Tyre Types, As Scooby "Disgraced" Itself!

[Andrew Hutchings]

My 2010 Forester is fitted with 225/55 17' Yokohama tyres all round, which are coming up for replacement. Yesterday, while out and about in deepest rural Suffolk, buying a spare engine for a Daf 33 (another story!) Scooby became stuck in a very muddy field and had to be rescued by (of all things) a Land Rover pick-up. Once pulled out I explained that I thought a Subaru would have easily coped with the situation, to which the Land Rover owner explained that it's the TYRES that do the work (obvious, when you consider it) not the transmission and he suggested a set of "town and country" tyres would be better.

My question to the community in Scoobyland is this; has anyone fitted town and country tyres and are they OK for ordinary road driving? My car is delightfully smooth and quiet on roads and I don't really want to lose the quietness, but equally I don't want to be recovered by a Land Rover again!

Any thoughts?   

[Mr B]

tricky one really as hard have right tyres all year round and matched for odd scenarios .
Tyres good in mud won't be so good on road and will have more noise and worse MPG .

If your yoko's well worn that wouldn't of helped as plenty tread depth helps a lot in mud .You going have weigh up what most important to you in tyre features and make a choice. Other option is spare set of wheels for more winter and off road use, couple farmers I do work for have second set of rims for more off road type tyre for wet and wintery times .

I like nokian weatherproof as a all season tyre M+S rated, has good fuel and wet weather rating, pretty good all rounder but still likely need a tug in a real muddy field scenario .

 

[shms]

take a look at michelin cross climates too...pricey but 5* rated

[Judd]

You trade noise economy and road handling/grip to some extent when choosing a more offroad style tyre.

If your next tyre is marked M&S that means it has a certain percentage of tread 'gap' so should be a bit better in the mud, but if your Yokos were nearly worn out then not much hope no matter how good they were....note M&S has nothing to do with cold weather or winter rated tyres, winter rated have the mountain and snowflake symbol, M&S is a different standard applying mainly to tread pattern though obviously many if not most winter tyres are M&S rated too.

Just one thing though, did you switch off the Traction Control (whatever three letter acronym its known as on your model), because in heavy conditions such as snow or mud that can work against you by braking individual wheels when a bit of welly and power to the wheels might have done the trick...ask me how i know this, now i wonder who couldn't get his wife's Outback resplendent on its winter tyres up our snowed in driveway a few weeks ago when my Landcruiser romped up without a murmer?   and i wonder who shouted oaths out loud about 5 hours later when it suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't switched off VSC, which was stopping the car putting power down when needed, doh!

I have Yokohama GO15's on the Landcruiser and for that beasty they are lovely and handle surprisingly well (winter rated too, though aimed at all season), but they might be a bit industrial for a Forester, even if you can get them in size.