Tire Chain Question?

Well said Tony. I have found that chains not only tear up the roads but also your vehicle. And just because you have chains dont mean you wont get stuck. And when you do get stuck with chains you are really stuck. You may want to check but the jeep libertys that I have been around dont have enough clearance between the wheel well and the tire for a GOOD set of chains.
 
I was hunting west of Co. Springs this last year and it snowed just a couple inches. I had to drive up a dirt road for a distance and got on a long uphill stretch with my Toyota, that "never gets stuck". My tires weren't bad, so i thought i was OK. Got about 3/4ths up the hill and started to slow down, tires spinning. Finally stopped and a second or so later got quite a surprise when i start to slide backwards. Couple seconds later i'm picking up speed, totally helpless, and when the tires hit the softer dirt under the less-packed snow, i stopped, 2 feet from the rock embankment. Had to inch backwards for the next 30 minutes to get out of that fun spot. 3" of hard-packed snow did it to me. If the road wasn't angled properly i could have slid off the other side of the road, and fell 40-75 feet. That was enlightening, let me tell u!! I'll be buying chains this year. 30 years in the west and never had that kinduva problem. Live and learn i guess.
 
Tonys got the right idea . I drive big truck for a living 105,000 LBS every day over snoqualmie pass in washington state hauling containers to the ports . i can chain a 8 axel rig in 15 minutes so i have a lil exp .For snowy highway use buy the best chains you can find , i run square links made of titanium if your auto supplier does not sell them make some it isnt hard. go to a tire dealer that sells truck chains and buy the cross links, then buy a regular set of chains ans swap them out . you can run them all day long on a big truck and get three years out of a set if you know when to pull them off . Its the mud that will get you into trouble here out west , youll slide and lose control, or the gumbo will build up and fill the wheel wells . the 4 wheeler is a excellent idea , thats what i use when its really bad .
 
i have only used chains 4 or 5 times in the course of fourty plus years.i learned how to drive in snow and i only go on muddy roads when they are frozen i hate it when someone tears up the road when it is muddy.stay off or use a atv.
 
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They look alot lighter than chains



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Does anyone make Alum. chains?




Why are you so concerned with the weight of the chains? There really isn't any room for cutting corners...the lighter they are the crappier they are (excepting titanium). If you get in a situation where you really need chains...you REALLY NEED CHAINS. I always carry two sets of heavy-duty cleated chains for my pickup. Many times mud is worse than the snow, and harder on the chains because you start clawing around in rocks too. If you go light (aka cheap) you may very well end up regretting it.
 
First, i would like to thank all the truckers (not you jerry) that run i-84, for the new sets of chains they throw off every winter. just cut them down and you have a set of chains for life.

Back to the staying alive part, simply think of it as you would for a week long hunt in very rugged counrty where nobody can help you. Build a pack with the stuff you need to stay warm and alive, and throw that in your rig and keep it there, then if you get caught in one of our suprise blizzards, your ready as can be. One of the biggest dangers out here is the city driver who can still go 70mph in his lexass, in snow or on the ice under the snow, because the salesman told him he could. When they crash, it locks up the road for everybody for hours.

Atv's do work good, as long as you arn't in to deep a snow, i was riding on top about three feet of snow once, and found an air pocket, down to the bottom it went, guess who had forgot his shovel? I dug with my rifle stock for an hour, but even with the winch couldn't get it out, (the atv was chaind on all four). I ended up walking out that night and by morning there was two more feet of snow on it, it stayed there all winter being rode over by snowmoblers who never knew it was there. Yes, the west is best! blue
 
Blue , thats them flatlanders,LOL.
I see them lying on the road and in the barditch all the time , usually the cheap ones so i dont stop , most of the guys that do that are company drivers and have never had to buy a set of chains , if they used the good ones i guarantee they wouldnt leave them lying .A cheap truck chain makes one great small truck or car chain dont it ? jerry .
 
Yes they do jerry, but they will rattle your brain if i hit a dry patch in my 3/4 ton. You sure are right about the company drivers, you can hear them coming for miles, slamming whats left of their chains into the trailers. I followed one to the truck stop once to see what the trailer looked like, it was torn to pieces. He didn't care, he had just come down ladd canyon sideways, and was going in the bathroom to throw his shorts away.

How he kept from hurting anyone on that run was just luck. The good side is those scrap chains put money in the local atv clubs pocket. blue
 
+1 on the M/T's.

I bought my first set of Toyo M/t's for my F350 a couple of years ago and was amazed at the difference the agressive tread made. I idle through places that I would have had to thrash through before so they're easier on the backroads also. As soon as the A/T's on my Toyota were worn enough to justify it, it got a set of M/t's too.

(I still carry full sized tire chains and a Handyman jack 'cause I hardly ever put the chains on before I get stuck!) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
I carry two complete sets ( set = front and rear chains ) of tire chains all year round here in good old Oregon one for Highway and the other for off road use. I really don't need the Highway set all year long but I don't have to remember to put them in the 4X4 if I always carry them.
The off road chains are cam lock V-bar chain type chains. You never know when you will need them out in the pucker brush on a dirt road when along comes a rain storm and makes the road slicker than snot on a glass door knob. Haven't had to use them yet but if I do they will be a life saver.

If I would have to put the off road chains on to get to my hunting spot, I just find another spot where I don't need the chains, as I do not want to tear up the roads.

DAB
 
The clay out here is worse than snow for traction. Kind of like ice. You're tires will 'gum' up, and you have no steering/traction. This increases the pucker factor a bit and you won't need seat belts, trust me, lol. I've had this happen with chains also.

If the roads are clay and are wet, I prefer to walk in. Until you've experienced doing a 360 on wet clay mountain 2 tracks, you think the rides at 6 Flags are breathtaking.
 
When I was in active law enforcement, we used to run chains on our patrol vehicles and got the heaviest we could find...

We also anchored them with strips of inner tubes and extra hooks at six points around the rear tires to keep them really tight... Even then we would snap one once in a while.

Fortunately all we had to do was call the service truck, or head into a local station to replace the link...

Where you are talking about, that would not be an option and you don't want to skimp on their quality, or overdrive their length of service,,, Seven to eight hours is about max for city speeds, 20-25....less for highway speeds of 45 or higher..
 


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