How is a std Jimny in the snow and does it need socks?

Hi All,
Only owned our Jimny for 8 months and its totally standard, running 205 70 15 road tyres, nothing special. With winter approaching I wounder if its worth putting a set of snow socks in the back, or will I be supprised by its ability?

I had a VW Polo (on road tyres) that just left the road or stopped when it snowed. My Series Land Rover is unstoppable in the snow, but it has agressive MT tyres fitted, so I am unsure how the Jimny will drive on snow (or not) with road tyres.

Don't want to fit off road or winter tyres on the Jimny, but looking for your feedback on how the std aJimny will get around in snow.

PS I only plan socks for the front wheels in 4x4 mode should I get stuck. Not needed or worth thw £40 cost?

Mike

It's down to the tyres but with good all seasons Ermintrude is essentially unstoppable in 2x4, when I had the original duelers on she was capable but needed 4x4 more often.

I fitted a set of Yokohama Geolanders All Season tyres - they've been brilliant in the wet on tarmac.
I've yet to try them in snow, but others here reported good performance which was why I chose them. I'm hoping they will be a good "halfway-house" for both road and snow-use

The jimny will fair better than most on standard tyres but they are the difference between good and nigh on unstoppable.

BFG All Terrains were laughably good, driving round all sorts, only stopped by bumper high drifts.


The jimny's lightweight is it's biggest attribute, 1 ton of mass fairs better than 1.5 on ice. Most other cars as capable as the jimny weigh a lot more....

sniper

I can't comment on how a Jimny handles snow with road tyres, as I've only been in that situation with all terrains. And with ATs my Jimny has felt unstoppable, even on steep inclines in pretty deep snow.

I will say that when I moved from the standard Bridgestone Duellers to Goodyear Wrangler ATs I noticed a dramatic improvement in grip on-road as well as off-road. The Goodyears tend to be one of the cheapest well known brands for ATs and they were a huge improvement in every aspect, I didn't feel like I was compromising anything with them. I have since moved to General Grabbers which feel possibly a little less grippy on road, but are still great. So my general advice is to upgrade to good ATs even if you don't plan to off road, and I'm not really sure why Suzuki don't sell them on ATs from the factory.

But if you like the tyres you've got, and you expect to encounter snow, I think the socks/chains sound like a very good idea. I know from other vehicles how much difference they can make and £40 seems like good value. I used to carry chains but never needed them with my ATs.

I've got stock Jimny on road all season tires. Last winter I was the only person who drove off our estate with no/little struggle.
Just for fun I went to an empty parking lot covered in snow to do some doughnuts and on the way back home I decided to drive into side of the road pile of snow. I was surprised how easy it was for Jimny to go though deep snow, even stock and on road tiers.
It was som much fun that I cannot wait for snow this winter