Morris Minor Owners Club

I got home today to find that my 21 year-old sister and her friend had made a fantastic snow woman and child in the garden,
What d'ya think?<br><br>
She even has hair, shoes and jewellery!!

Sidney'61 wrote:I got home today to find that my 21 year-old sister and her friend had made a fantastic snow woman and child in the garden,
What d'ya think?<br><br>
She even has hair, shoes and jewellery!!

Excellent, and far more decent than my mates 25 year old sons effort, which appeared to be representing a page 3 model! (Imaginative use for a couple of bucket moulds.... )

Has anybody had any experience of using snow chains at all on a Minor? They seem to be readily available for modern cars but in loads of different sizes for rim/tyre combinations. I'm not sure how good a fit they would be on a 14" rim and 155 tyre. I wouldn't want to run my full journey on them but they would certainly help to get out onto the clear(ish) main roads for the bulk of my commute.

I love snow!!
I didn't like the people at Milton Keynes shopping centre who closed at early at 4pm on Friday - I arrived at 4:05 after a 1 hour journey
I chose to go cross country just for the fun of it.

We had another 2" of snow this afternoon - this time I had a spare half an hour so I took the young one to Sainsbury's carpark to show how not to drive in the snow ;-)
After that we did Focus carpark and then Halfords and had a brake because I got so dizzy from donuts. We finished off with Victoria park carpark and did a few powerslide 180's in front of a guy stealing parts off an abandoned/wrecked Zafira.

Over the last week I've seen many useless drivers - I remember being young and struggling with limited grip on the Minor's rear wheels but the people who struggle to drive a modern FWD shopping trolley in 2" of snow don't seem to have any intelligence!
Maybe there should be a second driving test for snow - and those who can't do it at all would be banned from the roads on snowy days. I presume they would be able to get jobs as teachers with no problem, however nobody at my work couldn't make it in, although some had to stay home to look after kids because the teachers took a few extra days holidays.

Im not completly sure thats legal :p. Good fun though.

ray i think everyone should have a go in a skid car,i did a skid course at silverstone ,it was a fantastic day and i got an overall mark an a.well pleased.basically lookand turn where you want the car to go and dont touch the brakes.use engine braking.

Hi,

Has anybody had any experience of using snow chains at all on a Minor? They seem to be readily available for modern cars but in loads of different sizes for rim/tyre combinations. I'm not sure how good a fit they would be on a 14" rim and 155 tyre.

The couple of websites I've found allow you to specify the rim, tyre size and profile (80% for normal tyres).
As they link up, there will be some tolerance in the fitting...

But, you should only use on show - not where the chain can hit the road through the snow, and below 40 kph....

Unfortunately, getting them off can be harder than putting them on - oh yes - if you run them on a hard surface, they'll mess up the tread.
Colin

I presume you only put snow chains on the driven wheels?

alex_holden wrote:I presume you only put snow chains on the driven wheels?

Yes

steering wheel may help

ColinP wrote:Hi,

Has anybody had any experience of using snow chains at all on a Minor? They seem to be readily available for modern cars but in loads of different sizes for rim/tyre combinations. I'm not sure how good a fit they would be on a 14" rim and 155 tyre.

The couple of websites I've found allow you to specify the rim, tyre size and profile (80% for normal tyres).
As they link up, there will be some tolerance in the fitting...

But, you should only use on show - not where the chain can hit the road through the snow, and below 40 kph....

Unfortunately, getting them off can be harder than putting them on - oh yes - if you run them on a hard surface, they'll mess up the tread.
Colin

Thanks Colin, that's useful information. I was worried by the makes that recommended different size chains for say a 155/70 and 155/80 tyre as the fit looked pretty specific. Some though seemed a bit more accommodating.
I only planned to use them for the few hundred yards from home (that always stay snowy/icy) until I got out on the open roads.
A few quid for some chains against a day's lost pay is a no brainer.

MY turn to be snowed up today. So far I have managed quite well and only got stuck on the A9 at Aviemore on Saturday, managed Wick on Monday no problem. This am we have had a fair drop of snow about 100mm so far. I think today is a work from home day, and I can't even skive off to work on my MM during my lunch break as it is buried under the snow. Glad the better half went shopping yesterday as we have plenty of Jaffa cakes & coffee! Jeff

4 inches of the unforecasted white stuff today - bet this won't be on the national news.

Pete

At least I know where ours is coming from now Pete.

M25VAN wrote:

ColinP wrote:Hi,

Has anybody had any experience of using snow chains at all on a Minor? They seem to be readily available for modern cars but in loads of different sizes for rim/tyre combinations. I'm not sure how good a fit they would be on a 14" rim and 155 tyre.

The couple of websites I've found allow you to specify the rim, tyre size and profile (80% for normal tyres).
As they link up, there will be some tolerance in the fitting...

But, you should only use on show - not where the chain can hit the road through the snow, and below 40 kph....

Unfortunately, getting them off can be harder than putting them on - oh yes - if you run them on a hard surface, they'll mess up the tread.
Colin

Thanks Colin, that's useful information. I was worried by the makes that recommended different size chains for say a 155/70 and 155/80 tyre as the fit looked pretty specific. Some though seemed a bit more accommodating.
I only planned to use them for the few hundred yards from home (that always stay snowy/icy) until I got out on the open roads.
A few quid for some chains against a day's lost pay is a no brainer.

I used to use snow chains a lot when commuting from Sheffield to Manchester for college, quite a few years back now, when snow in winter was normal rather than a surprise. Worked fantastically, but a real pain to fit and remove. I found it quicker to have a couple of spare wheels and a trolley jack and just change both back wheels...

However, last week, when I was struggling to get the traveller out, having carelessly left the Land Rover at work, the next door neighbour came over and lent me a set of 'snowgrips' which are a sort of X shaped frame that tightens up round the tyre and was fitted in moments. I was really impressed. Rather like driving on square wheels having the four lumps round the tyre, so more unsubtle than chains, but just drove straight out, down the 1:4 hill to the main road, removed them in moments at the junction and carried on. Dunno where to get such things from but much easier than chains to use...

There are some on ebay - looks a great idea.

Excellent Iain! They look just the trick, enough to get you out of tricky side roads and simple to fit. There seems to be lots of different approaches to the problem, snow socks and studded plates etc but these seem the most straight forward.
I'm looking on Ebay right now.

Talking of snow chains, when I was in the Fire Service we had to fit snow chains to the Appliances as soon as the snow became a problem. We had 2 types - 1 that required wheel removal to wrap the chains round the tyre, and another comprising 4 separate chains that were passed through slots in the wheels. The officers were supplied with the folding brackets as described above for their staff cars.
On some days, we felt like garage mechanics with chains on, chains off orders depending on weather conditions. However, snow chains don't come without their problems, as sometimes if you were turned out with them on, and you had a long trip to make on sometimes drying roads, they would break causing damage to the vehicle. We needed new wings on a turntable ladder after a trip from Dundee to Perth, plus some near misses as bits flew off missing cars and pedestrians. When we got our Volvo Fire Appliances we had them fitted with an automatic system that dropped chains mounted on a wheel onto the inner part of the rear wheels which then rotated the chains under the wheels. Wih newer appliances with air suspension, these could not be fitted due to vehicle ride height, and now they have nothing fitted. Still, we don't seem to have snow like we used to.

Pete

We had another light dusting yesterday up here in the North East.. maybe I should have had the plough on the front

Mal