All-Season Tyre recommendations

[chriscroft]

235/55/18 Nokian Weatherproof SUV; re-finished Amarok 18"; on a 17" big brake chassis.
Just fitted them, and the van drivers superbly, a perfect setup imo.

View attachment 51635

 

[mulacs]

If anyone is in the market for some oem fitment tyres for the original sportline alloys, I’ve just purchased these Bridgestone after a wet afternoons googling, eBay doing an extra 10% off taking the price to a slightly less painful 135£. Cheapest I could find...

All Weather Tyres new 255/45 R18 103Y Bridgestone WEATHER CONTROL A005 XL M+S | eBay

 

[Eli]

235/55/18 Nokian Weatherproof SUV; re-finished Amarok 18"; on a 17" big brake chassis.
Just fitted them, and the van drivers superbly, a perfect setup imo.

View attachment 51630 View attachment 51631 View attachment 51635

Hi Chris, have you lowered yours or is it just spacers you have done

 

[chriscroft]

Hi Chris, have you lowered yours or is it just spacers you have done

It's a Caravelle Executive (Multivan-Highline) so it comes straight from the factory with a 20mm lower suspension(Dynamic Chassis - not to be confused with DCC, which is an option) than other T6's.
So no, I haven't lowered it.
My tyres are 11mm over-sized so there is 11mm less gap all the way round, and it sits 11mm higher than it did with its OEM 235/55/17's.
I have 25mm spacers all round; but actually with the amarok wheels having a smaller ET off-set, the wheels are around 10mm further out, so 15mm spacers would be more suitable for these wheels imo.

 

[Ann3x]

I've got these tyres and theyre awesome. Identical to factory size and great performance in dry & wet. Done 3k on them now and delighted, they look hardly used atm but only long term will show on wear front.

 

[dennismo]

I'm about to move to a more standard OEM look... I'm planning to sell my 20s, and move to some Amarok 18" (thanks @T6 dork ) and I definitely want to fit all season tyres. On the advice of @chriscroft I'm pretty confident that I'm going to go slightly oversized and go for 235/55/18 (which will be much closer to OEM than my current 275/40/20) but will still fill the arches a little.

Question is - what are people currently running and loving in terms of All seasons? Having run winter tyres on my polo for about 6 years, I massively see the benefit of winter tyres, but I really can't be bothered with the 6 monthly swap... so wanting all seasons so they can just stay on the whole time.

I'm heavily leaning towards @chriscroft 's brilliant recommendation of Nokian Weatherproof SUV tyres in the above size... but wondered if anyone else had any other thoughts of options to look at?

...the other question is spacers? I've read countless threads about them, but still can't decide if to put 15mm spacers on the back or not to bother? I believe that the offset of the Amarok 18" push them a bit wider anyway?

 

[XZO]

Have a look at this, it might be of interest

 

[t0mb0]

I linked to the best review I found here:

All-season Suv Tyre Group Test

 

[dennismo]

I linked to the best review I found here:

All-season Suv Tyre Group Test

Thanks... what did you end up going with?

 

[andys]

I was considering which all-season tyres for our van and I came across this group test of all-season SUV tyres which covers most of the tyres most frequently recommended on the forum. An SUV tyre test is probably more relevant to the kind of tyres we go for as we want some reasonable grip on tracks and wet grass on campsites etc. I know some tyres (e.g. michelin cross climate agilis vs cross climate SUV) come in van-specific variants too but it's probably more representative than looking at pure car tyres. The other interesting thing is that it includes an AT tyres too (General Grabber AT3) too so we can see the kind of compromises we expect on-road for this kind of choice. It's a shame they didn't include some kind of off-road grip test too though.

My general takeaways are:

1) All-seasons really work, they get the vast majority of snow performance of a dedicated winter tyre with little penalty to the summer tyre in the dry. (Major caveat though: I can't see at what temperature these tests were done in, at e.g., 7 degrees celsius you very much expect this, would be more challenging for the all-season tyre to compare them at 25 degrees.)

2) If you pick a decent all-season SUV tyre (Michelin CrossClimates, Goodyear Vector, Vredestein Quatrac, Nokian Weatherproof) there isn't too much to pick between them in most of the tests. However, the UK price of these varies significantly, so some look rather better value than others.

3) Actual AT tyres are heavily compromised on-road, some of the tests such as wet-braking look slightly scary.

Anyway, before I forget, the actual link!

2018 Auto Bild SUV All Season Tyre Test - Tyre Reviews

I’ve driven at 30 degrees plus in my CrossClimates without issue, in fact I just forget they’re all seasons. This is in stark contrast to when I used to swap to full winters every year on my car. They were good in the the cold and snow (though not noticeably better than the all seasons in the pretty mild winters we’ve had in the last couple of years) but felt very squirmy at 10 degrees. One particularly mild spell in February the temperature reached 13 and they were bleeding deadly and would let go on wet roundabouts without the slightest warning. Since discovering the CrossClimates I’m a complete convert and just leave them on all year round, just rotating back and front every 6 months to even out wear.

 

[t0mb0]

Thanks... what did you end up going with?

I haven’t taken the plunge yet, I can’t quite bring myself to take the current bridgestones off as they have a fair amount of tread left.

 

[chriscroft]

For me its Nokian Weatherproof SUV or Michelin Agilis Climate Cross. You need to check out tyre sizes and load ratings.
My preferred size is 235/55/18, and at present this rules the Michelins out.
If 17" was still my bag may well be 235/60/17 michelinshttps://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/tyres/michelin-agilis-crossclimate
The only down side of the michelins is there very high load capacity, so they could be a bit stiff/harsh for uneven roads.

 

[andys]

If you don’t have a T32, the SUV version of the CrossClimate would be better than the Agilis version. A bit more give for a less harsh ride and slightly shorter braking distance, at the expense of slightly shorter life.

 

[XZO]

I have the CC SUV tyres and they are quiet and comfortable. And they work well on tracks and grass and I am only 2wd

 

[dennismo]

Thanks @andys ... and it looks like they do the CrossClimate SUV in 235/55/18 @chriscroft

 

[Eli]

For me its Nokian Weatherproof SUV or Michelin Agilis Climate Cross. You need to check out tyre sizes and load ratings.
My preferred size is 235/55/18, and at present this rules the Michelins out.
If 17" was still my bag may well be 235/60/17 michelinshttps://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/tyres/michelin-agilis-crossclimate
The only down side of the michelins is there very high load capacity, so they could be a bit stiff/harsh for uneven roads.

What wheels are you running now Chris?

 

[chriscroft]

Thanks @andys ... and it looks like they do the CrossClimate SUV in 235/55/18 @chriscroft

Yep, but not the michelin AGILIS cross climate in 235/55/18. The Agilis CC/Nokian WP are a bit more aggressive and open/deeper in the tread so better off-road, than the regular CC -SUV's.
Our van is parked in muddy grass fields most weekends, so the extra open tread grip is important to us.

 

[chriscroft]

What wheels are you running now Chris?

VW Amarok 18" re-finished in "Warm Smoked Chrome"

 

[andys]

Yep, but not the michelin AGILIS cross climate in 235/55/18. The Agilis CC/Nokian WP are a bit more aggressive and open/deeper in the tread so better off-road, than the regular CC -SUV's.
Our van is parked in muddy grass fields most weekends, so the extra open tread grip is important to us.

Are you sure about that? Just that the Michelin rep I spoke just before the Agilis version came out told me that it would be the opposite way round and the Agilis would be a harder wearing van tyre and the SUV version gave better grip on and off road at the expense of shorter life

 

[chriscroft]

Are you sure about that? Just that the Michelin rep I spoke just before the Agilis version came out told me that it would be the opposite way round and the Agilis would be a harder wearing van tyre and the SUV version gave better grip on and off road at the expense of shorter life

I understood that yep defiantly the CC-SUV for best summer/warmer road holding, more suited to higher performance/faster driving.
But the tread depth of a CC-SUV is hardly 7mm; and around 9.5+mm(I think) on ACC; plus the voids are quite bit wider.
Most of the tyre related element of grip off-road comes from the tread (in silty/clay soils)
The Walls are more highly reinforced/protected on the ACC, and loadings are sky high so I guess the ride could be a tad stiff.
The ACC tyres on our two commercials look pretty aggressive compared to the CC-SUV

I think all tyres are a compromise to some extent, some+, and some-, influenced by personal needs/wants I guess.
So for lots of people the CC-SUV is more suited to their needs imo, just not mine.