Snow tyres or chains?

Hi there

Dont mean to hijack your thread but thought it would be useful information for you also.

I was just wondering if anyone knew where to hire the snow chains from in UK (preferrably Newcastle/Durham), are car hire companies the only place that hire them? We will be taking our own car. Would consider buying them like from ebay or elsewhere but as wanderer says, do you really want to spend all that time loooking for supermarket in europe. I can just see hubbys face as we start trailing round looking for supermarkets in a foreign country. Not a happy bunny would be the understatement of the year lol

Karen

karen72 wrote:Hi there

Dont mean to hijack your thread but thought it would be useful information for you also.

I was just wondering if anyone knew where to hire the snow chains from in UK (preferrably Newcastle/Durham), are car hire companies the only place that hire them? We will be taking our own car. Would consider buying them like from ebay or elsewhere but as wanderer says, do you really want to spend all that time loooking for supermarket in europe. I can just see hubbys face as we start trailing round looking for supermarkets in a foreign country. Not a happy bunny would be the understatement of the year lol

Karen

We buy our snow chains from a mail order place in Germany, http://www.aubu.de/ that's the cheapest for the chains that our cars require, mine has a little power so supermarket chains won't really do it. We're both using Pewag Sportmatik which seem to consistently score highly in tests over here. If you've anything vaguely different in terms of power or tyre profile stuff from supermarkets may not work out.

For rental, back when we lived in the UK I always thought it looked expensive but I've heard of people using http://www.roofbox.co.uk/ and http://www.snowchains.co.uk/

I purchased my chains from www.roofbox.co.uk Very sensible folks, good service :D

try your local Halfords, according to their website they do them, otherwise www.snowchains.co.uk seem to be okay - (disclaimer - no vested interest) 8)

The winter tyres they use seem fine for driving up and down mountains in snow, I have done it around Innsbruck in an small car.

Remember to check you have vingette on the windscreen to show you have paid motorway tolls, which is good for all motorways apart from one short stretch where there is a toll gate. Occasionally they check vignettes.

The one time I regretted not having snow chains was taking a Transit van I hired in East London across the Pyrennese in January. That was a mistake.

Innsbrucker wrote

The winter tyres they use seem fine for driving up and down mountains in snow, I have done it around Innsbruck in an small car.

I wonder does he stick to blue pistes or does he drive on the red and blacks as well :roll: :roll: :roll:

Hi! I have Austrian friends who train in Obergurgl - they don't drive that road without snowchains in their boot. So take a tip from the locals - go prepared! Be safe and have loads of fun!

This may be of interest to some:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/popular-topics/driver_info/winter/winter_safety_brochure.pdf obviously the legal bits won't apply to the Alps :wink:

Jan