Tire chains/cables?

[70 FJ40]

I know this has been discussed and I have searched and done quite a bit of reading. I know there is very little clearence on the front and that Toyota says not to use chains on the front but we are going to be taking a 300 mile trip and expect most of it to be on snowy roads. We have 285/75 16 BFG ko2 tires on the truck. It seems to do very well in the snow (better then any other vehicle I've had for sure) but I always like to be over prepared. I have driven on snow covered roads a lot so I'm not too worried but again peace of mind you know.

I'd like to know if anyone has found a snow traction aid that works well with the 100 be it chains or cables or something else.

 

[cmck]

I go into the Adirondak Mountains each winter and felt the need to have chains available for the 100. I came up with a set of RUD chains that go on easy with a cable approach and used the spidertrax spacers from Slee to add the UCA clearance on the fronts.

I have not had to use them under heavy conditions yet. I have tested them in fresh snow on frozen ground. It gave me a whole new level of traction for sure. I have front and rears, as the last thing you want is unequal traction decending hills.

I hope I can do some snow wheeling later this month.

I have 285/75r16 duratracs and use the RUD snow chains.

 

[70 FJ40]

Hey. Thanks for the info. You just use the spacers on the front? Does that make your track wider in the front then the back? Or does it kinda even it back out after the torsion bar crank?

 

[70 FJ40]

What size spacer did you go with?

 

[cmck]

The spidertrax spacers are 1.25 each. I have not measured the track width front to back, however I feel the width did not narrow a great deal from cranking the Tbars. Generally both tires look about the same relative to the fenders. Eventually, I added spacers to the rear to widen the track width. I felt this would add some additional stability when carrying the RTT.

 

[cmck]

One other thing is that the diagonal pattern of the chain vs a straight across the tread is suposed to reduce sideways drift of the tire. I'm all for that, but I haven't really proved it in practice.

 

[C6H12O6]

Anybody try anything from the Spikes-Spider company for the front. In-laws have a set for a smaller car and they seem to be ok.

275-70-18

 

[flintknapper]

One other thing is that the diagonal pattern of the chain vs a straight across the tread is suposed to reduce sideways drift of the tire. I'm all for that, but I haven't really proved it in practice.

Such a big 'void' with the diagonal/diamond pattern, I have to wonder how it could be better than standard 'ladder' type patterns that appear to put so much more chain in contact with the road.