OMG SNO KAOS - pics or stories?

[Jazoli]

42 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

I remember when I had my xm it needed tyres, so I put a pair of part worn winters on the front, and looked forward to the snow! 

Wasn't any that year, the tyres wore down mega quick and I had to have a new pair the next spring... 

Never bothered since, the sensible way is a second set of wheels I guess (or own a tyre machine) but Ive got nowhere to store them

The sensible way is to fit all season tyres, the cross climates on the wife's car lasted almost 25k and provided grip in all conditions, we get a lot of snow here in Cumbria and 'summer tyres are just not worth the hassle when you can buy an alternative that will give you the best of both worlds.

[yes oui si]

I've seen -5° twice in the last week. I set off just before 6am though. 

Brought the 205 today, going to alternate it with the 306 so I can stay used to both in case of snow. I reckon the 205 would do better though. 

[warninglight]

58 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

The sensible way is to fit all season tyres, the cross climates on the wife's car lasted almost 25k and provided grip in all conditions, we get a lot of snow here in Cumbria and 'summer tyres are just not worth the hassle when you can buy an alternative that will give you the best of both worlds.

I alternate between summers and winters on my moderns. Partly to save the diamond cut alloys from deteriorating even faster than they do, and also to avoid cracking a wheel in a pothole caused by frost, or if I was to slide into something fairly slowly.

Winters go on steelies. I like steelies.

Probably less need for them this year, as I'm finding that I'm not having to commute over the fells at 7am.

[LoftyvRS]

Up until recently (pre covid etc) I was doing 30k a year commuting to and from work, I was wearing through a set of front tyres every 25-28 k, and that was Michelins, Conti's and Cheap ditch finders. I ran a set of winter tyres the last full 12m worth of driving and got 25k from them. I used Nankang Snow SV2 tyres and tbh they were fine, even in the summer, granted I don't drive it on the door handles but as a long experiment i'd have no bother running winters all year again.

[Macscrooge]

December 2010 - somewhere under the piles of snow are my Saab 9-5 and Mazda Bongo.

[2MB]

10 year ago to the day. Drove fine over snow on shit summer tyres. Don’t remember the heater being all that good though, but the evening post tower was reading -13 for a few morning on my way to work that year

[yes oui si]

Down in Ingram Valley in the £80 Fiesta I got from here... 

December 2017, 6" of snow fell in about an hour. The car danced up the hill back out the valley like a little red mountain goat, kept the boot in and slalomed around a stuck van and car. 

[Matty]

45 minutes ago, volvov70 said:

Buy a Ford with a heated windscreen, life will become so much easier 

Or do what I did. Buy a ford with a non functioning heated windscreen and negate the point...

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Tayne said:

Leaving work this evening.

 

 

Yea but that's Scotlandshire, that could just as easily have been taken in June... 

[davehedgehog31]

A light dusting in Glasgow at the minute

[loserone]

Nothing to see here, move along please

[loserone]

2 hours ago, volvov70 said:

Buy a Ford with a heated windscreen, life will become so much easier 

Or fit one to an old Peugeot, or even better buy an electric car and get the whole thing deiced before you get out of bed / work / whatever

[garbaldy]

9 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Yea but that's Scotlandshire, that could just as easily have been taken in June... 

Give yourself a shake man it's quarter to 6 and dark, June pah.

No snow here yet I wait patiently love a snowy drive.

[catsinthewelder]

A little dusting here.

[loserone]

Barely worth mentioning here

As I took the phone away from the window the heron flew up and over the bridge, the cheeky bastard.

[Flat4]

A friend posted this at 6.45am. M74 apparently at a stand still already 😕 There's hardly any snow and the chaos has started already!

[Jazoli]

People from other countries on the same lattitude laugh at us, a little bit of snow and it all grinds to a halt, everyone is driving on the cheapest 'summer' tyres which offer next to no grip in these conditions, all the Polish and Romanian people who work with me think its ridiculous, when you look around the car park almost all of them have matching sets of winter or all season tyres on their cars as they prepare for adverse conditions, its hugely annoying being stuck in a jam when you know that you have the tyres and ability to get where you need to go.

[Saabnut]

08:20 this morning:

[beko1987]

36 minutes ago, Flat4 said:

A friend posted this at 6.45am. M74 apparently at a stand still already 😕 There's hardly any snow and the chaos has started already!

Thats what makes it shit though, the small amount of snow gets polished with shit driving. 

I've driven to work early in the morning when it's snowed (as long as the m40 is clear and open I go for it) and it was fine, nice fresh snow, sensible driving, no drama. 

Coming home a few hours later (ffs Sam why did yiu come in, it's snowing outside... "it's fun" is my usual answer) and every corner and junction has had a rwd car with shit tyres polish it to glass, the one grippy snow is gone and its a grim slush fest and random stopping all thr way home. 

That's what stops me driving in the snow. I do enjoy it, and the xsara has fairly new cheap all seasons on the front so may not be too shit either. 

Infact the snow of 2010 @gnomeot had his suzuki sj I think. Now that was a fun drive! I remember him driving across the old work car park, flower beds and all because you just couldn't tell as the snow was above the kerb height

[rainagain]

Sitting on the on the M90 earlier this morning, usual story, a lorry jack knifed. Further up there was another lorry stuck going up a hill so the lorry behind him tried to get past him, guess what he also got stuck, now both lanes have lorries stuck in the, great teamwork guys. We should have the system they have in Germany where lorry firms don't have to fit winter tyres, but if they don't and they cause an obstruction in bad weather they get fined. Every time I get stuck on a motorway in winter it's because of a lorry.

 

[Supernaut]

Hmm.

I should put the winter wheels on the BMW. However they're currently 30-odd miles away and one of them has a slow puncture.

Not like I'm doing major miles at the moment either.

[Tenmil Socket]

On 12/1/2020 at 8:12 PM, willswitchengage said:

GR7 fun pushing vehicles out of the snow during a bored day at university. Yes, we successfully managed to budge this delightful Volvo B7TL which subsequently performed a rather incredible powerslide around a roundabout. INTENSE. We also discovered this was quite a lucrative endeavour - a lot people people would give their spare change in exchange for a push!

My first BX in the snow.

I love the way there's people just sat upstairs nice and warm on that bus while others are outside freezing 😄

[Tenmil Socket]

On 12/2/2020 at 7:21 AM, MJK 24 said:

Old machinery from the manufacturer we don’t like taken at jaunty angles* during a cold snap!
 

 

 

 

*They were the correct orientation on my phone!

Those wheels look tremendous on that model!

[Tenmil Socket]

Here's one from a few years back when I had my Escort Turbo.

Here it is on a warmer day.

[MJK 24]

38 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Those wheels look tremendous on that model!

They’re quite a plain looking 15” Volkswagen steel.  I agree, they do suit it well.

I have recently fitted a set of alloys:

 

 

[Coprolalia]

1 hour ago, MJK 24 said:

They’re quite a plain looking 15” Volkswagen steel.  I agree, they do suit it well.

I have recently fitted a set of alloys:

 

 

Always nice to see another Scirocco on here!

I'm running around on steels with ancient rubber, but have a set of 15" BBS RAs awaiting refurb.

[w00dy]

A couple of old photos of the brief period where I owned a Monza.

 

[stripped fred]

12 hours ago, Matty said:

Or do what I did. Buy a ford with a non functioning heated windscreen and negate the point...

Or do what I did, buy a ford with a heated windscreen that only clears the passenger side!

[cort1977]

Snow but no Kaos in Aberdeenshire today. Pleased with this because the X5 wheels and winter tyres I just fitted yesterday seem pretty good.

[warch]

21 hours ago, volvov70 said:

How is it that cars and people got everywhere before winter tyres were invented?

2 litre cortina, 4 25 kg bags of sand in the boot got me and my brother to school from the shires to Aberdeen pretty much every winter I can remember.

of course I am old

 

I think narrow tyres like wot most old cars used to have were much more effective in snow and ice. My Minii (plural term I've just invented) were righteous in snow or ice, as was my old Vauxhall Nova (iirc all three had 155 or 165 tyres). Nearly all modern cars have at least 205 tyres and usually much wider. 

The other problem is the amount of traffic about, you could drive a 4wd these days and still get stranded miles from home because someone in a queue ahead of you is sliding backwards in first gear.