Used the AutoSocks today

[Rolfe]

After all that effort clearing snow, it's back.  Not as much as at Christmas, but still a significant fall.  So I thought I'd try the AutoSocks.

They took a bit more effort to fit than I'd expected, but it's not that hard.  I didn't even break a fingernail.  My main problem was that there wasn't really enough room to get at the near-side wheel in the garage, so I had to run the car out on to the snowy drive to get access to it.

I think they'd be significantly easier to fit to narrower tyres; I found getting them right over the GTi's wide tyres a bit of a fiddle.  The elastic is quite a tight stretch.  However, it was definitely doable, and although I pushed one sock a bit too far over the top at first, they tend to correct their own fit quite well once you've got to the point of running the car forward.  You strong men should have no trouble.

Just as I was finishing, a neighbour walked past and told me the main street of the village was gritted, and if I'd known that I might not have bothered, but it was worth it just to see how they worked.

Down the hill and turn on to the minor road, and the car held the road like glue.  No sign of the yellow skid-mark light coming on at all.  This was through about 2 inches of snow.  As I said, the main street was gritted, so I don't know how well the socks would have handled the hill up to the main road if it hadn't been.  However, no problem anyway, it all felt very very stable all the way to the main road.

There I stopped to take them off, though next time I think I'll go on to a layby for safety.  They were easy to get off, but by this time they were soaking, dirty and very gritty.  I threw them in the boot.

The main road was still quite snowy all the way to work, and I did wonder if I'd done the right thing taking them off, but I was doing 40 without too much trouble so the answer is probably yes.  It was when I got to work and had to drive the last section on an ungritted road I really noticed the difference.  Even though it was flat, my wheels were slipping and sliding, and the skidding indicator came on several times.  I didn't need the socks again, obviously, but the difference in handling was marked.

As it happens, we have a washing machine at work for overalls and lab coats, and I just chucked the wet, dirty, gritty socks in and ran them through.  They came out of the spin cycle only a bit damp, and dried on my office radiator by mid-afternoon.  I'd have been happy to put them on again like that, but I seriously don't fancy the job of getting them back on in their wet and gritty state.  They're folded and back in their bag now.  They're not clean as the original colour, but they don't seem damaged at all.  Of course I only drove about half a mile in them.

I don't think they're a complete substitute for winter tyres, and if this sort of winter was a regular occurrence I'd definitely get the latter - mainly for the condition of the main road, which happened a lot this winter, gritted but still a lot of snow lying, or occasionally not gritted and a little snow or ice.  That's the sort of circumstance where you don't want to crawl at less than 30 on auto-socks, but where summer tyres don't feel entirely safe.  However, as a get-you-over-a-bad-section, they're excellent.

As I said, getting them off isn't a hassle.  I'm more concerned about getting them on, in the open in a snowstorm.  The evening I nearly didn't get home (22nd December), it didn't seem that bad when I left work.  However, the further south (and into the Pentlands) I got, the worse it was, until I was crawling on fresh snow, following the tyre tracks of the cars in front.  I think foresight is needed, in that sort of situation, to realise you need to find a layby before you can't see anything any more, and get them on.  Something to kneel on is also a good idea, as you really need to kneel and it will probably be in snow.

All in all, I'm really glad I have them.  If the weather forecast is close to right, I may need them to get me home tomorrow night.

Rolfe.

[Exonian]

  No sign of the yellow skid-mark light coming on at all. 


Rolfe.

Sorry to be childish but that line made me chuckle!!!

That's a really good review though Morag, and they definately sound like a good investment.
Where I live we're lucky to get snow in the city once a year and then it's only a couple of mm but it snows a bit in the hills around and something like these could be a wise investment.
Winter tyres only work their best at very low temperatures so wouldn't be needed that much in most of Britain (I appreciate things are different for you blue skinned northern types  ) but something like the socks would come in handy to keep in the boot/garage for extreme weather conditions without having to resort to spending hundreds on a new set of tyres for a few months use, and could well prevent skid marks when your car loses it in the snow

[keelaw]

Thanks for taking the time to post a great review.

Though how about snow chains? They're pretty cheap and easier to clean I suspect.

[GolfTi]

Rolfe

Great review.

Sounds like a good emergency item to have.

Did you use the socks on just the front wheels or all four?

[Primus84]

Winter tyres only work their best at very low temperatures so wouldn't be needed that much in most of Britain (I appreciate things are different for you blue skinned northern types

Actually winter tyres work their best in temperatures of 7 degrees C and lower so they are actually very much useful to have living in Britain it's just so few people have em given the cost of an extra set of tyres, alloys or steels to put em on, somewhere to store them and the fact your insurance company will rob you 20 odd quid every time you put em on or take em off (changing the appearance of the car & other BS).

[Rolfe]

There's a comparison of the AutoSocks and actual snow chains on the web site of the company that sells both.  Summary, snow chains are more expensive, harder to fit, and clank a lot.  They may also damage your alloys.  On the other hand they are industrial-grade items, and preferred for very extreme conditions like the Alps.  Actual measured performance of the two items was broadly comparable though.

I didn't know insurance companies would make any sort of fuss about fitting winter wheels.  It probably wouldn't have occurred to me to tell them.  On the other hand, I'd be more inclined just to put winter tyres on my 17" wheels anyway - or rather, get Andrew at the garage to do it for me.

Rolfe.

[rjwojcik]

Have you checked they haven't shrunk after the wash?   

[keelaw]

Have you checked they haven't shrunk after the wash?   

surely the greater risk is losing one and ending up with an odd pair?   

[Rolfe]

Rolfe

Great review.

Sounds like a good emergency item to have.

Did you use the socks on just the front wheels or all four?

You only need them on the front (drive) wheels.

The info says put them on the drive wheels, but if you have a rear-wheel-drive car you may need two sets because the steering may be bad.  It also says that doing the front wheels only on a four-wheel-drive is fine.

They're not that cheap (just under £70 the pair for the performance-car sizes, including postage), so I wouldn't fancy buying two pairs.

I haven't seen 7^oC here for a couple of months.  We did reach the dizzy height of 5^oC for a short period one afternoon, but mostly it's been struggling to make positive figures at all.  There's absolutely no doubt that winter tyres would have been an excellent investment this year.

I don't think they make the AutoSocks redundant though.  My impression is that the AutoSocks will get you up snowy hills that winter tyres alone won't handle.

Rolfe.

[AlanD]

I didn't know insurance companies would make any sort of fuss about fitting winter wheels. 

The logic being that you have a set of good summer tyres on the monzas and a set of winter tyres on another set of wheels (i.e no monzas, unless you want to shell out on to sets of monzas) so changing the wheels is classed as "modification" which requires declaring.