CHAINING...are you ready?

Chaining? Not me. I go to Costa Rica in the winter. I'm a weather wimp. You would be too if you spent a few years as a bicycle messenger in NYC.

 

Geeze, I didn't know anybody survived that job to move on to something else!

 

Their is no primary drive on todays trucks. Both axles drive the same and weigh the same. Somehow this BS comes up every chaining season.

Put the chains on the drive that easiest to get to and be done with it. It's a miserable job to do in the first place, and the less time you waste doing it, the safer you will be. Most trailers sit back aways from the front driver and that makes them easier to get to and chain.

I don't now of any locality that requires you to chain one driver over another. So do what is easier.

Even if their was a theoretical difference between drives, just one set of chains on either driver is almost overkill by the time chains are required. Anything more then one drive set and a drag, is usually just assurance by the local law enforcement to keep idiots off the road and from sticking their trucks on the road and blocking traffic.

 

Well California regulations state that when full chain law is in effect you're to chain the front drive axle with a set of triples and the rear drive axle with a single chain.

 

^^ Evidence please.

That is not what CA DOT says.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/ChainRequire.pdf

The info I have seen read to the affect 'two chains on the main drive axle.' On todays modern truck their is no main drive axle. In years past when the industry was converting to twin drive, it was common for the front drive axle to be loaded heavier due to suspension designs at a time when dead tag axles were common. That time is no more, and the instruction cards I have seen from CA trans. often shows both axles are acceptable.

 

There's your evidence.

 

Yes right there:



and right there:

 

But if you've ever been in Cali in the winter you'd know that 9 out of 10 times they require the max with chains on both. Rarely do they allow just a single chain. Anything else you'd like to argue about?

 

Just a discussion.

My point is their is no "main drive axle" like a hear about every year around chain discussion. Those that claim otherwise cannot even get on the same page as to what axle that is.

^^^ Cal Trans hands out those chaining cards each year when they threatening the chain requirement. Over the years I have gotten them they are seldom the same but they often go more in depth the requirements .