75ZT Community

Evening chaps,
I passed a couple of gritters going in the opposite direction on my way home tonight. Yes one pebble dashed my 75 and yes I had just polished it on Sunday I live on top of the Pennines and we normally get snow every year but last winter like most of the U.K. we were hammered pretty hard by it. I hate to say anything negative about the 75 but I've found it to be useless in the snow. Now with all the talk of another polar winter on TV and in the papers it's got me wondering if I should get some winter tyres. Can anyone out there recommend them or are they just a marketing gimmick? I don't want to have to ditch my motor at the side of the road again and then worry all night about other cars sliding into it!

Regards, Steven.

What size wheels do you have on the car currently.
If you have alloys with low profile tyres you could change them to some steels with narrower tyres and get a lot better grip.
They do this in Scandinavian countries so not just a marketing gimmick

snow tyres are highly recommended for light snow and ice. they work by being made of a softer rubber, therefore grip better, but unfortunatly, with you living where you are, unless you fit a 4 wheel drive conversion, i doubt tyres alone will do you much good. deep snow calls for proper winter tyres (the types found only on defenders and such) and a defender.

the only thing i could suggest is fitting spiked tyres, which will work (similar to that used by rally cars), but i have no idea where you would get a set, and i doubt they would be cheap. as a serious alternative, you could always get a set of tyres that are not far off illegal and put a couple hundred 3/4" screws in. other then that i dont know what to suggest

I have to disagree with a previous post.

Winter tyres will make a massive difference even in severe conditions.

Basic winter tyres have a much softer rubber that still grips below 7 degress when 'normal' tyres have started to harden. You can also, for extreme Ice add studs.

So which has most effect? You would think the studs. I know of a situation where winter tyres with studs were wanted, but the only winter tyres of the correct size, wouldn't take studs. So normal tyres with studs were compared with winter tyres without. The winter rubber won by a million miles.

If you are sceptical about the benefits of decent tyres in the winter, look up the world Ice speed record in a car. Only a few MPH short of the top speed of the car in dry conditions.

In a lot of Europe, it's almost a requirement. It may not be a legal requirement, but if you have a bump, and don't have winter rubber, you can expect to have your payout halved, even if you were not at fault.

Have winter Mud & Snow Toyos on the 260 at the mo and am impressed with wet weather let alone cold weather improvement

Car was good last winter in the snow, just left it in 2nd and let it do the work - got a bit dicey if I touched any of the pedals, hence the winter tyres this year

You could of course buy a set of snow chains for your wheels..
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James.uk wrote:You could of course buy a set of snow chains for your wheels..
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and what fun they are putting them on and taking them off.

Useful yes, but not for everyday use.

Stelad wrote:I hate to say anything negative about the 75 but I've found it to be useless in the snow.

Steven, I have to disagree on this issue. In my opinion the 75 is a very good car on snowy roads, as long as fitted with appropriate tires. I didn't have any problems during the heavy snow and slippery roads last winter. My 75 has got a set of good all season tires (Goodyear Vector 4 Season).

Hadn't spotted the cooment about snow performance.

I agree with Juergen. Even on normal British all year tyres, my 75 is way better than other cars I've driven. The diesel with the autobox and snowmode suited me fine last winter when it was nasty.

Tyres really make the difference though. If I was using the 75 regularly now, I'd be putting winter tyres on having experienced the improvement, and now they are available in the UK. Unfortunately my daily drive is not mine, and I have to live with the tyres it comes with. So maybe the issues expressed in the first post are purely down to the tyres?

Worst car I ever drove in snow was a 620ti with Dunlop standard tyres. Completely undriveable.

Not used the chrome wheels in the icey of snowey weather yet, may put the crowns on for the winter.

Just done the school run this morning...7 miles each way on pack ice and snow.

Happily I have brand new Avon ZZ3s on the 190. That and the traction control make it the best car I have ever driven in snowy / icy conditions. Steady and slow and she is an absolute joy to drive in those conditions...

Luckily we very rarely get snow here, once every 10 yrs or so

Fitted my 15" winter wheels and tyres on the Tourer the other day just in time for the bad weather.

Loads better in the snow than the 18" normal tyres, will be keeping them on until the ave. temperature is above 8 degrees again usually sometime in March.

Snow and M&S tyres have always been available but not popular, generally they're fairly cheap too and you offset the cost against your normal sets tyre wear because they last 1/3 longer.

Russ

Thanks for all the advice chaps. At the moment I'm running on 17" Continental sport contact 3's. Can't complain about their performance in the wet or dry and they are very quiet too, much better than the Bridgestones I had on before them. The Bridgestones however were far better in the snow.
Thanks Zeb and Jürgen for the recommendations I'll definitely check those out.

Regards, Steven.