Best Cold Weather Grip? 2WD On Winter Tyres Or 4WD On Summer Tyres?

[limecc]

Ever since buying a four wheel drive tow car I have been impressed with the extra grip and traction towing, especially on wet grass inclines or muddy conditions where others get hopelessly stuck. Solo in deep snow it's been almost impossible to stop, only being let down by lack of ground clearance (I was once 'beached' on compacted snow). On the subject of beaching it also goes well on soft sand. I have become convinced that the benefits of 4WD outweigh the slight penalty in fuel consumption and will never go back to 2WD.

Anyway, I was extolling all these virtues to a work colleague but he insists that in snow and ice, his 5 series BMW on winter tyres has far superior grip to any 4WD vehicle, including Range Rovers etc, that do not have winter tyres. I was incredulous about that for several months now, however I finally did some research and came up with the following:

Winter tyres make a MASSIVE difference. All season tyres perform to 85% of a summer tyre and 85% of a winter tyre. However the Michelin Cross Climate is used all year round and is supposed to offer 99% summer and 100% winter and has the certification. It's also cheap! Last price I paid for a Uniroyal Rainsport for mrs limecc's racing Toyota was £105 a corner but these Michelin's are only £75 fitted if I go 10mm wider 205/55 instead of 195/55. http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Is ... nd-out.htm

Take a look at the ski slope drag race, from left to right we have Michelin Primacy 3, Michelin Cross Climate, Goodyear Vector 4Seasons, Continental TS850.


Up the ski slope the AWD Kuga managed only 13m while the FWD Kuga went nearly to the top 110m. My BMW buddy is absolutely correct.

[limecc]

Has anyone got any experience of winter tyres?