Tintop Winter Tyres

[Guest wigman_99]

Hello all,

 

I've just moved to Germany and it is now a legal requirement to fit winter tyres during the colder months.

 

I drive an Audi A3 which has 18" alloys fitted, with 205 width tyres.

 

To buy new winter tyres will cost a fortune, but I've been offered some 175 wide tyres with steel rims included for a much better price.

 

Can I alter the dimensions of my standard fitted tyres without concern or will this cause me problems?

 

Are there any tyre gurus out there who can advise please?

 

Thanks,

 

Wigman

[Guest MarkB]

Thinner the better for snow

[Al Milton]

While working with a company just outside Stuttgart for over 3 years, most of the guys there did have narrower tyres for the winter.

The only problem some of them had was storing their 'normal' wheels/tyres.

Some tyre places would store the normal ones FOC if the winter tyres were purchased from them and re-fit for free.

Using steel rims is definitely a good move with all the salt they put down in Germany, it does protect your alloys.

[ibrooks]

You can change to narrower tyres with no probs and you can increase and decrease the diameter of the wheels within reason and adjust the aspect ratio of the tyres to keep the overall rolling radius the same. Post the full details of your current wheels and the proposed ones (diameter, width of wheel and tyre, aspect ratio, and offset) and we can tell you how old and new compare.

 

Iain

[Guest sadjagboy]

This little calculator will help you check the speed you are travelling at when you fit different size tyres. Here tyre size calculator with thanks to Bravo Owners Organisation!

[Guest wigman_99]

Thanks for all the help.

 

I currently have:

 

225/40Z/R18 92W fitted to the alloys

 

I want to fit

 

195/65/R15 91T with steels for the winter.

 

Thoughts?

 

Wigman

[Peter Bell]

Using the wheel and tyre bible the difference will be only 0.4% smaller rolling circumfrence, so its pretty much identical to what you have now.

[Guest alfaGTA]

so long as the 15" steel's fit over the brakes??? 15" steels won't fit my 2010 VRS octavia apparently so worth keeping in mind perhaps.

[ibrooks]

You'll need to check the steelies will physically fit - with regards to diameter and offset.

 

You'll also need to check with your insurer about the speed rating as T is significantly lower than W and likely well below what your car is capable of.

 

In this country if I were to fit T rated tyres to my Sierra it would invalidate the insurance as it's officially capable of over 118MPH (whether it would be able to do that at 23 years old I wouldn't like to say and I've certainly never pushed it that hard). The argument is that if an accident happens due to tyre failure it might be because I've been hooning around at more than their speed rating even if I wasn't doing so at the time of the failure. No idea how they would stand on second hand tyres where the history isn't known but as per usual with insurance it's just another way for them to wriggle out of paying if it comes to it.

 

Iain

[Grim]

another point to note is the length of time the tyres are rated at that speed for:

 

All tyres are rated with a speed letter. This indicates the maximum speed that the tyre can sustain for a ten minute endurance without coming to pieces and destroying itself, your car, the car next to you and anyone else within a suitable radius at the time.

 

Read more: http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html#speed#ixzz1bFGiyKzm

[ibrooks]

Less of a concern in real terms than the insurance issue. How often do most people drive at 120ish MPH in their daily driver (although I suppose with Autobahn's at your disposal.....). Even less likely with these being specifically winter tyres and the likely conditions they will be used in.

 

Barring the insurance problem I'd happily fit T rated tyres to any car I was using as a daily driver because I know I'd never get anywhere near their limit for that use no matter what the car.

 

Iain

[Guest wigman_99]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.