Lancia Motor Club

It has been snowing in the Pyrenees and some of the ski stations opened last weekend. We had our first chance to spend a day in Les Angles today - after a foot of snow last night !
Consequently this morning, the roads were quite fun for about 30 miles before you got to the station. I hate chains, I know how to fit them , but they are a pain.

Today I discovered "snow socks" ! A revelation, 2 mins to fit /remove , no cold hands, no adjusting - brilliant. They work very well too ..... and the skiing was sensational, blue-sky powder day  ;D

(I don't sell snow-socks and I am aware of some of the homologation issues, but if you can't fit chains -19" wheels - give them a try)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmJDoy73KM

So that lever to limit steering lock on the Flavia for snow chains is redundant now...other than if letting a friend double-drive on an against the clock driving test...

Hummm. I fit a spare set of wheels with winter tyres. Generally when there is a few nights of -3c forecast. If you havent tried winter tyres they are great. The gamma wears them from November to May, as does the wife's Corsa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9OkURLNO2k
best tyres on the market, use them all the time, I have ultra grip 8's on the works berlingo and on the alfa, fantastic on ice, normal summer tyres go hard at around 10deg c, winter tyres are much softer giving traction in freezing temperatures however they don't wear out quicker than summer tyres do in the summer

Living in Denmark, with a climate very much like the British, I always change to winter tyres in late October and back again to summer tyres in March. I simply have two sets of wheels. They are excellent in all types of conditions - not only in frost and snow - and indispensable on our annual drive to Norway to ski. The demonstration by Goodyear does not exaggerate, only there are many other good makes of winter tyres. Winter tyres used to be noisier than summer tyres and to wear faster, but that is not the case any longer.

We covered this subject quite comprehensively back in 2010 see http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3571.msg40561#msg40561

I bought a set of the Jeko chains which are more robust than the socks and you can drive on them when the snow is patchy, they have metal cleats that cut into the snow and ice, they are easy enough to fit although I've had no experience with them in snow as yet, Stuart Wilson also has them and did use them but with only 2 on ech wheel rather than the 6 supplied, Stuart, can perhaps update us on their performance if you've used them with all fitted.
Getting a spare set of wheels to fit winter tyres to is not an easy option for me as I've been after a set of spare Fulvia Series 1 Berlina wheels ever since I've had "Fay" but with no luck.

Brian
8227 8)

I don't worry about what the wheels are that wear winter tyres.....so long as they offer the right diameter, stud pattern and width....

Sorry, but I haven't needed to use them since I had two per driving wheel.  To be perfectly honest, I don't really see the need to use more than two per driving wheel unless the conditions are incredibly slippery.  When I used mine, the conditions were bad enough that my car started to slide when I put the handbrake on and took my foot off the brake pedal while in a slight slope and I still felt the need to only use two per wheel!