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Winter tyres
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:42 am
by Brooner
Got these bad boys on yesterday and just brilliant in the bad weather were having up in in Scotlandshire
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:30 am
by crispy
I have these bad boys on mine.
Have been fantastic until I ran out of ground clearance, so I have had to resort to the Disco
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:05 pm
by Brooner
yes had that problem last week went to see a freind in the sticks and bellyed the car out in the snow had to dig my way out then dig into his drive

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:36 pm
by P_G
That bad eh? We've had snow in the North East up to 8 inches in places but the RS has worked well and been fun to drive on the Vredestein Secret Santas I have.
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:03 pm
by Brooner
yes around about the same but the Goodyear i had wer crap in the snow the santa's will be better with that tread pattern my old goodyear GD3's were much better than tha asimetrics shame you can't get them any more
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:08 pm
by Brooner
as you see on th patterns below
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:16 pm
by almoRS
Brooner, where did you source them from? Local to Aberdeen? Tried to get a set last year but difficult to source.
Cheers
Al
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:42 pm
by P_G
I found the GSD3's were crap in deep snow because the treads would fill up but on compacted or slushy stuff were great. Secret Santas did well.
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:43 pm
by Iain_S4
Have been looking into this as well. As good as the RS4 is in the snow, 275 wide F1's are not helping any. Rather than have the hassle of changing tyres I'd prefer to get another set of wheels but don't want to spend heaps doing this. Have been looking at a few budget options for wheels but would still like something that looks good - like the look of the DTM style ones in the link below but nobody imports Hartmann wheels to the UK. Anybody got any good suggestions for a budget 18" winter wheel?
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247744
Of course, then I realised that I have a set of B6 18" Avus sitting in the garage that should fit OK with the approprate spacers to correct the offset. still haven't got round to selling them.
Al - for mail order try
www.tyremen.co.uk Not certain but I think Donside tyres in Alford might be a local distributor for Vredestein.
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:51 pm
by ChrisCSL
Mmmmm. I wouldn't mind some winter tires too (now I'm snowed in).
Any idea roughly how much are vredenstein or dunlop and how long you can keep them on the car when the temp goes up ie whats their temp operating window?
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:10 pm
by Brooner
Got them form 2 from camskil and 2 tyremen this size is like hens teeth. yes Donside local dealer would'nt get donside to fit them though for years i could'nt see past them great service and a good deal but last year i got the wifes front's changed and the wrench monkey left the centers on the ground a stood on them after i told him politly to fecking watch what he was doing he put them on the bench and other isnstance when i thought i had a slow puncher amazing how many fitters won't repair punchers i reluctantly went back to donside and i nearly throtteled the tyre monkey a differant one this time as he put my alloy face down on the tarmac

and i explaned that was a £450 alloy he just trashed and spoke to the manager luckly for them the alloy was cracked after that i will not use them again shame because they used to be a great little fitter
also try Kenway tyres as a wholesaler in Newcastle i spoke to said they took delivery iof heep not sure abouyt te sizes though most places are saying up to march for deliver of 225 35 19's
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:39 pm
by Nib
It's interesting how the Great British Public is waking up to the inaqequacies of summer tyres at this time of year. My local Vredestein tyre chappie claims to have fitted 60 sets of winter tyres in the last week. SWMBO is running around on a set of Quartac 3s, which were pretty darn impressive in deep snow in the Alps last week..... If only I could get a relatively cheap 2nd set of wheels I might be tempted to try winters instead of F1 Assys.....

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:50 pm
by crispy
I have been running winter tyres for several years now. It all started with being amazed at the abilty of a hire car we had for one ski-tip that was fitted with winter tyres.
I only have one set of wheels, and swap the tyres round early Dec and back mid to late march.
I think this will be the last season I get out of this set of tyres though, but I will be ordering some more come September

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 9:30 pm
by Krammer002
I've been running 'secret santas' on my RS4 and A3 3.2 Quattro for the last 6 months, the latter currently being deployed on a daily basis, and they have performed much better than expected in this current bout of white stuff; although, they don't fair that well on smooth packed ice but nether do many others...
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:35 am
by Brooner
Think i will give the Santa's a go in the spring a s i'm under welemed by the F1's not a patch on the old GSD3's