New cars and tyres

[Spectrum]

If you are unable to use the jack and lift the wheel then may I suggest that you join the French equivariant of the AA/RAC/Green Flag if there is such a thing. An extending wrench is all you need to tighten your nuts up tightly

[Headers]

We have breakdown cover at 0 kilometres on our vehicle insurance but I’m not sure if you can use that for exchanging tyres winter to summer.
We’ve used it maybe 4 times in 20 years for flat batteries, flat tyres.

[curtis]

Neighbours/friends?

[Loup-garou]

Agree with RA @ 4 Feb - AND you are lucky if your wheels have studs to locate onto rather than bolt holes to find for the first wheel bolt.

[hughnique]

Just a comment on the use of LeBonCoin, firstly it is populated by a host of time wasters, putting collection only from, has not the slightest influence on them, I have about 40 adverts on there at the moment, the first thing is to check the proposed interested parties profile to find out where they live. I have a large workbench and three vices for sale on there at the moment, interested lives in Marseille, I live in Saumur, absolutely miles away. Yesterday a Henry vacuum cleaner got paid for before I knew it, luckily I managed to find a box, and it was only a matter of running up the local relais point so that wasn't too bad.
Then you have the disponible merchants, make an enquiry, "is it still available", you tell them yes and that's the last you hear from them.
Lastly, a certain percentage on there are thieves, I sold an air pump for a pond last summer to a reasonably local man, who also expressed an interest in the Koi carp I was trying to sell, two nights later half of them, all the quality ones disappeared, loss to me of hundreds of euros, so be alert if anyone comes around, tell them that in order to come on your property you are legally obliged to inform them that you have video surveillance in place, with very hard to spot cameras.
Apart from that I would get the winter tyres fitted, I take it you can run on them all year round?

[exile]

Yes you can run on winter tyres all year BUT they have poor performance in higher temperatures. When we had just one 4x4 we left it on winter tyres all year round but I would not dream of using the same in summer on main highways let alone a motorway. The longest summer journey it did was the 500m to and from the collective rubbish and recycling bins.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hughnique, winter tires vs. all-season tires. And if I had to summarise the tyre tests of the past 15 years in a nutshell: at higher temperatures, regular summer tires clearly perform better than all-season types: shorter braking distances, also on wet roads.

From a 2025 all-season test:

About these tests.
Where and when did we conduct our tests? We tested the tyre's performance on dry road surfaces in Italy in July 2024, with outside temperatures of 30°C (and asphalt temperatures of 50°C). We tested the tyre's performance on wet road surfaces in Germany in September 2024, with temperatures between 10°C and 20°C. Winter road surfaces were tested in Finnish Lapland in December 2024 with temperatures between -5°C and -20°C. Wear tests will then take place in February and March 2025, in convoy on public roads.

Overall conclusion.
Significant differences between tires. We have observed that not every all-season tyre is able to perform well in all conditions. Of the 16 tires tested, 4 scored well and another 4 scored satisfactorily. We can recommend these tires. There were also 4 tires that scored poorly (and which we do not recommend) and 4 tires that scored very poorly (and which we advise against). In our test this year and also last year, we see that it is mainly the expensive premium brands that succeed in developing an all-season tyre that is safe in all conditions.

[Hotrodder]

I have a very cynical view about tyres. The tyre manufacturers have to justify a range of prices for their products, all of which come from the same factory using the same machinery and manufacturing methods. The only variable will be the compound used and the tread pattern. If I was driving a Lambo or Ferrari at 150mph or more (where the hell can I do that?) I would be happier driving on very expensive premium tyres that are correctly speed rated. At the top of the range they benefit from higher standards of quality control that contribute to safety. The standards were developed from racing experience. I once owned a car with factory standard tyres completely unsuitable for the car's potential. At 70mph if I floored it on a dry road it instantly went sideways from loss of traction. I learned to rein in the application of throttle. A short while later I fitted a set of Firestone "Indy" racing tyres. Lighter construction to maximise heat dissipation, lower aspect ratio, and roughly three times the tread width. They were specified as "intermediate" tread pattern which I assumed would serve well on both dry and wet days as a good compromise. In the dry they were just as slippery as the originals until they got really hot and then they stuck like glue. In the wet, they were still totally useless, probably due to aquaplaning even though they had a deep and wide tread pattern.

The answer was to simply moderate my enthusiasm until my skills measured up to the performance potential of the car. In the decades since then I have been buying the cheapest tyres available, on a few occasions even remoulds when I was skint. No blowouts, no punctures or other issues. My opinion is that how you use them is the critical factor, not how much you spend on them.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, I drove diesel cars for decades, until 2012 to be precise. That teaches you to drive calmly. And now, according to my sons, I drive petrol cars as if there were a wooden block under my accelerator pedal. Take my old Mercedes 220 D, for example: 60 hp with a weight of 1380 kg (empty).

For me it's important that the tyres perform well at any temperature, from start to finish. Warming up the tyres a little because you're driving 11 kilometres to a supermarket on small roads in the woods? Forget it. I know that the margins in the tyre industry are substantial, and I know from experience that comparative consumer tests can sometimes be wrong. But in this case, I have complete confidence in the almost scientific, and expensive, road tests carried out by large organisations, such as the ADAC in Germany. Often conducted in collaboration with sister organisations in other EU countries.

I think we have a slight difference of opinion on this matter.

[beejay]

Agree with RA @ 4 Feb - AND you are lucky if your wheels have studs to locate onto rather than bolt holes to find for the first wheel bolt.

No weight lifting method.
Wheel hanger bars with a thread to match the wheel lug thread are available. Stand the wheel alongside the hub and lower jack slowly to align a bolt hole in the uppermost position and fit the hanger bar.. Gently slide/wiggle wheel along the bar until it fits snugly onto the hub. Remove bar and fit lug bolts. This can be done without the bar and just aligning wheel hole with hub hole.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/shop/wheel-hange ... eel+hanger