Automatic Tire Chains... Anyone else seen this?

So as usual, we have people who have never used the product making broad statements about the product and the ones who use it. You and Nate need to re-read my first post, I said they will not replace a set of triples if that is what is needed. You guys are good for a laugh anyways.

 

Little does Daffy Duck know, automatic tire chains have been around for 74 years. Regular tire chains... 111 years. The idea of chaining... Well before the car.

Little research goes a long way.

 

How 'bout roll yer own cable chains?

 

My old man had a salt box built for his last truck. It was kind of a one-off thing the mill was trying out so the drivers could salt some of the really bad spots on the bush roads. Guy who built it did a great job. All stainless and checker-plate aluminum. Used an air actuator to open and close it. Wasn't all that heavy either. Probably less than 70 lbs plus the weight of sand/salt.

 

"Singles are junk". "Automatic tire chains are useless". Stop and think here for a moment fellows. Every situation is different. Of course climbing the Coq, or some of the steep grades on the Alaska highway, or a bush road to a rig on a hill anyplace outside of Hinton AB, or Fort Nelson BC, or any of a number of similar places you would be wasting your time with anything less than triples. Most experienced truckers would realize this. It is for the less extreme situations where a set or two of singles or the atc's have their place. I use one or two sets of singles many times throughout the winter to get me out of snowy yards, or to pull an occasional hill that just requires a bit more traction than the tires afford. There are so many varying conditions and scenarios in the world of trucking, that rules for one type are not going to necessarily apply in another. I once drove for a large company. Their chain up policy was, if you need chains, you must chain all 4 drive tires, with triples. In other words, there was no allowance for a driver to think for himself and use his common sense as to what he might need. I think big companies come up with these policies when they have incidents resulting from poor decisions made by drivers, and I suppose it's a natural process for them to establish policies like this. Anyway, back to my original point, every situation needs to be assessed on it's own, and dealt with accordingly (provided you are either your own boss, or work for a company which lets you think for yourself and doesn't just consider you a robot who must follow company policy). If you younger guys want to drag n throw 4 or 6 sets of heavy triples, have at er. Not me anymore. I'll gladly stay where my little singles are enough.

 

I am still trying to figure out when triples got heavy? I have chains on the load that weigh more, along with some dunnage.

 

I could see having these on my truck if I did more city work or light regional work, they could be handy for the odd icy yard or getting rolling at an intersection or such.

As noted previously, I would not expect threes to help me much on the Coq, or most bush roads. That's when I throw triples for sure.

 

Yep, common place and in use for many years on school buses here in Alaska .

 

Well, 40 years ago I don't remember them being heavy, or even 30. But 20 years ago I had some memorable times with my sleeves rolled up to my armpits so that I could dig the mud out from between the duals a handful at a time to get triples on. I think that was the summer they started to feel heavy for me. We had one of the wettest summers on record and I would have to chain up on average 10 times a day. The mud was like concrete once it dried on those chains, and you had to beat the crap out of them to get some of it off in order to put them on again. (When I couldn't run it off). That was the summer I learned to hate triples.

 

That Alberta mud is something else isn't it? You don't wash it off, you use the pressure washer to cut it off in pieces.