Chaining up: Socks vs Cables vs Chains

THANK YOU for the highly informative take on chaining!
The area I'll be running most will be quite a bit of SoCal and less NW (tho I'll go anywhere if there's enough money in it).

My daughter lives in L.A., so that gives a weighted factor to where I'll choose to book freight.
Tho even with that, you never know - I sat at the Hesperia Pilot for 2.5 days in the winter of 2009 because they had closed Cajon Pass due to snow and these people don't even know what a snow SHOVEL is, let alone a plow!

It's not a fear of chaining up for mountains, or driving in adverse weather. As I say, been coming out here over 10 years (mostly from the Midwest - from Minnesota/Iowa...yeah we get snow, often measured in feet instead of inches).
The reasoning for never chaining up...well, there's a few. It's been my experience that if chain laws are out, so are the idiots, and as you said - cowboys that think they know better. Sometimes they get away with it. Sometimes they cause accidents. I simply prefer not to be involved when the latter is the case. True, those same idiots could have an accident in the same mountains but on dry ground. The odds are simply greater when you add the variables of chains, weather and increased traffic (I. E. Me especially LOL) to the equation.

My dad told me when he started teaching me to drive, "Son, you could be the best driver in the world some day. But no matter how good your get at this, you'll NEVER be able to control every idiot driver out on the road. This means you'll have to be careful enough for you AND them."
I've held to his maxim since then...with an occasional reminder.
I know sometimes it's unavoidable. Weather can change unexpectedly.
But for the most part, I get around chaining by doing a few things. Waiting it out is one. Can't tell you how many times in ten + years, I've gotten to Fernley, seen the sign saying chains...get to Sparks...go have lunch...come out, get in the truck and the chain laws are down. Just took them a little time to clear it off. And I've NEVER had to chain in the NW.

Came outta the Seattle area a month ago (early January). Going clear to Michigan. Obviously 2 routes I could take that don't vary a great deal in mileage. Looked at the weather app...then at a few key areas on the 511 apps I have. Pendleton = nasty. Freezing rain in Ogden. Talk to a friend who says it was -27F in Wyoming with the wind chill plus some snow. Took 90 & 94 all the way to Michigan. Didn't hit a single flake till Wisconsin. It only got to -5F at the lowest, too.
It's really a simple cost analysis function, in my experience when it comes to chaining. Profits gained almost never exceed liability and risk incurred. Maybe for a pro who does it all the time in the NW, I dunno. But for me running it hit or miss, I don't see it.

And the only person I know personally for whom the same isn't true, is my sister and brother-in-law. They haul bullrack to Central/NorCal with a lot of bouncing to Utah and Idaho. Their loads don't ALLOW for stopping to wait it out or really much for alternate routes. Too much time on a load for them means dead animals. That they have to pay for. So they chain. But they're the only ones I know that do it consistently.
And that includes my mother heh...before she retired, she was doing the same running areas I do, only a bit more NW. She got tired of flatbed when she hit 60...then retired at 66 (first of this year).

 

Well of course. But within the world of trucking, you're a bit of a rarefied breed! LOL