driving to austria - any advice please?

Winter tyres: Although you do have a bill for switching them each autumn/spring, they don't cost you any more as such, since your summer tyres will be sitting idle in the garage, and thus last longer. I didn't used to bother, then bought a set, and was delighted - two years running we hit bad snow driving across the Jura mountains to Switzerland. But really, the big advantage was in mixed conditions, or light snow, or on inclines: everyone else is ploughing on at normal speed- without them you're stuck, holding up the traffic, sliding everywhere, or trying to put chains on when no one else is. No wonder the foreign police - especially in France - get annoyed at the Brits. Chains are only really for extreme conditions when everyone needs then, even with winter tyres on. And as pointed out, they're still valuable in the UK when the temperature falls below 7°-8°C both in terms of better stopping distance and better handling.

And remember - if you go to a sales outlet in the UK and they say "You only need chains" and as importantly "These will fit" ask yourself whether they don't really have a vested interest in simply selling you some chains. A lot of UK cars are fitted with lower-profile wheels compared to their continental versions and if you look in your owner's manual, you may well find that you can't fit chains at all. Not without risking damage to the steering, driveshaft, suspension, or inner wheelarch. Not something you want to discover up a mountain in the dark and snow. Press that helpful sales outlet and they start to get vague and eventually say something like "You have to try them out" Great - first, just how do I simulate a loaded car in snow and second, what if in 'trying them out' I discover that they have indeed damaged my car?

Just fitted Verdestein Wintrax Extreme tyres for the season ahead.

I use Avon Cr85 and after leave them on all year now,they wear no quicker than a summer tyre
the road noise is minimal.Mytyres give syou a star rating for winter tyres.
Goff

thanks everyone for all info. everything you've written has been erad and re-read by me and the missus. i'm looking into winter tyres but the additional, unexpected, outlay might be too much this year. i'm on the lookout for deals though so if you see any, do let me know.

on the travel route, and to give a bit of info back now we've been researching, my 2009 euro maps arrived yesterday morning so been going through in detail today. Sock man's advice seems to be the route to do still - wish we had more time as when planning this route you look at all the places and imagine stopping at them all. whereas we'll downing caffeine and ploughing right through :shock:

anyway, until this morning was not totally decided about bregenz/arlberg, versus innsbruck route to landeck. the arlberg route includes a tunnel tarrif of €8.50 and we were wondering if actually worthwhile. however we googled the distances and the travel times aqnd arlberg route turned out to be only 6km shorter but 40 minutes quicker.

nuff said, bregenz it is. thought it was worth passing on as 40 minutes at that stage is a good saving for us.

total journey
google says

ulm, bregenz, landeck, reschenpass then destination 1241km and 14 hours.

Last Christmas we drove to Samnaun in Switzerland, which involved driving into Austria and then doubling back to go up the steep mountain pass back into Switzerland. As the snow was very heavy, the police were at the bottom of the road, turning back those cars that they did not think would make it up the valley. Fortunatly, we were able to put on our snow chains. This year though, we have opted to fly to Innsbruck and hire a car to drive to Vorder Lanersbach in the Tux Valley. The hire conditions state that all cars come with Winter Tyres but one of their options is to hire snow chains at an extra charge. What does not seem to be clear, is whether with Winter Tyres, we also need to carry Snow Chains or is this just a ploy by the hire compnay to get more money out of us.

Winter tyres and chains are not mutually exclusive. This is a common UK misconception. Winter tyres give you better traction and handling in lower temperatures and better snow grip than summer tyres. But even with winter tyres, you may still need chains, if it's icy, deep snow, or a steep incline. I've had a hire car with winter tyres and been very grateful that I hired chains when I had to negotiate a steep road to get out of the rental apartment car park. I'd definitely recommend chains as well if you're likely to be driving at altitude and especially if you are going to be parking in the resort.

Having just returned from driving to Austria can offer this advice. Remember to pump out the contents of your vehicles screen wash reservoir before leaving the uk & replenish it with neat or concentrated wash mix capable of withstanding sub zero temperatures. If we had done this our 1000km journey which should have taken approx 9hrs would have been enjoyable instead it was a bloody nightmare which took 16hrs, this was partly down to difficult driving conditions but in the main because our screen wash system froze up meaning we were unable to clean the windscreen & see where we we going! Must emphasise that this little oversight caused an awful lot of unnecessary fear & difficult decision making on the safety of our onward journey.


:oops:Finn :oops: