Timo K wrote:

Don't go for a 245/75R16. There is no point. It just changes your gearing for the worse with no benefit.

235/85R16 all the way. Actually for a good siped winter tyre 7.50R16 would be excellent.

For winter use narrower is always better. If you want flotation in snow you need to look at +40" stuff. A narrow tyre gives you more contact pressure with the road and the tyre sticks better. A narrow tyre also cuts through sleet and slush better and gives better directional stability.

The proof is in the pudding:


Click image to enlarge

Yes, but why would you want to do that - that euro box looks Shiite !

munch90 wrote:

Not so sure about narrow is better , never seen a snowcat on narrow tyres , always got tracks giving the biggest surface area you can get !

surely the bigger area go got on any slippery better

munch90 wrote:

Not so sure about narrow is better , never seen a snowcat on narrow tyres , always got tracks giving the biggest surface area you can get !

surely the bigger area go got on any slippery better

the rally car will be on studs , so another thing altogether , if you got studs not a lot of point worry what width tyres you got

Well, if you read my post again I touched upon this as well. Flotation on snow is another thing altogether, and with tyres you need to start going really big, 37-40" and above. Then you can deflate the tyre to get low enough ground pressure to float on top of the snow. But that's not to say that you'd have excellent grip on snowy and/or icy roads.

Snowcats are also hardly a good comparison! If the OP was asking how he could more easily manage to push a snowplow up a hillside then I'd answer that tracks are best, but he's looking for a winter tyre for UK roads. Snowcats have wide shovel like tracks that give superb traction and flotation on soft snow, but how many do you see doing 50mph on motorways and such?

Studs don't change the situation. The physics is exactly the same studs or no studs. Contact pressure is the reason why 80% of your braking force is handled by the front wheels. On deceleration weight is transferred to the front, ncreasing traction on the front wheels, which means you can apply more braking force. When you take a narrower tyre you increase your ground pressure which equals more grip. And like I said, with a narrow tyre you can more easily cut through slush to get to the road underneath, giving you better traction and stability.

a13x wrote:

Specifically I'm looker at the cooper discover winter tyres in 235 or 265 fitment. Hoping to fit them to wolf or blindo wheels

Hi Alex,

I have driven around Norway / Sweden in the depth of winter on both 235/85/16 and 265/70/16, both sets were Cooper Discoverer M+S tyres, both sets brand new dot codes prior to undertaking the trip, both sets were on the car from the point of leaving the UK so did not have studs in them.

The tyre, rather than a size specifically, was recommended to me by guys from the Norwegian Land Rover forum and I have sen others out there using the same tyre.

I found no difference between the two. Both had very good grip on the snow, both had good grip on ice and would lock up at about similar level of braking force.

Personally, I think the 235s look better as they fill the arch slightly more, but for me that was the only difference between them