Tire Chains

[SonnyDay]

To each their own I guess. I added a mild lift front and rear to my truck, BFG k02s, factory rear locker. I enjoy using my truck like a truck and it’s nice to get back pretty far and have many days worth of gear, food (and beer), set up my roof tent and still be mobile if necessary.

I'm with ya on this. Some lift, some larger ties, some skid plates, a winch.... and lots of cargo room. But as you said... to each their own.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

To each their own. To haul a trailer and ATV of any sort out West just adds too much additional complexity and too many extra potential failure points for me. Plus cost of those items and breakdowns under normal use are to be expected.

I’m willing to risk some bumps and bruises to my truck, it’s no pavement queen, and this is what I bought it for- truck stuff. If it looks too bad I got to 2 good legs and a strong back to hike in…

 

[Steve300xcw]

Always surprising to me how many people will fight and struggle to get out of a spot. Yet they never air down they're tires.

 

[Trogon]

There are many CO units where you are taking a lot of risk going in without chains. Freeze, thaw, snow, mud, conditions change fast. Often easy to get in when its frozen and impossible to get out when thawed. All but the burliest of off-road setups can get into trouble. Most new trucks can't fit front chains, but rear chains are still a big help. I pulled out two stuck trucks this year on a snowy road that was fresh and grippy during the day and turned slick as soon as the sun went down. Chains are cheap insurance against some potentially bad situations.

Edit: skip the cable chains. Those are for getting the family wagon home from christmas dinner.

 

[Poser]

Always surprising to me how many people will fight and struggle to get out of a spot. Yet they never air down they're tires.

The trend is to have any excuse possible to buy a $25,000 SxS so that you don’t risk your $70,000 truck. You could take a $4,000 Gen 1 Taco with a decent set of tires, air it down to 5 PSI and go places in snow no SxS could dream of.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

The trend is to have any excuse possible to buy a $25,000 SxS so that you don’t risk your $70,000 truck. You could take a $4,000 Gen 1 Taco with a decent set of tires, air it down to 5 PSI and go places in snow no SxS could dream of.

I appreciate the comments on airing down your tires. What is a safe level without breaking the bead?

 

[Choupique]

Tooling around 2nd rifle this year in dodge 2500 we broke some stuff. It easily fits even the knarly v bar chains on front and rear but plowing over a foot of snow and ice mud and shit damaged the front wheel speed sensors. Also damaged some exhaust sensors from snow piling up on top of the SCR system.

So even if they fit chains just fine, modern trucks just arent made for THAT kind of use. There's just too many wires and hoses and plastic on them.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I appreciate the comments on airing down your tires. What is a safe level without breaking the bead?

Just seems like most tires are aired up to the max psi.

Even just bringing them down into the 30-35psi range would make a huge difference. Your low tire pressure saftey doodad is goona go off, but who cares.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I was running 40 in front and 45 rear since we had a pretty good load back there. I will remember to air down in the future if we get in sticky spot

 

[Steve300xcw]

You'll have to play with it, an see what you can get away with on the air pressure.

Have put alot of miles in the tacoma aired down to around 7psi . Lot smaller truck though

 

[137buck]

I appreciate the comments on airing down your tires. What is a safe level without breaking the bead?

I have a 1995 Jeep Cherokee, and I'll air my tires down to 8-10 psi, and that thing will float over quite a bit of snow and I've yet to pop a bead, but I probably just jinxed myself now. I also have tire chains for all four tires, plus traction boards and a tire repair kit in the Jeep.

 

[TheGDog]

2019 Ram 1500 Limited crew with 5'7" bed and Ramboxes... The Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT are worth their weight in gold and thank you to the FS fellas on here that recommended them.

Wha? The AT3's great on the FWY haulin' major bootay... and do "Ok" in normal offroad stuff that's not soft... but they leave a lot to be desired the moment there's any appreciable amount of soft stuff ya gotta go thru. Next time I gotta get new tires, it's either gonna be BFG KO2's or even a more aggressive tire with wider spacing tween the lugs for less risk of dig-in in soft sand. Being only 2WD it's even more critical sometimes to have that help of wider spaced lugs in the soft stuff.

 

[TheGDog]

To each their own I guess. I added a mild lift front and rear to my truck, BFG k02s, factory rear locker. I enjoy using my truck like a truck and it’s nice to get back pretty far and have many days worth of gear, food (and beer), set up my roof tent and still be mobile if necessary.

Can definitely see the benefits of cruising around in a sxs though.

Did you notice your in-town ride getting rougher and more rigid when you first switched over to the KO2's? The wife has a Jeep w/ like 33" KO2's I wanna say? And when we cross these two dips exiting our neighbor hood it seems too harsh in her car. I feel it should be that harsh on those dips. I hand go thru em pretty damn fast in my F-150. While researching future replacement tires for my 2WD F-150 I noticed the KO2's are 10-ply rated, so then that got me wondering if that's the reason her ride is soo much less supple over things like those sharp dips. Cause my AT3's are apparently like 4 or 6 ply rated so I got to thinking maybe that's why my ride feels more cush over that obstacle perhaps? Because the tires are just more giving to sidewall flex perhaps? So figured I'd compare notes with you there, on if you noticed a similar changed when you first went over to the KO2's?

 

[Amos Moses]

Did you notice your in-town ride getting rougher and more rigid when you first switched over to the KO2's? The wife has a Jeep w/ like 33" KO2's I wanna say? And when we cross these two dips exiting our neighbor hood it seems too harsh in her car. I feel it should be that harsh on those dips. I hand go thru em pretty damn fast in my F-150. While researching future replacement tires for my 2WD F-150 I noticed the KO2's are 10-ply rated, so then that got me wondering if that's the reason her ride is soo much less supple over things like those sharp dips. Cause my AT3's are apparently like 4 or 6 ply rated so I got to thinking maybe that's why my ride feels more cush over that obstacle perhaps? Because the tires are just more giving to sidewall flex perhaps? So figured I'd compare notes with you there, on if you noticed a similar changed when you first went over to the KO2's?

Definitely more rigid than the stock highway tires. Bumps are much more noticeable, especially at lower speeds with 10 ply.

 

[Weldor]

We hunted CO last year the last week of season. We had all 4 chained up in a Ram 2500 due to deal with the mud. Still had issues. I won’t hunt without them.

Did you use chains? or cables? with disc brakes all the way around I was told to use cables only?

 

[Choupique]

Did you use chains? or cables? with disc brakes all the way around I was told to use cables only?

We had chains all the way around on our rig, with vbars in the rears. 2018 2500 dodge. Not sure if it was the chains or all the snow or what, but the ABS and traction control systems were really screwed up and alarming like crazy. Ended up trashing some wheel speed sensors.

 

[fmyth]

We had chains all the way around on our rig, with vbars in the rears. 2018 2500 dodge. Not sure if it was the chains or all the snow or what, but the ABS and traction control systems were really screwed up and alarming like crazy. Ended up trashing some wheel speed sensors.

Did the chains come loose and hit the sensors? I have drove a friends 2018 Ram 2500 hunting late season elk in CO last year and used my chains on it with no issues. Never got ABS or traction control warnings or issues.

 

[Choupique]

I dont think the fronts ever got loose. We did fling a rear one off. We started peeling out on some ice at one point and the truck was bucking a good bit and that's when it all started going crazy.

I dont think it was the chains hitting anything, just the computer freaking out and then all the snow and ice and stuff packing on the hubs is probably what killed the wheel speed sensors.

 

[137buck]

We had chains all the way around on our rig, with vbars in the rears. 2018 2500 dodge. Not sure if it was the chains or all the snow or what, but the ABS and traction control systems were really screwed up and alarming like crazy. Ended up trashing some wheel speed sensors.

I have a '16 Ram 2500 and while I use my Jeep for the mountains mostly, I have had my Cummins chained up on all four and never had that issue.

 

[Choupique]

Well that's good to hear. I was going to be pretty mad if it was just from using chains.