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Today's surprise.

I would say that our cars are 'challenging' in the snow on summer tyres. Had a real white knuckle ride into work yesterday with the car fishtailing down a country road doing 25mph in third gear and the inevitable white van up my backside. The slightest touch of the throttle would lose rear traction. I've decided that I'm going to put winter tyres on my stock wheels during summer when they're cheap, then swap them in each winter. Any tips for a good winter tyre in stock size?

Yesterday afternoon/evening I was driving back to Telford from Oxfordshire for the weekend. M5 traffic as usual so I ditched it and went through Kidderminster up the A449 & A442. It took 3 hours to get from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth as we had to get round a few stuck BMWs and a stricken Lorry. There were a few time I thought I'd end up stuck as it was very difficult to get moving again in the stoooop-start-stooooop traffic! I actually found it better and easier to get going with traction control fully off. It seemed to interfere too much and hinder things, not help?! Also decidedly to have some low speed fun on the twisty bits of our estate... and ended up perpendicular to the road and stalled 😳 15 point turn saw me to my driveway with some emabarrassment 😂😂😂 Anyone else having any Snowy moments/adventures?

So here's the story. Having driven over to Humberside today for a family funeral there was a very heavy snow fall while we were in the pub afterwards and before I set off back to Lancs. No problem I thought, I swapped on my winter rims/tyres a few weeks ago so happy days. However, I was in the countryside, it was hilly and the roads hadn't been gritted. There was between 1 and 2 inches of snow on some of the B roads. Got to the bottom of one hill only to find 3 cars had slid into each other (or I think a couple had slid down the hill backwards) and there was no way I was going to get past them any time soon. I turned around and headed back up the hill only to find that even with the winter tyres (Yokohama winter drives) I could barely manage it (standing start didn't help) slid all over the show, including backwards at times. After half an hour I managed the few hundred yards to the top and a better road, but nearly didn't (and only did it in the end by wedging myself in the side gully where there was less snow/more grip). So my question is, rare as this situation is, it has made me realise that I shouldn't rely on winter tyres alone. So if ever I'm in a similar pickle I figure that a set of snow chains or socks in the boot would be a real life saver. Problem is I have no experience of either, has anyone used them for our cars and what would be recommended for an occasional use every few years, chains or socks (on OEM size 17" wheels)?