chaining up tips and tricks

I run flatbed and always have extra rolled up straps. I do one axle at a time and set a rolled up strap in front of my inside tire and pull up on it.

That raises the outside tire off the ground and I put my chains on easy, and it's easy to get them very tight.

 

Back or front pile the chain is the same. Ive always chained all four outside drive tires. Sometimes you are required 2 trailer axles as well.

 

I know guys like the singles but if I’m putting chains on I’m putting on triples. And for me, if I’m buying them I get the HD ones. Yes, they’re absolutely much heavier than a set of light weight triples but they take an ungodly amount of abuse. As for tips, find a nice clean and dry parking lot and put them on 5 or 6 times in a row. You’ll get it down.

 

For new drivers, practice chaining in the warm weather so you aren’t trying to figure it out in the nasty weather.

 

I'd imagine in an automatic and with any snow on the ground it's hard to just ease onto the chains.. if on flat ground it doesn't matter forward or backwards. But if you can easily roll forward or backwards I'd do it that way so you don't spin the chains out

 

Here's a thread you might want to read.

Chainin' Up With Dave In AZ

 

Drape em over the tire(s) so the tails on the left face of the tire are just touching the ground. Make sure none of the hook sections or cross links on the ends have a twist. Back over em so the tails are at about 1 or 2 o'clock then hook em up. Drive forward a couple tire revolutions, try to snug another link if you can then go. It wont take more than 5 mins after you've done it a few times.

 

When I used to work for a local government we did the similar approach as Big Road Skateboard suggested, we had 6x6's that were cut with a long angle then a flat area can't remember exactly how long, they might have been 3 feet long total, when it came time to chain up our dump truck's to plow and salt we'd back or pull the inside drive up on those 6x6's and chain up easy peasy. Now that I'm an owner op I carry chains but they never come out of the bag, I'm parking when it gets that bad.