Snow Chains / springs

**stripey** · 25th August 2009, 10:14

I know the manual says no chain with the 250 tyres but I changed to 225 45 17. After a spring failure I now have the pro-kit fitted to my elite. Will that cause any problems with snow chains (I'm just booking a ferry and need to decide which car to take)

Thanks folk

**rushy** · 25th August 2009, 10:21

Have you considered snow socks?

**Swaite53** · 25th August 2009, 12:33

Originally Posted by rushy

Have you considered snow socks?

The AutoSock is a brilliant piece of kit. I would be worried of the chains damaging something as there is so little clearance.

**neilrj** · 25th August 2009, 13:53

Originally Posted by stripey

I know the manual says no chain with the 250 tyres but I changed to 225 45 17. After a spring failure I now have the pro-kit fitted to my elite. Will that cause any problems with snow chains (I'm just booking a ferry and need to decide which car to take)

Thanks folk

Hi stripey

I used chains on 215 tyres and clearance seemed OK with a 9mm chain, but 225 may be pushing it a bit, unless of course you can get any of the ultra-thin 6mm chains that are knocking about on Ebay occasionally. Snow socks are an idea and work well in fresh snow (like having wooly gloves in fresh snow - it sticks like the proverbial adhesive

to a blanket) but they are absolutely useless in ice and must be removed as soon as you are back on tarmac or you'll be buying more...

M&S tyres on 15" rims are a good solution and saves using chains more often than not, I only used chains twice in a 16 week season in Switzerland last year, and on both those occasions it was when the road was like glass from the ice.
With 165/15 M&S tyres I could get up snowy tracks that defeated similar cars with 225 M&S tyres, the wider tread spreads the load too much and just slip, but the 165 bite that bit better. You may be defeated even with chains when the snow is deep enough to build up against the airdam as it isn't strong enough to be a snow plough

You must practice before you go as you'll never manage in the cold, wet and dark, take marigold gloves to fit them and two bin bags to protect your sleeves.

4 x 15"steel wheels with M&S tyres are usually cheaper than just 2 215/50/17 M&S tyres - and it kept the alloys all nice in the shed

neilrj

**fikse** · 26th August 2009, 19:16

Neilrj; What you writes really interest me alot. I bought our Vectra in April, and have only limited experience on snow/ice with the car. I have 17" rims for the summertyres, and 16" alurims with 215 width M+S stud-tyres. Pretty new wintertyres, so I will probably stick with them for this upcoming winter.
But after some years with experience with different cars and tyre-sizes, I'm sure 215-tyres is a no-go for my 1.800 KG Vectra. After a visit at my local rubber-pusher they claimed that 205 tyres would be nice to my car, but 195 would be to narrow, even if they fitted the rims and was legal. The said that the car would be "wobbling" and unsafe, and absolutely not recommended. I have had other cars almost as heavy as the Vectra (like a Peugeot 505 Estate, Citroën CX Estate), and used 185 and 195 width on 15" rims, with success. Our former car, a lightweight (less than 1.200KG) Citroën Xsara Estate with 195 on 15 rims, with bad result. Changed to 185 and it was alot better, but still no good in heavy, wet snow. We drive 90% of the wintertime on wet, salted asphalt, but from time to time there is ice or wet snow, seldom dry snow.

Have you actually mounted 15" rims with 165 tyre on your Vectra C? And how is this on asphalt, in curves? Wobbly / slippery, or is it "ok"?

**neilrj** · 26th August 2009, 20:58

Originally Posted by fikse

Neilrj; What you writes really interest me alot. I bought our Vectra in April, and have only limited experience on snow/ice with the car. I have 17" rims for the summertyres, and 16" alurims with 215 width M+S stud-tyres. Pretty new wintertyres, so I will probably stick with them for this upcoming winter.
But after some years with experience with different cars and tyre-sizes, I'm sure 215-tyres is a no-go for my 1.800 KG Vectra. After a visit at my local rubber-pusher they claimed that 205 tyres would be nice to my car, but 195 would be to narrow, even if they fitted the rims and was legal. The said that the car would be "wobbling" and unsafe, and absolutely not recommended. I have had other cars almost as heavy as the Vectra (like a Peugeot 505 Estate, Citroën CX Estate), and used 185 and 195 width on 15" rims, with success. Our former car, a lightweight (less than 1.200KG) Citroën Xsara Estate with 195 on 15 rims, with bad result. Changed to 185 and it was alot better, but still no good in heavy, wet snow. We drive 90% of the wintertime on wet, salted asphalt, but from time to time there is ice or wet snow, seldom dry snow.

Have you actually mounted 15" rims with 165 tyre on your Vectra C? And how is this on asphalt, in curves? Wobbly / slippery, or is it "ok"?

Hi fikse

Oops I've made a typo the tyre size is 195 wide (195/65/15) not 165 wide sorry, but I see you mention 195 so maybe you spotted my error?

Anyway here is what I meant to say...

I have used the 195/65/15 all last winter in Switzerland and they were just fine.
The winter away included the drive from home in the UK to Switzerland (about 1000 miles) in early wet December and they performed just fine, the return was in April and in temperatures higher than recommended for M&S tyres and again no problem. Whilst away in the valley floor we encountered much rain and again no problems but I find a narrower tyres much better in the wet as it seems wide tyres behave more like 'slicks' and slip!.
Note that this tyre size is one of the sizes used by VX and I think it was fitted to the most basic cars in the Vectra range (and the rolling diameter is within 2% of the 215/50/17 tyre rim combination).
Studded tyres aren't approved in France/Switzerland so I just used M&S Mud & Snow 'winter' tyres. I think a Vectra/Signum will only be 1.8T full loaded but the load rating is the same in any case.

neilrj

**fikse** · 27th August 2009, 20:45

No, I didn't see the typo. But 195 on 15" makes alot more sense

And after a quick read in the manual this is one of the standard dimensions.
Ill go to another rubberpusher and ask about fitting 195 on my 16".

Ill guess Norway is one of few countries where it (still) is legal with studs. It's low comfort to use on asphalt, as they are quite noisy. And the only condtition they perform better is on pure ice, mainly wet ice. The only reason I use the stud tyres is that they followed the car. I've used studless the last 16 years, and with some thin quick-mounted chains in the trunk I have survived on some of Europes worst roads

The only real experience I have with the Vectra was the day I bought the car, driving over a mountain pass to get it home. A 8 hours drive that became 15 hours because of extreme amounts of wet snow on existing hard, dry ice/snow. The Vectra was a pain to drive, the ESP-lamp flashed alot, but we came home in one piece

and I'm not sure if another FWD car would be any better. We met several cars who didnt manage to stay on the road, also a 4WD BMW, with it's front completely buried in a huge pile of snow

Thanks alot for your answer, It gives me hope that it is possible to find a good solution to use the Vectra in tough conditions

I still look forward to challenge myself with the Vectra in the next winter. With 1705 KG (not 1800KG as I first wrote), autogear and ESP its a huge difference from our former Xsara with less than 1200KG, manual gear, petrolengine who aint usable with less than 3000rpm, and only ABS as safety equipment...