Tire Chains

[tdhanses]

I ran into these conditions coming out yesterday (the gate is supposed to be locked today). In the shade, it was slick ice and frozen snow. In the sun it was an absolute mud bog. I was driving a 4Runner in 4 low with Cooper mud tires and the rear differentials locked. I was coming down in 1st gear and truck was sliding sideways on every downhill switchback. I came close to sliding into 45 degrees against the grade which would have been a rollover. I was able to steer into the turns just enough to escape this but any less traction would have failed. That was without touching the brakes. It was fairly terrifying. After navigating a few of those, I finally hit a flat where I could air down and it was fine from there, but it was bone dry when I drove in there. The technical crux was a section of Blasted out rock that would require removing chains if one were using them.
A long bed pick up would be screwed. There were a couple of trucks back there and at least one frozen tread pattern suggested they were going to have major issues coming out.

From what I’m reading this morning, there are a bunch of hunters stranded in CO right now for this reason. The volunteer off-road recovery network is backed up for several days with recovery requests. A lot of FS gates are scheduled to be locked today (11/15). Not sure how that goes.

See if you had a sxs it would of been just another day as it didn’t slide around.

 

[Poser]

See if you had a sxs it would of been just another day as it didn’t slide around.

I live in immediate proximity to 2 major SxS destinations. Silverton CO and Moab UT. Thousands upon thousands of SxSs flock to both places annually. As these are off-road destinations, there are a number of trail enthusiasts locals in both places. Some folks even moved to these towns just to ride trails.

No here’s the thing: it seems to be the case that almost no locals own SxSs. You might dig up a few more in Moab, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single SxS in a Silverton garage.

 

[tdhanses]

I live in immediate proximity to 2 major SxS destinations. Silverton CO and Moab UT. Thousands upon thousands of SxSs flock to both places annually. As these are off-road destinations, there are a number of trail enthusiasts locals in both places. Some folks even moved to these towns just to ride trails.

No here’s the thing: it seems to be the case that almost no locals own SxSs. You might dig up a few more in Moab, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single SxS in a Silverton garage.

Is that because they despise them or why is that? A well equipped sxs will be cheaper to own unless you only have one vehicle, and go anywhere a comparable vehicle will go, biggest difference is noise and dust.

Is it also because they have to be trailered? Also neither Moab/Silverton are sxs friendly towns as we’ve seen with recent rule changes in both towns.

 

[Poser]

Is that because they despise them or why is that? A well equipped sxs will be cheaper to own unless you only have one vehicle, and go anywhere a comparable vehicle will go, biggest difference is noise and dust.

Is it also because they have to be trailered? Also neither Moab/Silverton are sxs friendly towns as we’ve seen with recent rule changes in both towns.

There’s definitely a distaste for SxS amongst the locals who don’t benefit directly from the tourists aspect, however, I think it’s largely just more practical for a local to maintain one vehicle. You live in this area and you don’t spend much time driving on interstates. The guy who has the contract to clear all off the alpine trails of snow in the Silverton area spends more time on those trails than anyone as he’s out there with heavy equipment in April. He drives keeps for recreation. I only know of one Durango local who owns a SxS and he’s only mentioned taking it once…. upon a road I’d drive a Subaru.

That being said, Silverton is not “unfriendly” to SxSs, they simply reverted, after a 5 year experiment, to not making an exception to the state law for vehicles that are not street legal. Moab tried to ban them on the city streets but that ban was overruled by the state. As far as I know, nothing has changed there.

 

[tdhanses]

There’s definitely a distaste for SxS amongst the locals who don’t benefit directly from the tourists aspect, however, I think it’s largely just more practical for a local to maintain one vehicle. You live in this area and you don’t spend much time driving on interstates. The guy who has the contract to clear all off the alpine trails of snow in the Silverton area spends more time on those trails than anyone as he’s out there with heavy equipment in April. He drives keeps for recreation. I only know of one Durango local who owns a SxS and he’s only mentioned taking it once…. upon a road I’d drive a Subaru.

That being said, Silverton is not “unfriendly” to SxSs, they simply reverted, after a 5 year experiment, to not making an exception to the state law for vehicles that are not street legal. Moab tried to ban them on the city streets but that ban was overruled by the state. As far as I know, nothing has changed there.

Yeah, you get closer to Durango and Pagosa and plenty of locals have them, my parents ride with a large variety of Pagosa locals but they don’t ride many popular areas anymore because so many NR flock there and drive like they are in race cars but they also stop riding come hunting season because they don’t trust the hunters.

I swear everyone in Pagosa has either a sxs or atv.

 

[SonnyDay]

Well here's another vote for chains... this past week in northern CO we were able to get about 6 miles beyond everyone else (trucks, SxS's) in a Tundra with V-bar chains. Snow was about a foot deep, but was drifted in spots and had some layering to it that made it tougher than if it had all fallen at once. It was a little sporty getting out as more snow had fallen/blown into the tracks... and we passed several spots where SxS's and trucks had clearly gotten stuck. Lifesaver.

 

[Gerbdog]

Yea this has been the snowiest November ive seen in awhile here in CO, bring those chains.

 

[Choupique]

I was amazed at how much of a difference V bar chains make. It went from butt puckering trip in to easy and relaxing after we put those things on. They are bad ass.

 

[tdhanses]

Well here's another vote for chains... this past week in northern CO we were able to get about 6 miles beyond everyone else (trucks, SxS's) in a Tundra with V-bar chains. Snow was about a foot deep, but was drifted in spots and had some layering to it that made it tougher than if it had all fallen at once. It was a little sporty getting out as more snow had fallen/blown into the tracks... and we passed several spots where SxS's and trucks had clearly gotten stuck. Lifesaver.

Yeah a stock sxs with 8-9” of ground clearance isn’t great for deep snow, mine has 17” of ground clearance but I also have vbar chains for it.

 

[SonnyDay]

Yeah a stock sxs with 8-9” of ground clearance isn’t great for deep snow, mine has 17” of ground clearance but I also have vbar chains for it.

That lift would have made all the difference on that road! These SxS's seemed to be stock... and the pickups probably were as well. I have 3" of lift beyond stock plus bugger tires to maybe 5" overall. Made a definite difference.

I am still rolling LSDs on my Tundra, so a locking diff (at least on the rear) are my next upgrade.

 

[tdhanses]

That lift would have made all the difference on that road! These SxS's seemed to be stock... and the pickups probably were as well. I have 3" of lift beyond stock plus bugger tires to maybe 5" overall. Made a definite difference.

I am still rolling LSDs on my Tundra, so a locking diff (at least on the rear) are my next upgrade.

Yeah I have front and rear lockers. I don’t have a lift but when I upgraded to fox shocks it gave me about 3” of lift but moving from 26” tires to 30” made a big difference as well.

 

[SonnyDay]

Yep... a little lift here and some bigger tires there get you to places stock just can't do. Went with the Old Man Emu on shocks/suspension since I know myself and won't do the required maintenance on a higher-end set-up.

Back to the subject of tire chains: On my 2011 Tundra, with 34.5" tires, I did have some rubbing on the mud flap on the front wheel wells when taking tight turns and turning around. Scratched up the insides of the flaps but nothing broke. Just took it really slow.

We also lost a plastic connector on the back side of the passenger rear wheel well that caused the plastic inner fender to rub... thought we threw a chain for a sec, but once we saw the issue we just trimmed the bottom 3" of plastic from that inside fender and kept rolling.

Another plug for V-bar chains versus regular: On some of those turns the truck really wanted to crab sideways... but the V-bars helped it hold in line.

 

[Radosilver]

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

Sorry, was out on a hunt and just saw your post. We used chains. I’m no vehicle expert, but I believe all the manufacturers either recommend using nothing or using cables because the chains are wider and there’s a risk of contacting a brake line and breaking one. For this reason I’m always real careful about making sure the chains are as tight as possible and that there’s plenty of clearance once they’re on. I can tell you that if I didn’t have chains my F250 would still be sitting in the snow in the middle of the national forest after I damn near wrecked it sliding down the access road backwards the other week. But I was able to un-stuck myself and creep back off the hill with the fronts chained. I’m always amazed how much extra traction they give you.

 

[TheGDog]

NEED HELP:
I volunteered to be an additional driver to ferry-up some of our troops boyscouts to this cabin camping they'll be doing the weekend of March 17-19th. There was those freakish heavy-rains recently which dumped a lot of snow in San Bernardino Mtns... and this week as well supposed to rain Tues and ran/snow Weds .

So I'm figuring likelihood is HIGH they'll make people put on chains up there.

Never used chains before.

Vehicle: 2014 Ford F-150 STX 2WD. Current Tires are 265/60R18 Cooper Discoverer AT3's.

From skimming thru this thread... looks like there's different choices to make if only driving on road... vs also potentially driving upon dirt roads? (Am I understanding this right?)

Since my usage will be low, easiest to install is probably best.

Since I'm 2WD, will I need for all 4 tires? I'm figuring for traction while steering probably good idea to get for all 4 tires? (Or no? please explain a lil)

Appreciate any help as I have to hurry up and order them today, probably with expedited shipping.

-G

 

[realunlucky]

Simply the bigger/aggressive link the chain has the more traction there will be, but they don't enjoy running at speed. So wiegh the trade off

If you don't chain the front you'll lose much of your braking ability, steering can still be hit or miss which makes braking nice lol

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

 

[TheGDog]

Simply the bigger/aggressive link the chain has the more traction there will be, but they don't enjoy running at speed. So wiegh the trade off

If you don't chain the front you'll lose much of your braking ability, steering can still be hit or miss which makes braking nice lol

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Cam vs No-Cam? Should a person always get those bungee tighteners?

 

[Amos Moses]

Cam vs No-Cam? Should a person always get those bungee tighteners?

The cam makes it secure and definitely yes for the tensioner.

 

[realunlucky]

Cam vs No-Cam? Should a person always get those bungee tighteners?

Cams make them easier to put on as the can be looser during installation but still be tight when you finished.

I like to use the tensioner in conjunction with the cams. A loose chain will tear your truck up so why take the chance

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[TheGDog]

So... what about cable vs square chain vs spiral chain links?

 

[ElkArcher918]

No tire chains until Oct for me.