autosock

[firepower]

has anyone else used this product , i was very scepticle but as our street is steep and never gritted i thought i would give them ago and at £70.00 a pair for the 2 i was just hoping they worked . last night i needed to go out and four times i tried to drive up the street but just could not find any grip the car just went sideways on to the pavement outside our house , so i put the autosocks over the rear wheels and tried again , wow !!! no sliding or slipping i just slowly drove away up the street and when i got to the gritted main road i removed them . so on this first time using the autosock its a thumbs up from me   s:D s:D

[kentsmudger]

I was tempted last year when it snowed, but this year the 2 has stayed in the garage - Looked useful for a get-you-home, but real snowchains start at about £30 and  I decided I wouldn't need them often enough to bother

[firepower]

real snow chains are great but are not that easy to fit , the beauty of the autosock is it just slips over the wheel and as the 2 is my only mode of transport and our council only grit the main roads i used the autosock for the 100 yards or so to the main road and although it is only a short distance to the gritted clear roads , it is all up hill and when you have no grip at all it may as well be 100 miles , we have been snowed in for 10 days and i think there is a chance of more snow this winter so they could proove useful again

[Anonymous]

Ordered mine before Christmas, but hasn't came yet.
I have the same problem. the last 2 miles home from work is a b road, the last mile of which is slightly uphill which means
I can just about gurantee that I will get stuck at the bottom.
I've read plenty of reviews, (all good), but it's good to here from somebody on here who's bought them.
thanks
shaun

[firepower]

well the snow came and the autosock proved its worth again ploughing through 6 inches of fresh snow up the street , its the strangest feeling though driving a 2 like its 4 wheel drive or something my only worry is what may be ripped off under the car but i got in to work   s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:

[aaronjb]

I could have used some of these tonight when I got stuck straight across the road turning into my road!

Thankfully two passing strangers dug the car out of the snow.. Man I was lucky.

[custardavenger]

That's been my problem. Getting home is ok but getting parked out side the house is a nightmare.

[uktotty]

I wanna go play in the snow in the car!!

[loadswine]

I want to order a couple of sets of these things, but flippin webste to order from isn't working and no stock around in my sizes. Will keep trying though. Looking forward to trying them out.  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[kentsmudger]

well the snow came and the autosock proved its worth again ploughing through 6 inches of fresh snow up the street , its the strangest feeling though driving a 2 like its 4 wheel drive or something

I want to order a couple of sets of these things, but flippin webste to order from isn't working and no stock around in my sizes. Will keep trying though.

OK so you've convinced me to give these a go. I couldn't get the website to work either so I ordered something very similar from Towequipe on Amazon (uk)  CLICKY and they had plenty of different sizes.

I have taken a day off today, as I couldn't be bothered to shovel the whole length of my street at 5.30 this morning  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  , so maybe I will be in when the courier comes. (If they can get here in the snow! Irony?)

[aaronjb]

None that go big enough there, though  s:( s:(

[MisterK]

Don't have personal experience of using these, but the ambulance that turned up last night to rescue my wife had a set of these fitted, after someone in a BMW T-Boned her 18 month old Skoda Fabia3 TDI Estate.  Wife OK apart from bruising and a headache, but car a mess - drivers door, front wing, sills all smashed in & nearside frontwheel hanging off after car was pushed into a kerb & driveshaft, front suspension arm, steering rack all ripped out.  I had to use my MR2 to drive a 40 mile round trip to rescue my wife & could have done with a set of these autosocks fitted to the 2.  The A5, M42 & A45 were all white out at 7pm & I was ploding along at 40MPH max.  A couple of very sideways moments focused the mind.  Got home at 10pm eventually.  Waiting to sort out either repair or if Skoda is a write off.  Insurance are going to provide a hire car & state as accident wasn't my wife's fault (she was stationary), I shouldn't have to pay any excess.  Watched the youtube video of someone fitting these and showing how great they work.  Must get a set.
MarkK

[kentsmudger]

Mark, I hope your wife is ok and feels better soon - It is good to know that the emergency services use these.

Mine arrived from Amazon just after I posted in here this morning, so I took them for a test-drive. They are very effective - I live on a very slight incline and without socks the rear wheels were sliding sideways on about two inches of snow, I was in danger of scraping parked cars. With socks I could pull away normally and was only steering with the front wheels!

[loadswine]

Good stuff mate. I couldn't get mine from Amazon, as they didn't have the sizes for my Altea and Fiat 500, so I waited for them to fix the roofbox.co.uk website and have ordered them now. You'll know when mine arrive as the snow will miraculously disappear.
I'm also glad Mark's wife is okay, must have been a bit of an ordeal.

[firepower]

just happy that other members found my review of the socks useful , nothing worse than being stuck on route to or from work because of the snow or worse having an accident and the socks are so easy to use   s:D s:D  . good to here marks wife is ok , i think bmw are one of the worst handling vehicles in snow or ice may be this had something to do with the accident

[kentsmudger]

A little update...
I went to work and came home with the car wearing these yesterday about a 50 mile round trip - About 2/3 of the roads I drove on were untreated and had not been used much before I got to them, the remainder were either wet or icy. They performed really well in low grip areas and I stayed below 30mph for the whole journey, as per the manufacturer's instructions.

However - At about 6:30 this morning, 8 miles from my house, I heard a tapping sound from the rear of the car. The noise turned into flapping and then banging and then quiet   s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  

The sock had completely separated into two sections at the seam and come off. I retrieved it from the side of the road and turned round to come home.  s:( s:(  



I did not have the AutoSock, mine are branded Sumex Multigrip. I would have to assume that the few miles I drove on wet tarmac have caused too much wear and stress to the material and it has given out, and think maybe this product is just a cheap imitation of the AutoSock. I would only advise using these as a get-you-home emergency-use product. If I can get a replacement under guarantee, then I will not be using them to commute.

[loadswine]

I hope you get them replaced okay mate.
 It does kinda answer a question that Markiii put to me yesterday about how much these sorts of things can be used though. I'm concluding that the material is fairly similar to an autosock, so would assume that these are just get you home emergency items and for long term use, winter tyres are the way to go for serious mileage.
I'll have to do a bit of research as I saw a post on one forum I visited yesterday going to a tyre supply site and getting a set of winter tyres with steel wheels , sized to poster's choice at around £300 or so.
I haven't got my autosocks yet, but will post up detailed pics when they arrive so you can see if they are any more substantial than the ones that shredded.

[firepower]

i hope you get them replaced under guarantee although the autosock instuctions quote that it is recommended that they are removed when you get back to tarmac as the tarmac increases wear very considerably , under testing by tuv germany the autosock was driven on dry tarmac at 50 kph for 50 km and passed this misuse test so the autosock may be a better product , i have used the socks most days since christmas day to get to the main road and they have worked well and still show no sign of wear but i have not driven on tarmac and if they do wear out in the future i think i would buy another pair because they have worked so well for me   s:D s:D

[loadswine]

Can't wait to try these things out, probably no snow by the time I get mine.
The site with winter tyres and steel wheels to order was mytyres, though I did just have a look on the configurator for the winter plus steelies and nothing came up for the Roadster, though many other Toyotas were on there.

[custardavenger]

Can't wait to try these things out, probably no snow by the time I get mine.
The site with winter tyres and steel wheels to order was mytyres, though I did just have a look on the configurator for the winter plus steelies and nothing came up for the Roadster, though many other Toyotas were on there.

I would have thought that Snow tyres would work better if narrower than your normal tarmac tyre? Do they offer any supper skinnies?

[loadswine]

For any given car they seem to have a range of wheel diameters and tyre widths to suit. I think these actually ship from germany, where they are more used to catering for the full on winter.

[firepower]

here are some photos of the autosock in use on my car as you can see my street is still quite bad but i have made it up every day , i have tried to load these
photos from photobucket but i dont know if it will work

[uktotty]

[firepower]

thanks for that i'm not very good at computer tech   s:D s:D

[uktotty]

LOL we noticed  s;) s;)