Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire forgot the chains

On my 2008 Tundra I install chains front and rear. You have to make the front chains very tight, or they will hit the suspension. Rears are

a piece of cake. I use the big rubber truck tighteners. The chains I use are the ones with cross bars, they will sure dig and I make sure I have

extra weight in the bed. I usually put the mostly worn out cross bar chains on the front. After I go about a 100 yards I stop and make sure all the chains are

as tight as i can get them, especially the front.

2 questions for this thread...

Thoughts on using chains in mud?

ribka, what are the Maxtrax knockoffs?

Yes, chains in mud works good.

Chains will definitely get you around in the mud. Back in the seventies I kept a set of chains on the 64 chevy 1/2 ton 2WD silage feeding pickup. I was pushing about 4 to 6 inches of mud with the old girl.

The tires were 7.50-16 6 ply bias street tread. I would have never made it up the hill to the pit without the chains. I was feeding four loads a day, all we could pitchfork onto a 8 foot narrow bed with 10 inch side boards.

Chains in the mud; granny low is your friend. Easy on the throttle. You never want to spin a tire, or you will be looking for a wooden plank and the High Lift jack.

Beaver10, T Inman and those who've driven on snow packed on ice;
Top of the morning to you all, I hope the day is breaking bright and clear for you all in your respective corners of the universe.

Since it wouldn't be me if I didn't have a story about something once in awhile, I'll relate if I may a tale of fresh snow on a vertical curling rink base.

My late father used to be quite blasé about road conditions sometimes, which really wasn't exactly a logical position since he was a flat lander for most of his life, but somehow he'd grown to trust my mountain driving ability and the near bullet proof abilities of my '80 Toyota 4x4 longbox.

So it was that we were heading over a local mountain pass logging road, the November sun just beginning to soften up the new snow, when the Toyota pitched sideways on the road without warning.

As per usual, I shut the truck off, left it in first gear, low range and pulled that old ebrake nearly right out of the dash - remember when Toyota's were there?

It became instantly apparent to me we were in for an interesting time when, upon my first boot touching the ground that I slid underneath the truck... oh pooh...

Editing in remainder - not sure what happened there...

The Toyota had a 6000lb Warn on a heavy duty bush bumper, but in order to rig to a large enough tree I had every rope and strap in the box looped together to make it work. Of course being so slippery, the truck pulled straight with ease.

Before continuing on with the process of somehow turning the truck around, I'd just piled all the ropes, cables and straps on the hood and bush guard, then got into the truck to have a quick council of war with Dad as to our next course of action.

The conversation really didn't get started, as the truck - still off, steering wheel locked, in first low, with the ebrake on, took of like an Olympic luge sled backwards down the narrow mountain road!!!

I looked down over the bank on my side and it was a solid couple dozen feet of free air between us and the first trees, admittedly passing us quickly as we careened downwards with ever increasing velocity. I said to Dad, "Put your seatbelt on, we're going over on my side!" and he calmly muttered back, "We'll be fine Dwayne", but began to fumble with his seatbelt...

Suddenly the left rear tire caught in the V-Plow groove - put in so roads don't wash out in hard rains - and through God's providence instead of us going further over the bank, spun the truck around so now we were headed down the narrow pass forwards... the hood still piled with recovery straps, the motor still off, steering wheel locked, etc and etc....

Part ways down the stretch before the corner at the bottom, there's always a corner at the bottom isn't there? Part ways down I got the truck started, found a gear and released the ebrake, but we over shot the corner a tad despite this, but I now had the accelerator pushed down as hard as I'd been pushing the brake and we managed to scratch our way back onto the road.

I turned to Dad and so help me the first words out of his mouth were, "See, we're fine"..

This was in my memory, one of two times that I raised my voice to my father as I respected him greatly, but that day prior to getting out to put the cables and straps away, I replied rather enthusiastically, "We were not fine Dad!"

As a wee bit of an after story, story, this was the first time I was to meet a chap who was the new Conservation Officer in our area and we'd have many pleasant times after that, but as I was finishing up running the winch cable in, down the same slippery road came the BC Conservation Officer Service Chevy 4x4. Now this fine man was full Japanese extraction, but when he rolled down his window, he looked as pale as I did that morning and all he said was a typical Canadian, "Holy S__t Eh?"

He continued on after that brief typical Canadian, winter road condition report and we laughed about it many times after that.

Thanks for letting my mind wander back to a day long ago when my late father and I used to spend a week together in the local mountains. They were wonderful days and when I now travel the same paths with my daughter, I am struck with the thought of how blessed I am to be able to live this life.

Thanks for reading too, all the best to you all.

Dwayne

There is also such a thing a "Mud-Service" chains. Much larger links so as to act like "paddles".

No kidding. Who would think anyone the fire would exaggerate? LOL

My .02;

Up, or down, it doesn't matter, you brake traction, either through acceleration or braking, you're phoucced !

& if you want to up the pucker factor x 100, break through the top layer of lake ice & hope it's frozen solid underneath.

You didn't park lower, pull out the atv and drive that like 90% of idohoans with them in the beds.
My kid lives in N ID, those snow packed mtn roads are to be wary of, we carry 4sets of chains when up in that stuff. Glad you were safe.

Thank you Idaho and 673 for the chains, thank you Dwayne, good story, good thread all.

I have driven though much worse than pictured in a 1952 Buick. I would chain up when the snow was much over a foot deep though. With the chains, the old boat would plow through a lot of snow. In the late sixties, we lived near Troy, Idaho. I believe it was in the winter of '68 - '69, we got 34" of snow overnight. I and my brother were determined to get into town so we dug out the Buick, chained up, and got ready to go. The driveway was about 100 yards and downhill. There was a good bank on the uphill side so it was easy to know where the road was and this stretch was easily accomplished. When we git to the county road, the car was starting to overheat and I had to open the hood and dig the snow out from in front of the radiator. The snow level was just about even with the top of the hood and it was impossible to see where the road was when sitting in the car so the routine was to wallow ahead of the car, on foot, for a 100 yds or so, to mark the road. Then, I would get in the car, back up twenty feet of so, then hit the wall of snow and plow ahead. When I got to the end of the marked trail, I would back up, clean the snow from the radiator again, then wallow ahead to mark the road again and repeat. It took me a bit over an hour and a half to cover the first mile. At the end of that mile, I reached the turn off to the ski hill which had been plowed earlier and showed only a foot or so of snow. From there on, it was an easy drive to town. This was to be a challenging winter and the old Buick got quite a workout.
Because I traveled a lot and was often alone, I always carried a sleeping bag and some extra clothing along with an axe and shovel. Not surprisingly, it is when I am ill-prepared that I am most likely to have problem. GD

Thanks for the story Dwayne.

I have had many slippery adventures. But none so adrenaline worthy as that.

I was expecting a black joke.

Good stuff Dwayne.....I'm luv'n it.

This is actually a pretty good, (somewhat) non-provocative conversation on the 'fire, for once.

About the only time I had to drive in some serious snow was back when I lived in Nevada. If I wasn't stuck working I would have to go "over the hill" to go from Winnemucca to San Francisco to have Christmas with family. "Over the hill" meant driving Interstate over the Sierras. A couple of times the only vehicles allow to go were four wheel drive with chains on all four wheels. Most of he time it was uneventful, just slow. I had a 69 Ford F100 at that time with a one speed transfer case. That damned truck would go anywhere.
I forget if it was December 75 or 76 but I was cruising along at about 25 MPH all wheels chained up When some idiot in a new Ford LTD came whipping past me like a bat out of hell. I said to myself, "He'll be wrapped around a tree before he goes another quarter mile. Sure enough his car was off the road and wrapped up against a tree. He wasn't hurt so I gave him a lift into Blue Canyon where he could arrange for a tow truck. I asked him how he was allowed to get on the highway without 4x4 and four wheels changed. Seems he had a cabin up one of the side roads and didn't know about the restrictions. He had to get into town for a business meeting. Guess he didn't make it for the meeting. I've always been a bit thankful for the transfer to souther Arizona. The only real snow is on Mt. Lemmon and I usually don't go up there in the winter as I don't ski.
Paul B.

Great story Dwayne!

I used to hunt a tricked out for hunting 87 Suzuki Samurai. It has pluses and deficiencies. Narrow wheel base with tall aggressive tread pattern tires was helpful.

Still it being lightweight rig, even with all the racking, winch, full sized spare tire, etc,,, made it a tricky little mountain goat to drive in some harsh conditions.

Winched it out of many ditches and washout when I first hunted it. Learned most of my bad weather driving in the Sammy.

Good times.

😎

Another memorable experience was on a solo trip up to Clearwater lake, in Wells Gray park, near Clearwater, B.C. It was early Decemner and I was driving a 72 Chevy shortbox pick-up; a 2WD truck. The road was covered with compact snow and ice but the temperature was well below zero in the early morning so the road was sticky and traction was pretty good. At one point, just before the Helmecken Falls overlook, the road descends, quite steeply, to the Clearwater river. The road then makes a right angle turn to the left, crosses the river on a Bailley bridge, then makes another right angle turn to the left and ascends the other side. I don't recall exactly how far these grades run but probably a quarter mile or more. The road was one lane, as was the bridge. On the riverside of the road, the drop wasn't sheer but it was close and, if one went off, the chance of survival would be slim. This was about 45 years ago and I would imagine things may have changed by now. Anyway, I negotiated the downhill, crossed the bridge, and made it up the other side with little difficulty though there was a tense moment near the top, going up. I drove on up to the lake and took a walk around, supposedly looking for a moose but, really, just enjoying a nice day. When I headed back home in the afternoon, it had warmed up considerably and was near freezing. The traction was not nearly so good and when I headed down into the canyon it was slick. I drove with the drivers side wheels kind of in the ditch on the uphill side, to find some traction for braking. I made the turn across the bridge and tried to get some momentum to get up the other side. I made it about 100 yards and spun out. I started sliding backwards down the hill and soon realized I had little control. I pushed in the clutch and let the truck roll back a bit then cranked into the bank with the back end. The front slid around until I was pointed downhill again and I made it back down to the bridge. At the bridge, there was room to turn around and I did so. I backed across the bridge to make another run. I repeated the first performance twice more until I had scared myself enough that I didn't want to try again. I got turned around for the fourth attempt but decided to try and improve the odds a little. I took the tire iron and used it to pry chunks of rock loose from the wall and loaded them into the back of the pick-up. By the time I was done, I had probably loaded 500 pounds or more into the truck. At the same time, I scattered as much sand and dirt onto the road as I could get loose. I probably spent a couple of hours at this and, by now, it was full dark and the temperature had dropped by twenty degrees or so and this helped too. I backed onto the bridge again and, this time, I was able to get into third gear and made it up the hill with no drama. The funny thing is, I had chains but didn't have them in the truck, for some reason. I normally hauled a couple bags of sand but didn't have those either. The main thing is, this wasn't the first time I had gotten into difficulty and I knew better. When one is 25 years old, he feels pretty cocky. Today, I'm a lot more chicken though, sadly, not a lot smarter. GD

Nothing like sliding a long ways backwards against your will to rethink the capabilities of you your tires and your truck on that particular day greydog I can relate.

I haven't made it out to Wells Gray that way but have it on my list of things to do for sure. I read in the paper this summer that the area you're talking about lost a great length of the road along the Clearwater river during last years floods. The mayor of Clearwater was looking for funding amongst a lot of finger pointing to get the road repaired. Rebuilt actually from the sat photos its quite a length. Parks are nice but when there's no industry there's no one around to take care of such "roads" it seems.

The thing about that particular area, especially back then, was that you were quite likely to be the only guy on the road. The road that went in on the south side to the Clearwater, up to Mahood Lake, was an adventure in the winter as well. There was an off camber section, a couple hundred feet above the river, which was especially interesting.
Clearwater Timber used to handle most of the road building in that area but the last few provincial governments have done a thorough job of killing that industry. I don't know if it will ever come back. I doubt it. GD

"if think you might need chains, you should already have them on. Of course I learned that lesson the hard way"

I'll add that to my other mantra: "If I am 90% sure I know where I am, I have a 50% chance of being right". "

That road HAS been plowed. The snow on top doesn't look too bad either, tho I don't know how wet it is or what's under it. If there is ice under it, it's hairy. If it is wet snow on top of ice, it's real hairy.

A few years ago we had a very bad freezing rain, overnight on a work day. 1/3 mile up the road from my place there is a banked 90 degree curve near the top of the hill ( I usually coast to my driveway, from the crest, almost a half mile), and as I came around it, the road was blocked by 2 or 3 other vehicles which just couldn't make it any farther - spun out on 3" of glassy ice. I had studs on, they did not. Then my neighbor came around the banked corner behind me, stopped and parked half way around, got out, and walked forward to where I was sanding the other vehicles from the two 5 gal buckets I'd put in the truck minutes before.

We all turned around and watched as her truck slooooooowly slid sideways into the ditch.

It took awhile, but we all went home until the sand truck got out there the next day. Screw work!