Metal Tire Chain Question

That's a good idea.

I used to get 1000 lbs of gravel. When i got sick of it in the back of my truck, I just scooped it into the driveway. It was about $7.00 back then.

I get tickled at the guys that put weight over their axel in a 2wd truck. It does much more good if they put it as far back in the truck as possible.

I'll just add that I was always told to put the chains on the front of four-wheel drives too. I haven't tried it myself (I do own an old Chevy K-10) but I have seen it done by others.

I wasn't going to answer because I had no personal experience to add and the tide was running in favor of putting them on the back. I have thought about it though and if I only had one set they would go on the front until I found a good reason not to put them there (shrug).

Either way I'm sure you will get stuck a whole lot better with them on :)

BTDT it helps for the first 300 lbs or so and then the steering and stopping starts getting squirrely. You have to start adding the weight farther forward then or it will turn around and bite you...

I knew a guy that poured 4 inches of cement in his box and just drove it year-round that way. Claimed it rode a whole lot nicer that way. I would like to have been a mouse in the corner when he was trying to get the redi-mix company to dump it in :)

In an unloaded pickup, you have engine weight helping the front tires get traction, while the rear tires need all the help they can get. The front drive train of a 4WD truck is typically weaker than the rear drive train and putting the chains on the front increases the chances of breaking a hub or axle while trying to move the truck with just front traction while the rears are spinning helplessly.

Pete C.

Phil, I'm going to say something now that is the God honest truth:

I thought putting them on the front would be best, too. Then I had the diagonal brainstorm.

I visualized the steep parts of the road, and thought, gee, if the front wheels PULL the truck up, the rear end HAS to follow. It wasn't until the next day when I considered the opposite ......... going down the hill ..........

But I digress. I did want to hear from some other OFs who had a lot of snow country experience, and thought this would be a slam dunk easy answer. Apparently not.

Got lots of answers, many to questions I didn't even ask. Like towing information. What's up with that? Surprised someone didn't go off on a tangent on the proper way to drive in beach sand.

Anyway, we'll see what happens when we go up after Jan 5 or so. Might not even be enough snow to matter.

Steve

Your best advice is from Gunner. Try your Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, Value Village, and favorite dumpster. Even if you can't find the size you need, you can always get a couple of sets and make up a set from two smaller sets. ( Probably only applies to real chains, not cable chains. ).

Dan

If you have that as a desire make VERY sure that you keep a copy with you in a location it is easy to find, or on something like a medic alert bracelet or whatever is required by law in your state.

In NY for instance the ONLY legal way to prevent anything being done is to have a NYS Department of Health DNR form filled out and signed. It also must be reinstated every 6 months and MUST be presented before treatment can be stopped or prevented.

It's a pain but it is mainly in place because of the lawyers suing ANYONE involved in the care of a patient if something goes wrong OR a family member decides that something else could/should have been done.

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I have to ask you Pete, why would you attempt to operate a vehicle without steering control? With front chains you can control your direction of travel; rear chains want to push you in a straight line especially if you have a posi-traction rear differential. Safety first! Phil Kangas

wrote

Sorry, but my receiver no longer gets that station.................

You seem to be missing the point that the front tires *do* have traction thanks to the 75% of the vehicle weigh that is bearing down on them. It is the rears on an unloaded pickup that are in desperate need of traction. Also when braking, if you have traction in the front and not in the rear you *will* spin around.

Pete C.

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:37:57 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Steve W." quickly quoth:

I'm thinking about getting it tattooed to my wrist.

Our legal and medical systems are totally hosed, aren't they?

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

Get one on th' sole of yer right foot too. If th' docs don't catch it on yer wrist, th' coroner will when they're puttin' on th' toe tag. Th' sole of my left foot sez "-----> see other foot".

Snarl

You too?

Yep, 150%.

Pete C.

"Pete C."

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I missed this in your earlier post: "while the rears are spinning helplessly" ! You obviously have no experience by saying this. A rear _cannot_ spin until a front wheel spins and then only at the speed of the slipping front, no faster, impossible. Sure the rear is light, why weight it down, it only adds to the weight to be moved! You need to take a vacation, get out of that cubicle, rent an SUV and get some hands on experience, eih? Phil Kangas

Perhaps you need to get some experience and learn some physics. I've put several hundred thousand miles on 4WD trucks, with a substantial chunk of that in snow, some off road in snow as well. What will happen is that you get zero traction in the rear which whether or not the rear tires are actively spinning at the moment will put the full traction load on the front tires. The front tires will be skipping and intermittently getting traction with the loading shifting from side to side and stuttering until you break a hub or axle at which point you're dead in the water, or in this case snow.

Pete C.

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:02:48 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, snipped-for-privacy@trippin.com quickly quoth:

Coroners don't resuscitate, so why bother?

Bwahahaha! Good 'un, snarl.

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

Hi Pete,

No need to worry about breaking a Dana 44 front axle by putting chains on unless there is already something bad wrong with it. I used to help my Brother-in-law when he was still pulling modified 4WD's. All the added weight (6500 lb class was the heaviest we pulled) was hung as far out front as we were allowed. You could pick the back of the truck off the ground by hand and slide it around to move it. They will take a whole lot more abuse than you think. We had to beef up the tie rod to keep it from bending. I've never seen a stock 4WD bend a tie rod yet from traction alone. If you happen to have the beefier Dana 60 or better yet the Dana 70 you will never be able to break it (common in 1 tons, at least the old ones). The Dana 70 was the gold standard for pulling trucks. Virtually bomb proof.

Unless you have a full time transfer case with some sort of slipper/differential in it (the old 203 chain drive had a full differential in it) the front and rear will be locked together in 4WD. No way possible for the back to spin without the front spinning. Stopping a 4WD that is locked in is always an exciting experience. With the drive train locked solid once you step on the brakes hard enough to slide tires you will be in deep do-do...

I still haven't heard a good reason for not putting them on the front.