Snipped from this Border controls thread.

Using winter tires is mandatory from 1Nov onwards. If you get into an accident without them, I think CH insurers will not pay. Police patrols can give you an early Xmas ticket too.

HAT

Hello who told you that rubbish?

Last year I had my car tested in December and it was snowing and I never had winter tyres on as that would have caused me other problems (different rims). I also live in one of the most common control areas and can assure you I have been stopped many times by the police for "random controls" without any hassle with winter tyres or not.

If you have an accident then you might start to run into some difficulties IF there was ice a frost or snow but otherwise the tyres are suitable for the road conditions which is the excuse the insurance companies use...

That said it is very advisable...

Hmm, I would like to confirm if it was indeed rubbish.
However, I think I read it somewhere on www.strassenverkehrsamt.ch (traffic office website) however I don't have time to look now, can you help? Also all my colleagues keep telling me this too.

HAT

I have had the conversation with a few others before. There is no "obligation" to have winter tyres unless officially communicated ie "winter reifen obligatorisch" or "schneeketten obgligatorisch" as you sometimes see. Swiss wide however there is no such law - which is what it would need - hence you will not find it on any official website

If you did not obey their signs you would then fall under the point "misachten eines Warnsignals" not obeying an official warning sign which is on one of their lists...

What happens with one friend is this: he keeps using Wintertires all year long...

Then he'll soon run out of tyres. The rubber compund of winter tyres is softer than summer ones and will wear out faster on hot surfaces. AFAIK winter tyres should be used at under 8°C...

Nope, he runs an old VW GTi....
he drives fast,...and he said the mileage he gets from the winter-tires is very similar to that from the summer ones...

Marketing.

Winter tyres have a much lower speed limit than summer ones. If he is driving fast (depends on your definition really) then he's not being very clever.

All tyres are rated.
You can buy "T" summer and "T" winter: both are rated 190 km/h.

Off topic though.

On topic:
I self-moved from UK to Switzerland.
The French aren't bothered - it's kinda obvious you are moving yourself across France...

Sorry still OT.

I didn't know that, cheers for the info. I've always been warned by my garage to stay below 160 using my winter tyres.

You should be aware that the winter tyres are not designed for summer conditions and perform quite poorly in summer - I guess you could find yourself in the same situation reversed with insurance companies if you have an accident. They DO wear out quicker in fact according to ADAC 25% quicker although whether you believe them is entirely up to you. What your friend could have which does not wear out quicker is all year tyres which I believe are something in the middle.

As far as speed is concerned you can even get XR rated winter tyres but why you would be driving your Ferrari in the winter is beyond me...

fast means....acceleration.
In CH, fastest is maybe 130 kmh on highway, 10kmh more than limit...

Hi, I think the only thing they check (if there is an accident), is if the thread is within the 10 mm limit (or is it another number?).
Winter tires during summer, in theory (being softer) will have more grip.

Of course there are good winter tires, and poor quality wintertires.
All depends.

winter tyres in summer can leave nice black marks on the road

I looked at this list:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/741_031/app1.html

Which is a list of all the things you can get fined for. Couldn't find "winter" in that table at all.

Yes you are quite right Mark but don't forget this list references the law so you would need to see this:

Räder und Reifen 1 Die Räder müssen mit ausreichend tragfähigen Luftreifen oder andern, etwa gleich elastischen Reifen versehen sein, die sich für die Felgen eignen. 2 Reifen müssen sich für die mögliche Höchstgeschwindigkeit des Fahrzeugs eignen. 3 Alle Reifen eines Fahrzeuges müssen dieselbe Bauart (Radial- oder Diagonalreifen) aufweisen. 4 Bei Luftreifen darf das Gewebe nicht verletzt oder blossgelegt sein. Die Reifen müssen auf der ganzen Lauffläche mindestens 1,6 mm tiefe Profilrillen aufweisen. 5 Doppelreifen dürfen sich nicht berühren, sofern dies der Hersteller oder die Herstellerin nicht ausdrücklich gestattet. 6 Reifentragkraft, Geschwindigkeits-Index, Felgen-Reifenkombinationen und Abrollumfang müssen dem aktuellen Stand der Technik entsprechen, wie er insbesondere in den Bestimmungen der ECE-Reglemente Nr. 30 (Motorfahrzeuge und deren Anhänger) und Nr. 54 (Nutzfahrzeuge und deren Anhänger), in denjenigen des Kapitels 1 der Richtlinie Nr. 97/24 des Europäischen Parlaments und des Rates vom 17. Juni 1997 über bestimmte Bauteile und Merkmale von zweirädrigen oder dreirädrigen Kraftfahrzeugen sowie in den Normen der ETRTO festgelegt ist. Der Hersteller oder die Herstellerin, die Reifentragkraft und der Geschwindigkeits-Index müssen auf den Reifen dauerhaft vermerkt sein. Für nicht genormte Reifen, für Reifen oder Felgen-Reifenkombinationen, die von den Normen abweichen, und für Reifen, deren Verwendung nicht der Kennzeichnung entspricht, ist eine Garantie des Fahrzeug- oder des Reifenherstellers erforderlich. In diesen Fällen sind Marke, Typ und Dimensionen und allenfalls abweichende Kennzeichnungen der Reifen und die erforderlichen Auflagen im Fahrzeugausweis einzutragen.1 7 Reifen von Motorwagen, Motorrädern, Klein- und dreirädrigen Motorfahrzeugen müssen ein Genehmigungs- oder ein Prüfzeichen nach internationalen Normen aufweisen.2 8 An Fahrzeugen der Klassen M, N und O mit einer bauartbedingten oder zulässigen Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 80 km/h und mehr müssen Reifen montiert sein, die den Anforderungen der Richtlinie Nr. 92/23 des Rates vom 31. März 1992 über Reifen von Kraftfahrzeugen und Kraftfahrzeuganhängern und über ihre Montage entsprechen.3

Now I am not going to translate it but look at point 2 and tell me how many people fall short of that

my tyres are certified to 10kph fast than my car will go

the old winter tyres I did have to be careful with - certified to 190kph but the car just would keep on going.

I am also testing the limits of tyre profile on my bike - keep going until it's wet, I say

But there are plenty out there who go to Germany and buy some nice cheap low speed H or T certified tyre which is no use if your car does 220!

that's just tight; and besides, you can get very good prices on www.reifendirekt.ch - 5% extra discount right now as they're celebrating 5 years or something

Über wieviel "Profiltiefe" muss ein Reifen mindesten verfügen?
Die Reifen müssen auf der ganzen Lauffläche mindestens 1,6 mm tiefe Profilrillen aufweisen. (Bei Winterreifen empfiehlt sich eine Mindestprofiltiefe von 4 mm). http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/ds/st..._auskunft.html


So 1.6mm tread Summer 4mm Winter. I think you must check your insurance documents because some where talking about not paying out if you didnt have winter tyres on.

If you have ever been stuck behind people with summer tyres on in the midle of a snow storm you will understand why you need them.

DC