driving to austria - any advice please?

Thanks msej449 for making things a lot clearer

Finn wrote: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:

Also remember anti freeze down to -30

Ian Wickham wrote:

Finn wrote: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:

Also remember anti freeze down to -30

Another oversight. :oops:

Finn

Two good postings, Finn, Wickers. It is the everydaythings that get forgotten, or in my case, remembered and dismissed. I drove to Braemar with frozen Windscreen wash, at -12 degC, then up to Glenshee at -19 degC.

Have now put neat screenwash fluid in, and I am wandering what the landrover garage put in the radiator at the November service.

Winter tyres are a legal requirement in Austria in winter.

Not that you are likely to get pulled for it, as far as I know.

Also remember to buy a vignette (windscreen toll ticket) from a petrol station before you go on the motorway. They do check sometimes.

Innsbrucker wrote:Winter tyres are a legal requirement in Austria in winter.

If you live there. The rest of us, comply with the legal requirements of the country where our vehicle is registered, when driving in the rest of Europe.

Ah. I read advice from a German motoring organization telling German drivers winter tyres are compulsory in Austria. But that could be wrong. Or a particular rule for Germans as Bavarian roads cross the border so much.

bandit wrote:

Innsbrucker wrote:Winter tyres are a legal requirement in Austria in winter.

If you live there. The rest of us, comply with the legal requirements of the country where our vehicle is registered, when driving in the rest of Europe.

I can tell you from experience, that it is a legal requirement for you to have winter tyres fitted when driving in Austria, irrespective of where your vehicle is registered. I was fined for not having winter tyres fitted, and after checking with an austrian legal advisor, was told that the law requiring winter tyres was being enforced on "foreign" vehicles as of January 1st 2009. I was stopped in the 3rd week of January, and no amount of negotiation with the police chief changed the situation. The fine was €50 per wheel plus legal costs.
If you wish to take a chance you may get lucky, but be aware that any spot check, especially on mountain roads will get your tyres checked. The police will be looking for an icon of a mountain with a snowflake, without this mark you have to prove that you are using ALL Season Tyres which MUST have an M+S marking. Please do not get confused with some tyres which have the M+S Mark but are only Summer tyres, such as the Dunlop Grand Trek M+S mentioned at the beginning of this thread.