Martin, in reply please allow me to make it quiet clear:

I have never inferred that you (or any other member) should not seek knowledge or opinion from any other poster, either here on this thread or any or thread/subject.

My comment(s) are based on what you yourself asked of, and or, implied of my content on this thread. That's all. If you extrapolate that it is "rude" of me to have clarified my position, or have made a simple statement of fact that it would have been easy for anyone who had a desire to know more to have done the same excellent research as Taztastic, then so be it. You do have a right to your own conclusion.

yes it is an excellent and topical thread, well done McP on your purchase, I had an itchy trigger finger with those too

Athelstan ; I think we all know we could have done it ourselves, however, it's a forum and as such good to share ideas and stimulate debate and discussion. Through my lunch and coffee breaks today I have learned more about winter tyres than I ever imagined, brace yourself on the 14th I may just send you to sleep!!! Have a safe trip over

To add to the debate, I can see a time coming when we adopt a similiar stance to Europe, whether it be compulsory winter tyres or restricted insurance payouts if you have an accident without them, being adopted in the UK.

Personally, coming from a RWD drive auto saloon with pants long life tyres to a Freelander, this year I will see how I get on with the Pirelli M&S tyres.

Athelstan, I think we might be at cross purposes here and have got muddled, I don't think I did ask you about your input to the thread. Anyway, it's too nice a day for a row

Andy re your response from Mr Kearns:

His reply is inline with what the tyre distributors here say, and in CH they have a saying that you should only fit "Winter" tyres from O-to-O; that being Oktober to Ostern. October to Easter. What is surprising is his comments re fitting winter tyres for all year round use. I quote: "If a customer would like to run Cold weather tyres(winter) all year round, there are no dangers in doing so. In fact we prefer customers driving with Cold weather tyres throughout the whole year instead of driving with Summer tyres the whole year."

Conventional wisdom is that above 7°C the winter tyre tread wear rates increase rapidly in comparison with that of a summer tyre due to their (winter) softer material compounds. Therefore the winter tyre life is less than a summer tyre in operating temperatures above 7°C., so per mile costs more to use [danger to wallet?] Additionally, as that tread pattern degrades then the braking distance for a winter tyre will increase [danger to life?] over and above that of a summer tyre with the same distance travelled.

Perhaps now is a good time to challenge whether the technical "conventional wisdom" or the "marketing wisdom" of Mr Kearns wins the Noble Prize for Reality, after all Alfred Noble knew all about danger !

Martin wrote:

Anyway, it's too nice a day for a row

No its not - it is snowing here and rain in the valley below

To conform with local wisdom O-to-O, yesterday at 14:00hrs her Ladyship's FL2 had her winter boots put on - so Taztastic we may make it out of here next Tuesday and be in Blighty on schedule

taztastic wrote:

Therefore, the test for the Norwegians may not give the best solution for tyres needed in the UK, where we generally have wet slushy roads one minute and heavily salted dry road the next.

That's what I thought and I've put my Nokian WR GR2's on today which i think are better suited to UK winter.
I'm not even going to touch on driving skills  Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Have any of these replacements been approved by Land Rover?

They might have a different stance on this.

Just 2°C this morning at 08:30hrs CET - first time FFBH has kicked in since last winter. White on the mountains and rain in the valley. Sky full of black clouds - miserable weather. Real winter has yet to arrive, but winter tyres are reassuringly sure footed in these mixed driving conditions.

Martin wrote:

Thanks Andy, interesting stuff.

Are Scandinavian tyres more frozen surface tyres (a lot of the names suggest they are)? For example, we get a Goodyear Ultra Grip 7+ and Dunlop SP Winter Sport instead of Ice+ and Ice Sport.

taztastic wrote:

Therefore, the test for the Norwegians may not give the best solution for tyres needed in the UK, where we generally have wet slushy roads one minute and heavily salted dry road the next.

Quite agree with taztastic here I would expect that winter tyres sold in here may have a slightly different rubber composition and even tread pattern to those sold in the UK. This may also be the reason for slightly different marketing names as well.
However the winter driving conditions may be very similar to the UK during the start and end of winter. For example wet slushy to dry and also heavily salted. Most main roads in southern Norway are salted these days and driving only on these are of course quite different to the non-salted snow/ice covered ones. However the main difference as far as I can tell is the ground temperature - here it is frozen (deeply) all winter, where as in the UK it is not normally, which presumably, ultimately will alter the grip that tyre rubber will have on asphalt or snow covered terrain.

ps: a recommendation we are told is to wash the tyres after driving on salted roads. If daily driving on salted roads, then wash them occasionally. A tyre wash product is available for better results. Another piece of kit that is often carried in the boot is a spray on grip product, to be used if negotiating a particularly slippery surface. I have a can in the boot, but have never used it but have been told it is pretty good. 2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

Martin wrote:

I was actually asking AndyC for some local knowledge about what the Scandinavian tyres are for - i.e. to try and increase my understanding of the different markets.

AndyC wrote:

ps: a recommendation we are told is to wash the tyres after driving on salted roads. If daily driving on salted roads, then wash them occasionally. A tyre wash product is available for better results.

Quote:

Another piece of kit that is often carried in the boot is a spray on grip product, to be used if negotiating a particularly slippery surface. I have a can in the boot, but have never used it but have been told it is pretty good.

yes, that's available here, but I've yet to meet anyone who has it, let alone has used it  Brian

MY11 FL2 SD4 GS
Extras to same spec as XS apart from the Satnav, plus Xenons.
Ipenema Sand, Ebony.

BrianAbbott wrote:

AndyC wrote:

ps: a recommendation we are told is to wash the tyres after driving on salted roads. If daily driving on salted roads, then wash them occasionally. A tyre wash product is available for better results.

Reason why?

Quote:

Another piece of kit that is often carried in the boot is a spray on grip product, to be used if negotiating a particularly slippery surface. I have a can in the boot, but have never used it but have been told it is pretty good.

yes, that's available here, but I've yet to meet anyone who has it, let alone has used it

Clean tyres = better grip in slippery conditions.


Then you (as I) have never been in the situation when its really been needed. The spray can is as usefull as chains when needed and a darn site lot easier to use  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

VIKING wrote:

I have one set of summer tyres (18"-rims) and one set of winter SUV-tyres (16 rims). 15 or 16 rims are the best for winter-tyres. 17"-rims are usable but not optimal. 18" and 19"-rims are useless for winter-conditions.

And it take you 30 minutes to change the tyres your self.