Tire chains

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I can only find the one pair I always just chained back wheels when I could only do 2. A neighbor was trying to sell me on chaining front on jeep cherokee.  I don't live in real snow country and while some of what he said made sense I was curious what folk who drive more in snow think

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[AmbulanceDriver]

We don't get a lot of snow or ice here in the area I live in... But we had a gnarly ice/snow storm in early December.  I only had chains for the rear on my truck (2wd) and got myself in some trouble when I got onto a banked road and lost my forward momentum due to a jackwagon coming the other direction.   front end got on ice, followed gravity down to the curb.   Thankfully I got some sand that let me eventually get the front end up on the unbanked section of road and get home.   

I need to get chains for the front end so I have braking/steering control in icy situations like that.

[Hawkmoon]

I can only find the one pair I always just chained back wheels when I could only do 2. A neighbor was trying to sell me on chaining front on jeep cherokee.  I don't live in real snow country and while some of what he said made sense I was curious what folk who drive more in snow think

Chains are for ice, not snow. I've been driving a Jeep Cherokee since 1988 and have never used chains. I also never used chains when I had my older full-size Cherokee and used it for plowing.

[AmbulanceDriver]

The big problem we have is that Oregon won't use salt.   That seems to be changing - slowly.  So the snow we do get gets driven on and compacted into a remarkable facsimile of ice.   We also have a very limited number of plows.   Our only deicer is liquid magnesium chloride (magnesium chloride solution.  not molten mag chloride - that would actually work - kinda).  Combine that with banked roads and lots of hills, and we get big problems that shut the city down to the point it takes people hours to get home.  

[charby]

Chains are for ice, not snow. I've been driving a Jeep Cherokee since 1988 and have never used chains. I also never used chains when I had my older full-size Cherokee and used it for plowing.

Chains on all four wheels works great in wet heavy snow until you high center yourself.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I only need em for one mile. Real steep valley I go down into and hopefully climb outa. And if there is no other traffic might not need it there. But I end up stopping or slowing for stopped or stuck cars typically


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[lupinus]

I've never used chains and have always gotten around fine and dandy with or without 4x4. That's every car I have owned, be it in NJ, PA, or now in SC. Though admittedly driving an 87 Camaro with cheap tires in a blizzard was a touch sporty, but doable.

[roo_ster]

I've never used chains and have always gotten around fine and dandy with or without 4x4. That's every car I have owned, be it in NJ, PA, or now in SC. Though admittedly driving an 87 Camaro with cheap tires in a blizzard was a touch sporty, but doable.

If your camaro had the v6 or i4, that was as sporty as it would ever be.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

There is a 45 maybe 50 degree slope and the road slopes to the side so it can be challenging.  Never got stuck yet unless the road was blocked by stuck cars

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[BobR]

If you just need them for the one hill maybe you should look into chain alternatives.

I just run M+S tires on my Jeep and F350 and occasionally put the truck into 4WD, so far I have not needed chains.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2016/01/snow-traction-when-you-need-it/index.htm

bob

[KD5NRH]

If it's that bad, the biggest trouble spot is likely the big hill right at the edge of town, and I can always carry the bike up that and treat most of the rest of the trip as a really unstable sled ride.  :D

I have thought about studded tires, but really for the 2-3 days a year it tends to ice up here, I could either ask the boss to pick me up in his 4x4 (not that I think it has a better chance of getting to the office, but then it's his fault if I don't make it in) or call in sick.

Seriously, there have been plenty of times when I had a car, that if my legs had been in the shape they are now, I'd have ridden the bike then, just for the ability to push or carry it through the bad spots.  The tread on the Gavin MTB shoes I ride in is just about as good as you're going to get for light-to-medium ice, short of actual crampons.  (Now there's a thought; get some old pedals, put spikes on the bottom and make SPD compatible crampons for ice riding.)

[BobR]

I have thought about studded tires,

Studded tire are allowed here from November to April. Most of the time the roads are dry and clear. Until I moved here (Spokane area) I had never seen ruts in concrete roadways. I can only think it is because of studded tires on the dry pavement. Personally I would like to see them done away with. :(

bob

[KD5NRH]

Studded tire are allowed here from November to April. Most of the time the roads are dry and clear. Until I moved here (Spokane area) I had never seen ruts in concrete roadways. I can only think it is because of studded tires on the dry pavement. Personally I would like to see them done away with.

If it's bicycle tires doing that, you should probably direct your efforts more toward the eradication of disturbingly fat people.

Around here, those ruts are because the city didn't bother to check the roadbed before the contractor poured the concrete.  That council has now been almost entirely voted out and replaced with people who ask disinterested third parties (you know, retired local contractors and engineers who only care that their tax money isn't wasted on roads that fall apart in 3-4 months) what inspectors need to check on each type of project and what needs a third party engineer to come look at it.

[HeroHog]

When we were living in VA I was driving home from a friends house and the roads had been covered in snow and ice (snow melted some in the noonday sun then froze under the snow that evening) driving our front wheel drive Ford Escape (first year model, 06?). There was on small but fairly steep hill on that little country road and I tried everything multiple times to get up it and it just didn't have enough grip. I started turning the SUV around and Terri asked if we were going to go back and spend the night with our friends and I said "No, I have an idea." Once turned around, I took a run at the hill in reverse! Swapping it around shifted the weight over the driving wheels now that they were on the downhill end and gave me JUST enough edge to make the hill! Terri thought I was nuts and freaking out the whole way up the hill but hey, if it works...

[KD5NRH]

When we were living in VA I was driving home from a friends house and the roads had been covered in snow and ice (snow melted some in the noonday sun then froze under the snow that evening) driving our front wheel drive Ford Escape (first year model, 06?). There was on small but fairly steep hill on that little country road and I tried everything multiple times to get up it and it just didn't have enough grip. I started turning the SUV around and Terri asked if we were going to go back and spend the night with our friends and I said "No, I have an idea." Once turned around, I took a run at the hill in reverse! Swapping it around shifted the weight over the driving wheels now that they were on the downhill end and gave me JUST enough edge to make the hill! Terri thought I was nuts and freaking out the whole way up the hill but hey, if it works...

Sometimes it's just a matter of not panicking.  I slid a Nissan in a flat spin the full length of an iced over bridge.  Somewhere in my brain it clicked right away that four locked wheels on snow and ice (with the normal tread pretty well negated by snow packed in it) have pretty much the same friction in all directions, so it should keep sliding in a straight line regardless of where the nose pointed, but that letting any of them turn would make bad things happen, so I just stood on the brake and kept the wheel straight ahead until I felt the surface start to change, (of course it was pretty close to backward at the time, but only a foot or two off my original line) then hit the clutch, let it straighten itself out and roll until I could get turned the right way.  While I was turning around, a car slid and wrecked on the bridge, and as soon as DPS got there, they blocked it at both ends.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Had a lil ice storm that made road bad for a couple hours. I put her in 4wd and let the wheels ease onto lil narrow shoulder and go right up hill. Right past thec"safety patrol" telling me to turn back.



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[KD5NRH]

Had a lil ice storm that made road bad for a couple hours. I put her in 4wd and let the wheels ease onto lil narrow shoulder and go right up hill. Right past thec"safety patrol" telling me to turn back.

I've sometimes wondered if the rumble strips might work for extra traction on one side, but most of the time when it ices that bad here, it's from freezing rain that fills and levels them out pretty effectively.

[charby]

Had a lil ice storm that made road bad for a couple hours. I put her in 4wd and let the wheels ease onto lil narrow shoulder and go right up hill. Right past thec"safety patrol" telling me to turn back.



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I've been known to use the gravel shoulder to get up hills when we get black ice.

[lupinus]

If your camaro had the v6 or i4, that was as sporty as it would ever be.

what fun would that be to give to a kid for their first car?

[charby]

If your camaro had the v6 or i4, that was as sporty as it would ever be.

There was a i4 Camaro?

[RoadKingLarry]

Only time I ever ran chains was in the late '70s. I'd blown out my knee playing football and was in a cast from ankle to hip most of the Winter. That was only time dad would let me drive the 2 miles to school and even then it was a bit begrudged.
The car was a 4 door '68 Ford LTD with the 390ci engine. We had a worse than normal winter with quite a bit of snow and ice and being a small town they didn't do much to take care of the roads so we ended up with hard packed snow/ice for what seemed like a couple of weeks.
That was the year I learned to drive on ice and snow.

[roo_ster]

There was a i4 Camaro?

1982 through 1986 you could get the gelded pony car with an iron duke i4.

[roo_ster]

what fun would that be to give to a kid for their first car?

About as fun as you would expect.

[Hawkmoon]

When we were living in VA I was driving home from a friends house and the roads had been covered in snow and ice (snow melted some in the noonday sun then froze under the snow that evening) driving our front wheel drive Ford Escape (first year model, 06?). There was on small but fairly steep hill on that little country road and I tried everything multiple times to get up it and it just didn't have enough grip. I started turning the SUV around and Terri asked if we were going to go back and spend the night with our friends and I said "No, I have an idea." Once turned around, I took a run at the hill in reverse! Swapping it around shifted the weight over the driving wheels now that they were on the downhill end and gave me JUST enough edge to make the hill! Terri thought I was nuts and freaking out the whole way up the hill but hey, if it works...

Physics.

It still works.

[RoadKingLarry]

Physics.

It still works.

Well, only if you are privileged enough.