Off to Lakes and thinking of being slightly better prepared for bad weather. Front wheel drive car, won't be using it if conditions bad, but thinking of the "getting to a gritted road" scenario if bad conditions lock in for an extended period.
Don't have winter tyres on, and car spends 99% of time parked outside house in the south.
In reply to bluebealach: Lol, but should there be a dump of snow, what would you advise? or are all the roads gritted well? I'm a tourist in these parts.
Snow socks sound the better option for what you're after. I've done around 250 miles on mine so far, and have around the same to go before they'll need replacing.
I've got a FWD hatchback, and the difference with snowsocks is amazing. Without them, the slightest bit of powder, would stop me in my tracks.
I got my snow socks for a winter trip up north last year: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.php?id=163175 The difference they made was fantastic. On the drive wheels, the only thing which came close to stopping me was 20% incline on sheet ice.
They're really goos round corners, and surprising good for stopping. The driving/cornering/braking experience is very similar to driving on gravel.
Snow socks are better for short periods of use in fresh snow. Snow chains are more suitable to snow and ice which builds up of longer periods of times such as in europe. You're going to the Lake District, not the Alaska highway. Grit wont help on anything more than light snow anyway.
In reply to Game of Conkers: Or the other ones that are like snowsocks but have little metal studs in them (michelin easy grip?) - no idea what they are like, i have snowsocks, but these seem like a possible improvement.
Proved their worth again on Saturday night, allowing me to get past a variety of numpties applying the "more gas = more speed" approach to winter driving. Some of the highlights were an Audi driver spinning repeatedly on the flat, and a Range Rover driver who had ground to a halt on a hill, with only 2-3 inches of powder!?!
Starting to wonder whether there should be an additional driving test for adverse weather driving. The nuber of drivers adopting the "full audi" spacing was just ridiculous!
