[Arianne]

Okay, for some of us who live oop North, in Scotland or take our cars on ski-drive holidays to The Alps, here's a discovery that is a game-changer!

Pirelli have some 22" Scorpion Ice & Snow winter tyres. Okay, they ain't cheap at £300 per corner but it does mean that I can now seriously consider adding 22" rims to my car rather than use the standard 20" blades.

My problem until now has been the need to own a second set of 20" rims for the winter so I could run 22" rims in the summer. That's what I currently do with my Volvo XC60, albeit on 18" for the winter and 20" for the summer. I have a lovely rack mounted on the wall in my garage and the rims sit in it until the seasons change.

But the issue with the current approach is that, having spent £££ on the 20" optional rims for my Volvo, they sit in the garage for 5mths every year while my car looks average on its 18" winter rims. That doesn't sound like value for money in my book!

I faced the same problem with the F-Pace because nobody was producing 22" winter tyres. So I would need two sets of rims, mega-bucks and my F-Pace wouldn't look drop-dead gorgeous on her 22" rims for 5mths during the winter. What a waste of money, me thinks.

Now Pirelli have their 22" winter tyres I only need one set of rims as my dealer will swap the rubber, they do a careful job and they have told me that they see no potential issue with damage to either the rims, tyres or the more fragile tyre pressure monitoring valves. Great!

Except that this mans another £1500 approx. onto the option list for the car and then another £350 extra representing the marginal cost of the difference between the 20" and 22" winter boots which I will buy in the Summer of 2017.

Man, this delayed delivery idea of mine is proving expensive because I keep on visiting the configurator and choosing another little shiny trinket from the list!

Anyway, there you go. This might be helpful news for others who use winter tyres.

Best wishes, Arianne

PS. Don't bother suggesting All Weather tyres. Not in The Alps when I want to be anxiety free and never ever want to bother with the horrible things that are snow chains.

 

[CarlFRZ434]

A very whittey little read! And winter tyres aren't just good in snow!! Temps below 7 degrees and wet or so I understand!?

 

[StevenH]

Just joined and just got the car. 3L petrol SC with the 22's, which I had rather naively (this being 4 wheel drive and all that) imagined would be easy to set up for snow. I live South of England, so my main issue is one, possibly two, trips to Alps (usually France) and the very occasional bit of snow in the UK. Have done the journey many times in previous XF's (and before that the dreaded BMW's) always with summers, with chains needed only very occasionally - used Thule K Summits on the XF and they were brilliant, and so easy.
Like you I have been able to source the Pirelli winters (at a cost), but as an alternative (and I accept much more a get me home solution) I think there is in fact an Autosock option. I emailed Autosock in the UK and made the point that they do a version that fits a 275 40 22 and that given their adjustability (I think one size of Autosock fits 60% of cars) would that not work? They checked with head office and they have confirmed size AS699 does fit - and in fact if you put 265 40 22 into autosock.com (not autosock.co.uk) this now shows as a match.
I might still get the winters, but I don't have to now. And I think to comply with the law you are supposed to carry chains or socks even with a winter set up on 4 wheel drive, even if you are unlikely to need it, in some high alpine areas (where the B26 sign in France is shown for example).

 

[JLRnumber5]

Excellent find thanks very much.

 

[Arianne]

^ StevenH,

Thank you so, so much. I will buy the winter tyres because I have tried summer tyres in Austria for ski holidays and I hate it. The back kicks out on the hairpins when the chains were mounted in the front wheels. The F-Pace is rear wheel biased so I don't know how one could just use summer tyres and a pair of socks. But I also live in Scotland so it makes sense for me.

The socks are fab and I will buy some. The Austrian Tyrol resorts in higher places insist on you having chains / decent socks irrespective of winter tyres (although with AWD and winter tyres I have never ever needed the chains). So these socks will do the job for me.

Thank you for taking the time to share your discovery with us.

Arianne