Back in the 70's and early 80's I was a supervisor in a factory (ACCO) that made about 1/2 of the tire chains in the U.S. at the time. (The V-bar was originally an ACCO innovation.) After transferring to the Engineering dept., one of my first tasks was to destruction test tire chains, in the summer, in a Ford Torino wagon, all day on back roads at a steady 35mph, and record cross chain and side chain breakages as they occurred (testing new designs/steel alloys). My buddy and I would load up in the morning with spare chains, sandwiches, drinks (more often than not six-packs of beer), and most importantly- ear muffs to deaden the sound of tire chains on pavement for 8 hours. At first it was a hoot- "Do you believe they're paying us to do this, ha ha!"- but after a couple days it wore thin, and lasted all summer. I think my butt is still vibrating from that experience...
I fixed up everybody I knew with chains for their cars/trucks.
One of my guys was a WWII vet who started riding Harleys back in the 30's, and all his life never owned a car or truck. His Harleys served him year 'round in all weather- and yes, he made his own custom tire chains for them. Pretty slick, but you should have seen him negotiating snow drifts that would have bogged down a car.
