Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives driving with tire chains

Yep. Chain up when and where YOU want to. Not when and where the truck NEEDS to. It's WAY nicer if you can jack the tire up off the ground. Link up your inside first and short. I use those barrel nut "monkey links" to secure the tails. Tighten the outside as tight as you can get it. Move 50 yards or so and re-tighten. Put your tensioners on and GO SLOW. Slower yet if you have to run any pavement with them on. Iron don't stop for crap on pavement.

I'm really bad about that

Built a couple of these to carry in the truck when hunting in winter. It's a 2x12 with 2x4's bolted to it creating a space/slots for the chains. Lay the chains out with two of the links in the slots and drive up on the blocks. Chains are easily attached with this device.

I am old and the written description on the blocks are so my kids will know what they are when they clean the garage on my passing.

I have never seen this type of device ^^^^^ I can see the value in the device.

I just put the chain over my tire from the top and ease my truck forward, then connecting the links.

I hang my chains on the side of my truck the same way so when I grab them to put them on they are all facing the correct direction and I don't have to figure it out everytime I put them on. I have a place to hang 4 chains so it works for me.

Commercial version.

Well I'll be....learn something new everyday!

I don't need chains often enough to get that fancy. I just use a 6" 2x4. But, those do work very well and can save you a lot of time and hassle. They let you get the chains a lot tighter the 1st time which minimizes the tightening after you drive a little. On soft ground, a 2x4 will sink some. If it sinks more than 1", the chains don't move for you.
With that homemade version, a 2x6 is wide enough and takes up less room under the seat.

Are you going to be hunting with someone that's local?

Never had a pair of car chains.

Threw lots of truck chains on, and we used them to build the chains for pickups.

Carry extra bungies(tarp straps) small enough to tension your chains.
Have a spool of mechanics wire and pliers. You should anyway.


If you can find them to fit in the links of your chain shackles/threaded clevis are invaluable for repairs.





I've run a lot of miles using them as the only thing holding chains tight. Just pull and pin, and repeat until you can't get tighter.
Drive 50 yards and repeat. It ain't pretty, but you make do.

I always found, if I had chains, I seldom needed them. If I didn't have them, I often wished I did! GD

No, we don't have a local contact or anything like that. Really DIY for the first time for all of us for elk hunting. Really excited as we leave in 10 days, but also getting nervous about what we don't know!

The biggest thing about hunting elk since the wolves came around is that they’ll move drainages at first hint of danger. They’ll go 20 miles or more before you’ve caught your breath.

If you spook elk out of a bedding ground, that's exactly what they'll do. Hunt around those areas but stay out of them.

Hard thing to impress on young hunters. Especially archers. They think they have to camp in the middle of the elk.

Double check yer brake lines speed sensors/abs sensor or whatever else. I cut the metal ends off braid bungees and loop around lines you don't want getting slapped. I tie off to the frame. So when your suspension articulates, the brake lines articulate inwards towards the frame.

Got a 170 miles with chains. Last run on the Taylor Highway in a few days towing a trailer:
37 bales of straw, 1000 lbs of dog kibble, team of dogs, freight sled,fuel jugs, river boat, snow machine, tools, blazeking king woodstove.

Road is closed (no more maintenance). It's gonna snow everyday. Gonna be a rough one. Then gotta boat bunch of sht down the Yukon in the snow. Madness.

If snow gets deep, I will abandon my truck and run a dog team to Eagle. Then have good Samaritans help me snow machine my supplies. Fkn madness.....+chains!

Better than paying air freight though....

Ran chains a lot for years in the gas patch. I always put them in the rear axle. Lots of sensors on the front of new trucks. I don't know of any newer truck that says you can put chains on the front axle. Some winters we would run chains everyday until the snow and ice melted.

Sometimes you can find tires that are narrower but the same diameter and load capacity. For example, some Dodges come with 265-70-17 but 245-75-17 will fit fine. They're about an inch narrower and will allow more room for chains.

Bleach on tires for ice?

Last year in the 80’s I lived in my home state of CO, I camped in my little 1950’s trailer for all 4 seasons up on the mountain. Rode my horse or walked around for a month either alone or with my uncle. When it was all over I had to chain up all four wheels of my 1978 ford to back up and hook to my trailer. Came off the mountain pushing snow with the bumper. Great memories of those days. Chains were always in the toolbox in those days.

Years ago I had a Jeep CJ3A. We were pushing snow with the bumper going up an old logging road. It was raining on top of the snow at the time. We got to the top and it was very flat where they'd staged the logs and loaded the trucks. We parked and hunted for a while. When it came time to go back down, we were stuck. The rain on top of ice was as slick as any snot could be. The tires had melted down about 1/8" and didn't have the traction to get out of the shallow holes. Throwing branches under the tires didn't work as the tires would grab the branches and just throw them out. We had to chain up one end to move a foot. We left them on until we were down just in case.