Lloyd, never seen a 4x4 with chains? Jeez...ever drive ANY mountain pass in a snowstorm? I don't think I've ever done one where there WASN"T a bunch of guys running chains. From the big azz'd plows that toss em on when they know its going to get tough, to the guys laying gravel, all the way down to the highway service, and patrol guys in their 4x4 pickups who know they're going to have to spend all night up there making sure the noobs who paste themselves into the banks don't stay there long enough to reach the same temperatures.
Guys, I ran my first set of 4 chains on a little hurricane jeep when I was 9 years old. I've run em in europe, and all over the western US. 1. Do they increase traction on anything but rock or rock hard like surfaces? Definitely. 2. Are they possibly dangerous? Yep, guys that like to run the wheels at 30mph when the vehicle is moving 3 mph will soon have large gaping gashes in their wheelwells. 3. Will they tear up your average trail? depends, most trail damage i see is guys spinning lugged tires long after they've lost any vestige of forward movement. They dig out huge holes which then erode like the dickens turning in a few seasons to impassable holes and moguls. Guys with chains who know how to use them never spin a tire, after all, that's the point.
In the end they are for slow, sure, traversal of 'gunk'. In southern Utah where the clay dust after a rain turns into incredibly sticky goop, caking onto your wheels in minutes to the point that they jam in the wheelwells, I use chains on a slightly loose setup so that they have some room to move and in doing so, they dislodge the clay.
I guess depending on what you do, it looks as if most of you don't need em so no problem. But as Phil says, if you've never run chains before in snow, you have a whole new world waiting for you
just
1. get a set that fits RIGHT!.
2. Learn how to put em on and cinch em up.
3. Slooooow, Smooooth, and gentle on the pedal is the key to long chain life, and maximum effect.
4. If your chains get rusty, easiest way to clean em is to put em on and go run through some sand for while
pull em off, hose em off , lay in sun to dry and then hit em with WD 40 and bag em for next season.
A good set of chains will get you through stuff you cannot traverse any other way, not everything, but more than you're going to get through without em
Last comment on mud. I once had to go track a lost kid in the California San Bernadino Mountains after a storm.(I was a tracker trainer for the SanBernardino County Sheriffs once) Road was soooo muddy, that if you stopped and leaned against your truck, it would slowly slide right off the road, no kiddin and where he was lost, off the road was a damned dangerous place to be... I and a local guy named Dick Wilhouse (chief tracker then) put chains all around on DodgeZilla and pulled a trailer with 2 good horses in it up a road you couldn't hardly stand up on. Everyone else came in by helicopter. nuff said.
Good Chains are damned cheap for what they get you.
Buy some
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