Snow chains & winter tyres

[Redbrick]

To celebrate my weight loss (4 stone so far aiming for 8 ) I'm planning a long weekend in Kitzbuhel, Austria skiing in the new year. Plan to put a fair bit back on enjoying the Sohrenburger

Plan to leave on a Thursday evening and blitzkrieg the continent in the V70. My brother will share the driving and we will leave at some stage on the Monday. Route planner says 11 hours from Calais, should be a laugh.

Questions are:
Do I need snowchains?
Will they fit on 18's- I have 17's if not?
Will they ruin alloys?
Do I need winter tyres?
Any general advice on driving to skiing resorts?

Thanks

Andy

[adriancole]

Questions are:
Do I need snowchains?
Will they fit on 18's- I have 17's if not?
Will they ruin alloys?
Do I need winter tyres?
Any general advice on driving to skiing resorts?

Thanks

Andy

Yes you do, above a certain altitude its compulsory to have them in the car even if not fitted and no snow...

Snow chains fit on any wheel, you just buy the correct size for the tyre....CAUTION though, if your wheels really fill the arches they will be nigh on IMPOSSIBLE to fit due to clearance issues esp if you need them asap in big snow ...the chains add nearly an inch if you get the heavy duty jobs so will rub on your arches..... cold hands and snow stuck to the inside of the wheel arches as well....

fit smaller wheels ....

No they wont ruin them if you fit them correctly, just the salt will... new style chains are actually rolls of kevlar weave wrapped around the tyre....used those last year and was quite impressed...though not sure they will get you out of mud as a decent set of chains do...

WInter tyres......your call, makes life a HUGE ammount easier if there is even a hint of snow on the roads, and even slush....low profile summer tyres just spin and spin...

If you use summer tyres, you will more than likely have to use chains far more, time over effort of putting them on and off...then the chains wear and links break, have to fix them, so take some pliers with you.....usually get spare links in decent sets.....otherwise take some strong chicken wire and parachute cord....works for me...

Questions need to ask....will you be doing a lot of driving in the resort adn does the resort have snow at that time of the year on the roads...?

If yes then see if you can get some cheap winter tyres adn put them on small rims.....you wont regret it...i have two sets of wheels for my old car, winter and summer as half my family is Swiss.....winter are only crappy steels......

Some though not all the countries you will drive through require winter tyres as a legal requirement during the winter/spring months, though i have never had a prob......though if you crash and you dont it will be your fault.....


Hope that helps...

Adrian

EDIT.....saw your only going for a couple of days.....i would probably risk it for no winter tyres, use the smaller wheels, and get a really decent set of chains and have a practice at putting them on before your leave.....dont skip that bit.......

Oh and a torch is essential for putting them on in the dark if you havent done it before.....many a time late at night i have been kneeling in the road reaching around the back of the wheels clipping chains together.......hands get super dirty adn you cant use gloves as you need to feel your way invariably.....a friend holding a torch is very handy....

[adriancole]

Oh and congrats on the weight loss.....thats some loss.....how you do it exercise and not eating?

[Redbrick]

Oh and congrats on the weight loss.....thats some loss.....how you do it exercise and not eating?

Thanks for the advice and congrats

I joined Slimming World and it's been fun, I eat as much as I want of the right things and excercise for 20 mins every day. I sit in a class with thirty women every week, I'm the only bloke... ha ha. With child 3 around and my body giving up it was time for action. I was 16 stone at 16 so I quite fancy getting back there.

I did a google search for snow chains and there are loads of places doing them so that shouldn't be a problem.

Where can I source smaller steel rims? I assume I would need a smaller rolling radius?

[S60D5]

After having driven my last T5 around Switzerland I would not advise doing it on summer tyres. (Especially if you need to do a mountain pass - which in Austria is very likely).

Yes, you can fit snow chains, but then you're limited to about 20mph (trust me, thats all you want to do on chains!) and will feel a bit of a plank as everyone else with winter tyres can safely do 50 on the ice/snow and will constantly have a queue of cars behind you.

The correct winter tyre size for your V70 D5 is 205/55-16. I paid about £220 for a full set of Continental WinterContact tyres and they don't "cost" anything as when you're using them you're not wearing out your expensive summer rubber .

I use 850 T5 (Columba) alloy wheels for my winter tyres.

With the winter tyres on, life is SO much easier. I managed to park my car in a town centre carpark in a ski resort with no problems the car park had vast quantities of snow piled up everywhere and most cars were getting stuck.

Don't skimp on snow chains, last year I had a pair of £40 jobbies which were bl**dy difficult to fit (easy on the drive, but parked on a ice-covered road in -15c at night with a sheer drop 3' away is another matter!) and then promptly broke.

I paid £100 for some Rud Automatic chains (the British Army use Rud) but didn't need to use them as the winter tyres were so good.

[Redbrick]

Excellent- I've rung Protyre in Bristol and they are getting back to me- they said Continental or Vredstein(?) but they are coming back to me on Monday with price and advice.

I need a massive favour- do you have 280 or 304 front discs, mine has 280 but I was going to go to 304- standard T5 brakes but don't know if 16'' will fit if I do that. They will at the moment though- the only advantage to 280's!

A set of Columbas would look better than steelies

[S60D5]

Excellent- I've rung Protyre in Bristol and they are getting back to me- they said Continental or Vredstein(?) but they are coming back to me on Monday with price and advice.

I need a massive favour- do you have 280 or 304 front discs, mine has 280 but I was going to go to 304- standard T5 brakes but don't know if 16'' will fit if I do that. They will at the moment though- the only advantage to 280's!

A set of Columbas would look better than steelies

I got my Continentals from www.mytyres.co.uk

I have the 286mm brakes, and the Columbas clear no problems. (As do 15" steels - JUST!) If you went with the 305mm brakes (V70 T5 standard fit) you'd need prob need to get the Perfo wheels from the 70 series T5 or some other 16" wheel from the 60/70 series.

I wouldn't reccomend anything bigger than 16" where winter tyres are concerned, not only are they expensive, but the thinner they are there more effective on snow and ice they are! 205 is just about right.

Vreddys are good, I'd go for the WinTrac over the SnowTrac2 as unless you're on the ice/snow all the time, you want something that will be good on dry tarmac too. (I have mine on from Nov - March in the UK). I'd also reccomend Nokian WR's (£59 each) as they are great on dry/wet tarmac but also carry the severe service emblem (Snowflake on a mountain symbol)

Columbas actually look OK on the S60/V70! (Well, I think so!)

[S60D5]

[Al115]

This is the only annoying thing about having big (big) brakes... not being able to fit snow tyres! Must find a solution... hmmm....

[thunderace]

4 stone eh? quite an achievement - well done Andy.

i would agree about winter tyres, had a hell of a job keeping up with the local traffic in ukraine last winter, ladas running rings round me - not good! lol
could not even get up a slight rise to park the car, locals were having no such trouble. thing is i didn't realise there was a slope until then.

[adriancole]

The Columbias will fit your brakes, and they are cheaper too...seems to be quite a few sets for sale...16" would be much more practical than 17" as more and cheaper tyres and chains available for it......

You wouldnt regret it, life is so much easier on them......

I had city tyres on an old Discovery of mine and had to get used to four wheel drifts and four wheel spin when living in Switzerland going round corners up and down hills...though was quite amusing after a while....keep your speed up and i found could get up most things in this manner
..
Though cost wise....??....adds quite a lot to the cost of your trip..though you would be left with a nice set of winter tyres and wheels im sure you could hire out to various on here.....

Most chains will break eventually though, hence the spare wire and para cord and pliers...if they break straight after you put them on then your either putting them on incorrectly or your wheelspinning and driving too quick.....chains are SLOW STEADY driving, no spins....

You must tighten the chains after a little drive to ensure they are stable on the wheel.......otherwide they will break if one is slightly off....and either fling off or wrap around the driveshaft....