need tire chain if driving on snow?

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OutbackSurvivor

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Hi everyone,

I need some advise please. do I actually need to put on the tires chains if driving on snow? or I just drive with the original tires that come with my 05 Liberty Renegade. I don't know much about tires but it just said it's for all terrain.
 

Tigrou

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hi,

I use my KJ without chain recently.
about 50 cm of snow and in 4WD it was not a problem.

I think you need chain if you are doing off road but not on road.
 

cowcatcher

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My Liberty was purchased locally in Eastern Washington State but the dealer who had it was in Western Washington State, 300 miles and a mountain pass away in November. The dealers needed ro swap vehicles and that was going to cost me another $400. I told my dealer that the deal was off unless I did the swap so they handed me the keys to a new rubicon and off I drove in a snow storm. On the way back the weather was so bad that the mt pass was closed. When it opened again it was a 10 mile traffic jam as the Washington State Patrol was ticketing and turning back anyone without chains or 4WD. The let me right through with my stock tires and 4WD and I pretty much blew by anything on the road after that. Been that way all winter.

That beiong said, the stock tires are not the best in snow.
 

grogiefrog

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I think you would really have to have some deep snow or bad roads, that you would need chains. Maybe for a mountain pass, but they'd probably close it in that case (like Dave said above).

I've taken my KJ into 8 inches of snow with no problem, with it's stock tires. With the Revos on my TJ, it does fine in rear-wheel drive, lol!

My dad did have an old CJ one time, where he did put chains on it up in Idaho. But up there, they had massive amounts of snow in the winter. How much fun would that be huh?!
 

Tigrou

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Look also on the forum "Snow pics"
you will see a lot of us driving with stock tires and without chains.

I'm really happy of my GoodYear Wrangler SR-A.
 

cowcatcher

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I need to add that when I got to the top of the pass on that trip I needed a................break. (whistle) No one had been to the rest stop yet and there were 12" to 14" of loose powder in the parking lot. Woo Haw what fun!!!!!
 

Marty

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With the stock tires, GOING on snow is no prob. STOPPING on ice, big problem.
 

cowcatcher

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I guess I would also be a little worried about chains and the pinch weld. It is hard to get chains real tight and if they got tangled in the pinch weld it might be messy.
 

turblediesel

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Pinch weld?
Body parts welded together.

Look behind your front tires and you'll see a pinch weld that gets artistically pounded over to fit bigger tires after a lift. I think this is "cowcatcher's" area of concern.

I keep a set of cable chains in my jeep and only used them to move a trailer into it's winter parking spot. All chain types need snugging up after a few turns of the wheels before the work begins or they can fling outwards from the axle and destroy stuff. Old chain style chains have the most mass and reach out inches from the tires. The rubber bands aren't enough to take up the slack when the tires spin. They need to be set up properly on both sides of the tire to work well.

Chains have helped me out a lot over the years. Happy to put them on to keep out of trouble. I always have them in the winter and hardly ever need them.
 

Selahdoor

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Body parts welded together.

Look behind your front tires and you'll see a pinch weld that gets artistically pounded over to fit bigger tires after a lift. I think this is "cowcatcher's" area of concern.

I keep a set of cable chains in my jeep and only used them to move a trailer into it's winter parking spot. All chain types need snugging up after a few turns of the wheels before the work begins or they can fling outwards from the axle and destroy stuff. Old chain style chains have the most mass and reach out inches from the tires. The rubber bands aren't enough to take up the slack when the tires spin. They need to be set up properly on both sides of the tire to work well.

Chains have helped me out a lot over the years. Happy to put them on to keep out of trouble. I always have them in the winter and hardly ever need them.
Thank you very much!

I stopped relying on those rubber band thingies years ago, and threw them away.

For a while, I used rope. Woven in a star pattern, stretched tight with trucker's hitches. etc. Then tightened again after about a 1/4 mile.

Now, I use cheapo ratchet straps in the same way. Shortening the long part of the strap, by quite a bit. (Cut it off so it doesn't get tangled.) Still stop after about a 1/4 mile and tighten everything. Sometimes twice.

And never go very fast at all. If I am using the chains, then conditions are bad enough to go as slow as possible, anyway.

I also add the screw type 'add a link', to ensure that no potential 'loose end' can work it's way loose to cause the kind of problems discussed here. I'd rather spend the extra time and trouble getting everything battened down tight, than to have to deal with the problems caused by loose chains.
 
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