

Dropped down to 215/70's. A tiny bit more road noise, certainly "softer" that the OE tyres (Bridgestones). Handling (at my speed anyway) is not compromised.

They're a revelation in snow, no more squirming around and excellent in rain with less tendency to aquaplane in big puddles.

Definitely recommended.

Cheers,

Mike

[Andy Welch]

Mike,

Thanks, that's very useful information. Not too late at all as it happens. I picked up some cheap steel wheels (suitable for 215x70) off eBay, but have been waiting until we get at least a sniff of some snow before fitting the tyres.

My local tyre dealer (Tawse in Inverurie) recommended the Grabbers too. Although they wanted nearly £80 a wheel, so I'll check out the Alford guys. They seem to be an AT tyre rather than a dedicated cold weather tyre (i.e. fairly hard wearing rather than a soft compound), but if they can cope with deepish fresh snow (assuming that we ever get any) then that's all I want.

Cheers,

Andy

[nest]

Here is a link with a lot of information good to know about winter tyres. I found it useful, so I want to share it with you.

http://www.tirerack.com/images/pdf/ITwinter07.pdf

[Fujisan]

Here is a link with a lot of information good to know about winter tyres. I found it useful, so I want to share it with you.

http://www.tirerack.com/images/pdf/ITwinter07.pdf

Nice link, thank you!

Where did you find this thread? Way back in RAV history!

[nest]

Man, I'm so sorry! I found it in "My Documents" saved from some time before winter, found it useful and posty it. If I only remembered that it was saved from TOC!

My memory is letting me down! :crutchy: