**E: I ment the last one without chains, sorry!**
Hi! So basically the title. Watched a clip from top gear and all those questions popped up.
Cheers! 🙂
In: Engineering
If you drive faster than recommended the chains can break and F up your car badly.
Also if you need chains the conditions are bad enough you should go slow for that reason alone.
It has been 45 years since I have used tire chains and I am sure lots of things have changed in that time so be forgiving if others tell you I don’t know what I am talking about!
You go slow with chains because of friction. The faster you go the hotter they are going to get. This makes them stretch a bit, which can cause them to start whacking something on your car. And if you don’t get them tight enough at the start, they whack your car. Also, if the weather is bad enough to require chains you don’t need to be driving very fast anyways.
You can use them on any tire, I ran mine on mag wheels and sporty (for the time) tires. Not the best option, obviously, but it can work.
I don’t know about keeping your wheels spinning, that sounds wrong to me. They do bite in when they are spinning but if you still aren’t going anywhere I fail to see how spinning would help.
I also do not about using them on FWD or AWD vehicles, I’m sure that adds another layer of complication.
Hope this helps, and hope it isn’t too wrong after all this time, but no one else had responded.
you’re in a low traction environment. Without context Im not sure if they/you meant keep wheels spinning or keep vehicle moving. Either way, it’s a low traction environment, if your wheels aren’t spinning the chains can’t grab anything to gain traction. They might need to dig a little bit through teh snow or mud to gain traction on the solid ground or ice or whatever is beneath the snow/mud
The number one thing to keep your car safe and on the road in snowy conditions is snow tires. A 2 wd car with snowtires is far better than a 4wd/Awd car with all season radials.
If you use chains, then it doesn’t matter what tires are under them.
If you use chains, you must go slow because the chain or cable will make the wheels vibrate. If you’ve ever driven a car (or sat in one) with chains on, you’d never want to driver very fast. It’s like driving over a corrugated steel. The whole car buzzes.
I don’t know about keeping your wheels spinning. You SHOULD keep your car moving forward so the forward momentum helps get your wheels through the snow. The second you stop, it’s hard to get any traction to build up any forward movement. Deep snow is where 4 wd might help if some of the wheels are just not grabbing onto anything.
Source – Canadian. Also a winter Lake Tahoe visitor. I have many sets of snow chains.
If you visit a snowy place on occasion, then you should buy snow chains. If you live somewhere that gets snow, you should buy a set of rims and put snow tires on them. Swap them just before the first snowfall, then swap them back after last predicted snowfall. 4WD is typically not needed for street driving even with deep snow. 4WD is only good if you are STUCK somewhere. They do not help with controlling your car when it’s already moving, ie; steering and braking … that’s what snow tires are for.
Snow tires are made of softer and “stickier” rubber, with wide grooves to clear snow from under them. They aren’t great in the spring and summer as that rubber gets worn down quickly. They are good in the rain though, but not worth keeping on your car all summer as that’s just a waste.
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