Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best type of snow chain?

Michigan is pretty flat. You need more than good tires in mountains.

We only get a decent snow about once every other year here, but with limited equipment to clear it you're on your own on back roads. Nothing is going to get up my hill the last mile without chains or cables for a few days after a snow. We always park one vehicle in a hay field at the bottom and I'll chain up the rears on the other truck to get up and down the hill. Once down we swap to the other truck without chains. After I get on level ground it is only a few miles to the main roads which have been plowed.

Can't say as a fit but i always liked the ones i did not have to put on.

Back up.

Fully understand that studs are not what the op needs.

That said they do not skate on dry pavement. I hear that from time to time and it’s just not true. And they work great on hard packed snow as well as ice. For a cold wintery place they are a great option. I’ve been using them in Wyoming for quite awhile and I have to drive much of the state year round for work.

You do have to buy them and either another set of wheels or have them switched out every fall and winter. Those are the downsides. The upside is outstanding traction and no worries about putting chains on, going from snowy icy patches to dry and back and forth which happens all the time.

Chains on suvs and cars are not a joke. If they don’t fit then they don’t fit. But for hwy travel you don’t need all that much clearance and they work great. If they fit and work on my corolla I’m pretty sure they’ll work on a lot of other cars.

I have to go over Donner on Monday and Tuesday, and these are in the minivan. Even though it has brand new Blizzaks on it, and I will park the darn thing if they won't cut it.

The problem with California CHP is that they use the chain control to slow people down on the mountain. If there is a CHANCE of a snowflake on the mountain, the signs go up, and the chain check stations will turn you around if you don't have chains on your drive axle or 4WD.

It is insane, it is rips the pavement to shreds (think 400 semi's an hour at 80,000 lbs churning chains on bare pavement), it causes untold $ in vehicle damage, but it's Cali, and so it's what you would expect.... SNAFU.

Would chips let you by if someone did happen to have snow tires and no chains?

I guess probably not if you are carrying chains in addition to the bizzacks.

It's also very expensive for the truckers. Besides the time it takes to hang and remove them, running chains on bare pavement tears them apart. Chains are expensive to repair.

Hey Dutch,

Safe travels over that hill. Doesn't look too bad right now:

[img]http://cwwp2.dot.ca.gov/vm/loc/d3/hwy80athwy89.htm[/img]

Yep, pain in the ass when they start closing them. I always try to remember of those 400 trucks per hour, 10%-20% minimum are driven by South Asians who have hardly ever seen snow in their lives, much less driven 80K pounds of tractor and freight over Donner Summit. And there's another 20% or so from Eastern Europe and Russia who's attitude is probably "We drove through worse from Gdansk to Irkutsk, while drinking wodka" so they think they can pass their truckin' buddies going up or down that hill.

Wish there was a way around it. Maybe leave it open until someone goes over the edge?

What really amazes me is folks who live in, and have for awhile, that think because they have an SUV with AWD and Antilock brakes, they can just go down the road at whatever speed they desire. Seems like when I lived in Juneau, there was at least one new one in the center divider or off in the bar ditch every morning in the winter.

Again, safe and prosperous journey.

Geno

Barkoff I lived in California for many years. Driven over the Sierras more times than I can count. For a Honda Accord the chains Rock Chuck recommended are the best. The cable type are a pain in the ass. In California if the snow accumulates on the road the chain requirements go up. My two cents.

Safe travels

Only 4WD with snow tires are exempt. They will actually block the Interstate and check each vehicle before they are allowed to proceed. In comparison, in Idaho we'll think about lighting the lantern that says "chains advised" when we get 10", and when they can't get to the lantern to light it, they close the road. We'll try to find survivors in the Spring.




You've pegged it, bud, absolutely. Snow-idiots abound around that place. Fortunately, weather gods seem to be in a mood to humor me... Had to go around and come down the Feather River one time last year. That was an experience I'd rather not repeat. Still, that was less upsetting than being missed by 10 minutes by the giant mud slide across 80 just west of Truckee the year before.....

What I would have CHP do instead of using chain control to slow things down is to put variable speed limits up. They can do it all across I-80 in BFE Wyoming, they can do it for the lousy 60 miles of the Donner district. But it's easier to just throw the chain law up. SNAFU.

FWIW I have driven all over MT(for the last 25 years) and never had to chain up.


Talking a little Honda Civic on a mountain pass in very sketchy weather conditions. Semi's on I-90!



It was icy as a mofo here last week but luckily no hills.


I can see chains on icy snow pack being handy.

Sam, this was over 15 years ago, but remember it like it was yesterday. Was rolling down 15 into Butte in the semi, empty, when I lost traction on the drives, and basically skittered from the pond all the way down the hill.

Fortunately, MT DOT saw fit to sprinkle a little sand right before the hard right curve, and I managed to hold it together.

That was a day I wished I had chains on in MT.....

I've put 140k on our minivan in since I bought it from Mom in '09. I've never had chains on it but I do run studded snows on all 4. I have chains but just haven't had the need. The Blue Mtns in OR and Snoqualmie in WA can be pretty nasty sometimes but the car handles it nicely with the snow tires.

Dutch, I meant to say we were passing semi's in a blizzard going up the hill in a Civic!


I've never driven semi's on I-90.

No chains but a new set of studded tires and AWD helped some, but my wife still did the white knuckle thing. There was over 100 miles of this crap. . I was doped up in the passenger seat after some surgery. Didn't bother me much.



We put studs on here Nov 1 or so. Haven't seen the need for chains...................yet.

Geno

Dutch, there is probably another way, but likely not looked at as economically feasible by the higher ups.

The CHPs were escorting folks over the Grapevine last week at 30MPH, but that hill is not nearly as high as Donner and whatever they get on it doesn't last as long. I bet they could do the same on Donner, but it would mean OT for the workers and we can't have that.

And that story about the semi, Butte, and the hill puckers my butt and I'm in the cozy confines of my house!

Geno

They did that on Donner quite a bit last year, too. They call it a "rolling slowdown", and basically put a cruiser at 30 mph splitting the lanes. Still beats hanging iron for all the truckers. It's not just damage by the chains to the road and the wear and tear on the chains, but the damage done by broken chains to the trucks and trailers. One broken link can do hundreds (and hundreds) of $ in damage to everything from mud flaps, brake lines to cross members.

I got you there, chains suck except in the very worst of conditions.

And 80-90% of the folks driving in those conditions could probably reconsider their trip and delay it a bit.

A detour by way of the Feather River? You head from Reno up to Quincy and then down to Oroville? Whichever way you went would not be nice in winter weather.

Geno

One of my favorite Donner Pass stories. I'd just picked up a load of fingerlings in the Bay area, and am heading back over Donner. First trip with any kind of snow, and we're in the Dodge diesel with full snow tires all around, plus four chains ready to go. I mean, we'd heard the stories, we'd seen the documentary. We were READY. At Applegate, traffic stops, and we're sitting there getting snowed on. Wondering WTF? Semi Crash? Fatality accident? What?

After about half an hour, a CAL-DOT dude comes sauntering down the middle of the two lines of cars, checking for chains. We roll the window down and we hear the snow-idiot in a Nissan X-Terra looking thing in the other lane ask the CAL-DOT dude "sir, do you know how to put this in 4WD?".

When it was our turn I asked him if I should put the chains on, and one look at the Idaho plates and the tires and he sheepishly nodded "no", and off we went. There was maybe 5 inches of snow on the road, and we had it all to ourselves all the way from there to the ski hill at the summit. Made pretty good time, too. Nicest drive I've ever had over Donner.

My wife lived in Anchorage for 35 years. She got really good at driving in white stuff. However, for the last 11 she's been here in sunny southern Idaho and has got spoiled. Now slick roads give her the shakes.

Yup, Reno-Quincy-Oroville. Would LOVE to do that trip on a street bike in the summer, some time. On that trip, a young guy in a rice burner car blew my doors off passing me and the rock-knocker in the rain. I stopped for a tinkle, and when I started up and came around the next curve he'd lost control and center punched the rock wall -- still not sure how he pulled that off, but the car was rice-pudding..... Anyway, I put my lights on the wreck, the rock-knocker turned his flashers on and used his radio to call the Sheriff and the wrecker, and was told it was 60 minutes before anyone would be there.

So, I agree. Not nice in inclement weather.

But, in summer, on a bike? Oh, my, what amazing country!