Today's winter preparations ;)

CiniO

First of all I fitted my winter tyres. Nokian W which I purchased two years ago, and used them for last two winter seasons (approx 15k kms each winter season), but they still have about half thread left (about 4 up to 5 mm).
Found a place in Castlebar where I paid €50 for putting them on rims, balancing all 4 and installing new valves.





Additionally I purchased a set of snow chains in Lidl for €29.99.
I didn't try to install them yet, but it's definitely something you want to try in front of your house, before you will be doing it in middle of nowhere in bad winter conditions - just to have some idea how to do it.
They are not hi-spec winter chains, but for that price they look pretty ok and robust enough. Just perfect to keep in your boot and fit them in emergency if you get stock in snow or ice.

CiniO

CiniO wrote: »

................
Found a place in Castlebar where I paid €50 for putting them on rims, balancing all 4 and installing new valves.................

:eek: €50, you were robbed :pac:

CiniO

RoverJames wrote: »

:eek: €50, you were robbed :pac:

Absolutely ripped-off

barura

Looks pretty snazzy! And now I get how snow chains get fitted onto a car! Nice one!

MidlandsM

All you need now is some snow!

eth0

After all this there will be no snow.

Didn't know Nokia did tyres, know they started off with paper mills but never knew about the tyres

Compton

i've said it before, and i'll say it again, its not going to snow!!

Cill Dara Abu

eth0 wrote: »

After all this there will be no snow.

Didn't know Nokia did tyres, know they started off with paper mills but never knew about the tyres

Nokian

Mr Benevolent

Yup, not gonna snow. Some indications of a bit of white stuff in January, but that's it.

CiniO

shblob wrote: »

i've said it before, and i'll say it again, its not going to snow!!

It's definitely going to snow in where I'll be spending a winter

Cill Dara Abu

CiniO wrote: »

It's definitely going to snow in where I'll be spending a winter

Castlebar? :P

CiniO

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

Castlebar? :P

Believe it or not but it works.
So far I can't really remember temperature going below 9 degrees yet.
Today after I got tyres and chains, my outside thermometer shows 3 degress

Fishtits

My experience over the last two winters is that traction is not a problem, ground clearance is.

BMW 525i with a weighted boot - no drama

Golf TDi, friggin snow plough! shovel needed for progress.

CiniO

Fishtits wrote: »

My experience over the last two winters is that traction is not a problem, ground clearance is.

BMW 525i with a weighted boot - no drama

Golf TDi, friggin snow plough! shovel needed for progress.

:eek::eek::eek:

How deep was the snow in your place?
I've been driving in some really bad winter conditions and never remember that ground clearance was a problem.
Of course sometimes you might touch a snow surface with your underbody, but it's soft and doesn't cause any problems with traction.

Hal1

There will be no snow below 1500ft. The odd flurry of wintery precip but no accumulations. I can't blaim you for being prepared though and hopefully you won't need them.

eth0

Hal1 wrote: »

There will be no snow below 1500ft. The odd flurry of wintery precip but no accumulations. I can't blaim you for being prepared though and hopefully you won't need them.

A shame there won't be 1500ft worth of snow. Cant' wait for the 2012 snowpocolypse

unkel

The last two winters were Hibernian flukes

This winter it's hotter in Valentia (Cork) than Valencia (Spain)

CiniO

Hal1 wrote: »

I can't blaim you for being prepared though and hopefully you won't need them.

As I said I'll definitely need them, as there is going to be plenty of snow in the place where I'll spend a winter

tossy

Good stuff CiniO,thank god you are going to be travelling to a place where it snows,imagine how embarrassed i am going to feel come march when it still hasn't snowed,silly me fitting my WINTER tyres!

Blazer

ordered mine this morning and will fit this week.
Paid out about €850 but since my car is rwd I'm not prepared to take the risk of not having winters and hopping it off a kerb etc...
even if it doesn't snow temps are still going to drop and I like the added security of winter tyres. Plus the fact I'll have them for at least 3 years or so hopefully.

CiniO

tossy wrote: »

Good stuff CiniO,thank god you are going to be travelling to a place where it snows,imagine how embarrassed i am going to feel come march when it still hasn't snowed,silly me fitting my WINTER tyres!

:P
I wouldn't worry.
My weather fairy told me today that we all be making snowmans over christmas

whitesands

Howya Cinio

I got the same snowchains myself today, size 90 like yours.

Just wondering have you tried fitting them yet? I've just put mine on my spare wheel & I'm left with an extra 3 inches on the red chain :eek:

My tyres say 195/70-R15 so I assumed 195/70-15 would do me, have you any idea what the R means?!? Or maybe with the wheel on the van rather than the spare it would expand to take that slack It's a rear wheel drive so them chains would have been bloody handy

EDIT: Looked up the R, it's standard & just means rim size so I've the correct size...

Tea 1000

Nokian tyres used be the same company as Nokia years ago. Nokia split their tyre division into a seperate company, Nokian, and held the majority share value of the company until a few years back when I think Bridgestone bought up a good chunk of it.
On a seperate note, are those tyres directional and on the wrong way around?

CiniO

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Nokian tyres used be the same company as Nokia years ago. Nokia split their tyre division into a seperate company, Nokian, and held the majority share value of the company until a few years back when I think Bridgestone bought up a good chunk of it.
On a seperate note, are those tyres directional and on the wrong way around?

Those tyres are directional and on the the right way round

CiniO

whitesands wrote: »

Howya Cinio

I got the same snowchains myself today, size 90 like yours.

Just wondering have you tried fitting them yet? I've just put mine on my spare wheel & I'm left with an extra 3 inches on the red chain :eek:

My tyres say 195/70-R15 so I assumed 195/70-15 would do me, have you any idea what the R means?!? Or maybe with the wheel on the van rather than the spare it would expand to take that slack It's a rear wheel drive so them chains would have been bloody handy

Hi.
With this post you motivated me to check mine.
Actually they fit perfectly.
My tyres are 205/55 R16.
R is just a signane. Your 195/70 R15 is the same as 195/70-15 written on chains.
I actually used tyre calculator, and it show that your tyres are 22mm bigger in diameter than mine (3.5%).
So if these chains fit me, considering your tyres are bigger, there surely shouldn't be any 3 inches of extra red chain left.


I put one of mine chains and it looks like that:








PS. Ok now after pasting these pictures here I realised I installed it a bit wrong. On the left side yellow chain is going the wrong way around the loop in one place. If it was correct it would probably be the same problem as yours - red chain too loose.
Even more after mounting them you are supposed to drive for something like 50metres and then tension them even more with red chain. Obviously as there is no snow around I didn't do this step.

In that case I assume the only option is to shorten a red chain, just by omitting few loops on the place where it's mounted to the red strap.

As well I had another problem with one of the chains. One was allright, but other was not correctly manufactured (yellow chain was tangled the wrong way around the silver one. First I though actually about going to lidl and exchanging them, but it's 40km away, so I solved a problem with a screwdriver and pliers. Just had to curve out two of the straps where yellow chain is attached, plot it the correct way, attach it again and curve the straps back. Generally that was pure manufacturing error, but what can you expect from a cheap product like that.

Just make sure that your chain after taking off the box looks like the one on my picture in the beginning of the thread. That's the correct way it should look like. If it's different it means there is something wrong.

I will probably adjust the red chain for me as well.

whitesands

CiniO wrote: »

Hi.
With this post you motivated me to check mine.

haha, I was hoping that would motivate you to give them a shot

Cheers CiniO, you've put my mind at ease.

Thanks for the detailed post with pics, your pics look like my instruction manual, ie how it should be. The manual is a bit deceptive I think, it must be using a brand new tire (obviously) your pics show the wheel fitted on the car/jeep & the gap between the start of the red chain & where it goes through the locking part is much greater.
So I reckon when I try them on the wheels on the actual van they will fit like yours, I suppose the weight of the van will fill out the tyres a bit!

I will probably adjust the red chain for me as well.

My advice would be don't till you've tried driving in them for a few metres, they might be fine, I was contemplating cutting some red links off to fit my spare wheel here but from looking at your post I realise it would have been stupid.

Glad I asked here first, cheers CiniO