Question about car winter-tires (for green winters)

[Frank N. O.]

I hope I can get some answers here since the old cargame forum I used to frequent seems to be pretty much deserted so I'm hoping I can get a usable reply here.

Last night it dropped to under -6C here (-10C in another part of the country) and the forecast says this will continue for a while yet and freezing temperature will make summer-tires really hard which will heavily reduce tire-grip. Danish weater seasons aren't that reliable, we can easily have weeks of hot weather in the winter, and when spring begings we usually have a monster-blizzard so here's the question: It's been said recently on tv that under +2C summertires get really hard, but how high a temperature will winter-tires work with before I should switch back to summer tires? Otherwise I can easily be looking at having to switch tires several times a year.

There's a further issue however. My mom's Lancer was factory/dealer fitted with a Sport-package which is optional in the other markets, and the package among other things include OZ Racing alloy rims with Bridgestone Turanza ER30 195/60-15 tires. The manual however says that wintertires can only be 195/55-15 for this car, a wheelsize that calculates to being a full 2 cm smaller in diameter which means a 1cm ground clearence drop, and the sport package also included a full front/side/rear scirt package and we got a big steep curb to get over when entering our residential area, not to mention a smaller wheel would equal inccorect readings from the speedometer and odometer.

Are 195/60-15 wintertires larger than 195/60-15 summertires (195/60-15 calculates to a diamter of 61.5cm), or is it just another example that the owner's manual isn't updated or correctly translated? You see, the earlier Lancers of this generation were fitted with 195/55-15 tires so maybe the manual wasn't updated with the info of the last version that was fitted with 195/60-15 tires.

Final question: When there's only rarely snow on the roads here, and the registration certificate indicate a driving-ready weight of no less than 1302kg (2871lbs) is there really a need to switch to a narrower tire size than the std. 195/60-15?

Frank

[Fabo]

Well, I guess, you are better safe than sorry... about size, my best guess, manual is wrong. I dont know about DK, but we here have allowed tyre sizes in "technical ID" of the car, which contains infos such as VIN, serial of engine, chassis, color, owner data, allowed wheel and tyre sizes, towing equipment and so. You might want to check that.

[cotejy]

As for when to change tire, I personally wait as long as I can before putting my winter tire and I put back summer tire as soon as practicable.  I haven't seen over -10C during the last 10 days but I'm still on summer tire. I'll change them later today. Summer tire are really bad bellow freezing point and they will float on snow instead of digging on it. Winter tire will be good even in warm temperature. The main problem with winter tire during warmer days is they will melt. The thing is if you drive on winter tire at +10C or over, they wont last long. Plus, winter tire are hard on fuel. And if you have studs on them, they can damage your driveway if your not careful. For those reasons, if I were living somewhere where there is rarely snow and not a lot of icing conditions, I would stay on summer tire all year but when temperature go below 0C, I would slow down a lot. I mean seriously slowing down.

If winter condition driving training is available, it would be a good idea to take it. A one day training that can save your life. I have seen to many people stepping on the brakes when their cars start drifting. Which is a one way ticket for the ditch. 

If you buy winter tires, look carefully for the tire certified speed. There are cheep tire out there that have a certified speed of 130kph. With them, even at 100kph, you will feel like driving a tractor.

[G-man]

They have different tires for winter??    What next--cruise control? 

[Oddball]

what next.....indicators? 

[TheSoccerMom]

Aw, just do what I used to do on my old piece of junk beater-car...  things got so bad, I finally stopped by a tire place one day to ask how cheaply I got get a few tires.  I was thinking in the EXORBITANT price range of, say, maybe a few bucks each.

The man stared in shock at my shot tires and waved his greasy arm in the air, saying "J*$# C^%%, just go 'round back and take whatever you want out of our junk pile -- they're all better than what you got on there!"

So, I did...  and went back there several times, and they always gave me free trash ones from their rubbish heap....  guess they could tell a starving new pilot with no problem!

That's the same trashed car that I owned (I had recently UPgraded to it --  ) when I flew my first charter job....  when I saw the line of fancy cars parked there by the rich guy's fancy hangar, I KNEW they would NEVER even let me IN if they saw my car, so I would hide it down the road, and WALK back to their hangar.  It worked....   

Ahh...  the glamour of Aviation...  yes, yes...   

[Frank N. O.]

Ok, I've been offline a few days so I got some catching up to do.

Danish law says that wheels (tires) aren't allowed to have a bigger difference in diameter than 5% of the original type-approved size, and the 195/55-15 is only 3.1% smaller than a 195/60-15 according to my calculations, however what I wondered what if winter-tires were bigger in diameter than summer-tires despite the same specification which should indicate near idential dimensions. Now it's +10C and was barely less than that during the night and the 5-day forecast says not under +5C for the next 5x48 hours. Furthermore I bought 12kg of spaghetti and sausages and that should last me for a month of meals so I don't need to drive that far so I'll wait a tick on the winter tires. I'd rather save up for a trip abroad instead. I guess I slightly panicked after a danish racedriver showed a car on a skidpad doing a ABS evasive braking with summer and winter tires and the car on summer-tires oversteered due to locked rear wheels and spun over 250 degrees.

However Thorkild (Thorkild Thyrring, former Le Mans racer among other things) said the water-spray simulated snow on the road. First off, snow doesn't react like water on road-stripe material, secondly, Denmark has had a 24-hour standby service for roadsalt and snowplowing for decades so snow on anything resembling main roads is a very very rare occurance.

Frank