Winter tyres saved me three times!!!!

[Borys]

Originally Posted by Howard

Did you get on your knees and scope out their 'summer tyres' before or after you had checked if you cold help anyne who may have been injured ?

I have to say , credit to you , the couple of times in my life i have witnessed a big smash , checking the debris for what tyres they were on was the last thing on my mind.

Good job.

Originally Posted by Dieselman

Only in mountain regions.

******** 75 euros fine and you go to the garage till you have Winter tires fitted....again useless comments

[renault12ts]

Borys...give it up...no tyre will save you in black ice...I don't care how often you have done this...luck saved you.

Howard was asking how you knew the other cars were on summer tyres...did you have a look while helping.

And, if using CC in these conditions you are tempting fate...you would have to have extremely quick reactions to switch if off if a wheel started sliding.

Yes...FOOLISH.

[ringway]

I've never got involved in any of the winter tyres threads, I've never even read any of them and if I'm honest I'd never heard of winter tyres before joining this forum.

However, IF one bears in mind the prevailing conditions I can't see why a good quality tyre wouldn't suffice. It's not as though my Michelin PS3's come with a warning "Not to be used in winter conditions".

Looking and thinking ahead and driving at a sensible pace for the conditions is the name of the game IMHO.

[renault12ts]

Agreed...but I don't think that applies to the op in post#1.

[Dieselman]

Originally Posted by Borys

Like usuall you don't have a clue what you are talking about...
I was going to Poland which is 1100 miles from were I am.
I'm tired of your comments .... Useless

There's always the Off button...

[Dieselman]

I would be interested to know where exactly in Germany these sub zero temperatures were as I can't find those listed in the weather reports.
Lots of heavy rain shown though.

[Apial]

Originally Posted by renault12ts

Borys...give it up...no tyre will save you in black ice...I don't care how often you have done this...luck saved you.

Save you or not, winter tyres have a higher coefficient of friction on ice, inc black ice, than standard tyres. Scientific fact. And there are plenty of videos on youtube to demonstrate this too. And if I'm wrong then please show me the video proving otherwise.

Boris, using cruise control though is really reducing your chances of survival as cruise control will do the complete opposite of what you should do when you start to lose traction ie it will accelerate.

The worst temperatures are when water is at the point of freezing and water and ice coexist, around the 0-2C range. This is when the roads are at their slipperiest. Also temperature drops at the rate of 1C for 500ft in altitude. So when you see a temperature display of only 1C on your car's display you are probably travelling literally on thin ice, especially if you are going up a small hill.

[Apial]

Originally Posted by Dieselman

I would be interested to know where exactly in Germany these sub zero temperatures were as I can't find those listed in the weather reports.
Lots of heavy rain shown though.

Winterberg 6 Day Snow Forecast & Skiing Weather for 735 m

I don't know when Boris had fun on the ice, but I have no reason to doubt him. The weather never stays the same and I see sub- zero temeperatures and snow are forecast with freezing levels down to 1600ft this week in Winterburg.

[Borys]

It was somewhere Berlin area.
Would agree using CC was risky but after first crash was off.
Happy New Year and stay safe

[Stratman]

MB CC is quite clever, as witnessed by the number of posts asking why their CC has failed since they fitted different sized tyres. When the microbrain detects anything out of the ordinary it disengages the CC faster than you can blink.

I was travelling back from Cardiff along the M4 last winter in heavy rain. I had good tyres with plenty of tread and was doing about 65 with the CC engaged. I hit a patch of standing water and the car just gave a little shimmy as the CC dropped out and the ESP kept it in a straight line. It had sorted the problem before I really knew something was amiss.

[Dieselman]

Originally Posted by Apial

Winterberg 6 Day Snow Forecast & Skiing Weather for 735 m

I don't know when Boris had fun on the ice, but I have no reason to doubt him. The weather never stays the same and I see sub- zero temeperatures and snow are forecast with freezing levels down to 1600ft this week in Winterburg.

That explains my misconception, I thought Boris was travelling across central Germany, not skiing in the upper alps.
Aren't you getting ahead of yourself in terms of timing? The weather was warmer and the trend is for it to get colder towards mid January, sub zero temperatures are not expected in low parts of Germany until 14th and 15th of the month.

Berlin - DEU Weather : FREE weather forecast for 12 days - Today Sunday 1 January 2012

The weather has been raining. You can't have rain and ice at the same time, if it's warm enough for the rain to stay as water it isn't cold enough to freeze once it hits the warmer ground.

I've no doubt that Boris was on a slippery surface, but ice is invisible due to being clear, I suspect it was possibly frost or water.

[Dieselman]

Originally Posted by Borys

Happy New Year and stay safe

And to you. Drive safely.

[Borys]

Blitz ice as explained previously

[whitenemesis]

No.3 child is in Berlin and I have spoken to her each evening leading up to and including New Years. The last 3 nights have been freezing rain, bitterly cold.

[superhandsjeff]

glad to hear that you are ok.,!
if you was driving in Sweden or Denmark with summer tyres this could of been a serious problem. driving conditions there can be highly dangerous on summer tyres. In denmark everyone i know changes to winter tyres ( i have lived there on and off for 5 years)
the issue is with foreign drivers who seldom change to winter tyres. with minus 10 temperatures ( more in northern sweden),summer tyres will be like walking on ice with only a pair of trainers...i had a jag there last winter, and learnt huge lessons.
my advice if your driving North in from November to March, leave summer tyres at home.

just to add after reading some posts and chatting to a lot of english born drivers, we really need to educate people about the importance of winter tyres. someone mentioned it above, that scientifically its proven tohelp using winter tyres. the english winters seem to be getting worse, and if temperatures drop year after year the government and highway agencey needs to help to educate drivers about such a rudimentary thing at winter time = winter tyres/