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bekisman
10-Jan-10, 21:12
Having recently slid off an ice-covered road and deposited my car in a ditch, seriously thinking about snow chains, I can get ones to fit my vehicle (low profile tyres etc), but has anyone on the Org used em?

tonkatojo
10-Jan-10, 21:18
Having recently slid off an ice-covered road and deposited my car in a ditch, seriously thinking about snow chains, I can get ones to fit my vehicle (low profile tyres etc), but has anyone on the Org used em?


Yes, they are great in snow or ice covered in snow only, what a hard drive if you hit a cleared bit or just ice, they knock hell out of your car.

bekisman
10-Jan-10, 22:14
Thanks, did use them once; on a fire appliance in the midlands. Once away from the ice, and on tarmac, had to stop to take the blinking things off, we were rattling apart. That was 20+ years ago!

Ricco
11-Jan-10, 21:13
I wouldn't touch snow chains - do too much damage to roads and wheels. My sister tells me that chains are banned in Canada for that reason.

These looked very interesting; would like to hear from someone who has tried them.

http://www.autosock.co.uk/

George Brims
11-Jan-10, 22:11
Chains don't do damage if used properly*. Here in California you have to use them a lot of the time to get up to the mountain areas. Highway Patrol enforce chain restrictions depending how bad the conditions are. There are three levels of restriction.
R-1 chains required except for vehicles with snow tires (chains required for any vehicle pulling a trailer)
R-2 chains required except for 4-wheel drive with snow tires
R-3 chains required for all vehicles
"Required" means you have to put them on. You have to be carrying them if there's any restriction in place. Our SUV has snow tyres so we have carried chains for years but have never had to put them on. It's fun watching the people who have spent huge money on a Porsche or BMW SUV, but then tried to drive up to ski with tyres with skimpy tread. Our thing may be cheaper and older and uglier, but we still wave sympathetically at them as we cruise past. When it gets to R-3, I'm staying off the roads in case one of them slides into me.
I've been told those sock things are worthless. I think they might be of help on icy streets, but they're not going to propel you through 18 inches of fresh powder.

*If you put on the wrong style on the wrong car they do a LOT of damage. Some cars have too little clearance around the tyre, requiring the slim cable type rather than the chunky chains used on trucks. All that nice plastic liner inside your wheel arches gets trashed.

bigno48
11-Jan-10, 22:33
I use 4 chains on my Landrover for extreme conditions. (Uncleared roads with thawing snow/ice and heavy load. Can confirm comments that it is not a pleasure to drive with and it takes 7.5 min per wheel to mount, 2.5 min to remove so I put off using them as long as I can. Chains are also heavy and bulky.

Have also tried auto sock. They are a lot easier to use, faster to mount or remove and more comfortable to drive with. It was just the fact that I grew up with chains as the ultimate emergency traction that stopped me from buying auto socks in stead of chains for my Landrover.

Both chains and auto-socks are for emergencies and you tend to put off mounting them until you are in the ditch, only to discover that you left them at home...

I use four snow tyres during the winter months. This gives me allround better grip so that and I can drive safer in snow, ice and rain/slush.

My drive is now half a mile of ice, more like a bob-sleigh track than a steep road. It is so icy that my dog fell over this morning. Our little Corsa with 4 Gislaved Norfrost snowtyres goes up and down without problems.

Snow tyres are marked M+S and you can get them from most tyre companies in Caithness. (They may not know much about them, and may tell you you can use them only on the front/driving wheel. This is rubbish, illegal for good reasons in other countries and makes the car behave like a shopping trolley on ice)

Snow tyres have
-A different rubber compound that stays soft and sticky below 5-8 degrees (This is when normal tyres starts going hard. Try pinching a standard tyre when it is freezing)
-A more open thread, better at pumping snow, water and slush away from the tyre.
-Seips, small cuts in the rubber blocks of the tyre pattern, these open up and "pinches" grip on ice.

Result is better steering, faster stopping and you get up the hill in snow and ice.

As long as you don't use the winter tyres in the summer, you get the same mileage as summer tyres. A good wintertyre cost the same as a good summer tyre. I have them mounted on their own set of rims so that I can swap when it suits me. I would like to think that over time my two sets of tyres cost me the same as running on only summer tyres. The only added cost is an extra set of wheelrims, which you can get cheaply second hand.

The feeling of driving safelyand relaxed with winter tyres in so-called treacherous conditions: priceless

Ricco
13-Jan-10, 18:44
I've been told those sock things are worthless. I think they might be of help on icy streets, but they're not going to propel you through 18 inches of fresh powder.


Quite agree but I don't think they are meant to.

Tristan
13-Jan-10, 22:05
A good set of proper snow tires/tyres makes a huge difference in the snow. Even compared with the all-season radials you get in Canada.

bekisman
15-Jan-10, 12:52
Ricco - thanks for link to autosock are going to get em, ready for the snows forecast by piers Corbyn

'Piers Corbyn astrophysicist of WeatherAction long range weather & climate forecasters said today (Dec): “The gritting crisis and travel chaos in the present big freeze in Britain & Ireland is largely a direct consequence of out-moded forecasting procedures as used by the Met Office, and the unreadiness of Councils for this Arctic blast because they are misled by Global Warming propaganda from government and media and the Met Office’s ridiculous forecast for a ‘probably mild’ winter'.


He's not always right but a blinking sight more right than the Met Office..