Tire Life Using Tire Chains?

Might cause occasional small chunking, but most of the stories are exaggerated. I run chains frequently and for hours per day in the winter on a regular basis. I break chains commonly yes, but tire damage is minimal at best. Spinning because you were too lazy to chain up does cause a lot more damage to tires. That spinning tire every time it grabs any little thing like say a rock, it tears out a chunk.
Remember that most damage will be done by loose chains, and not to the tires so much as everything else those whipping chains hit. So get them as tight as you can to start with, and when safe to do so stop and retighten them if you need them on for any distance, as they loosen up while you drive. A chain with tear apart a fender, or rip off an airline or whatever it is, so fast you will be in shock how quickly it happens. Now go chain up and drive safely.

 

What about tire socks? Never tried them. Sure they look easy on tires.



Do they actually work as good as chains? Less hassle putting them on? Are they even a legal substitute to chains in CO, WA, OR - where you must carry chains?

 

We tried tire socks. The local distributor gave us some for free just for trying them out and reviewing them.
They didn't hold up very well under constant use on the highway. They didn't hold up at all on our off road trucks.
I didn't run them myself but our drivers said the sox didn't have the "bite" of a good set of iron chains

 

If you chain properly you won’t damage your tires. If you just throw them on loose and don’t take the time to stop and retighten them you will damage your tires and truck and trailer when you start breaking cross links.

 

I got a bunch in the mail one day and wondered why they were sent to my home address, then a few days later a letter came asking me what I thought about them, I called the number and told the girl who sent them that the cats liked them a lot ... oh sorry ... wrong story ... I told her that we will test them out IF we get snow and call her back. Two months later, I called her and asked if she wanted the remains back, they didn't do well.

 

Yes, if you run lots of off road (oilfield) miles. Between the rocks and the chains you seldom get a casing credit.

 

That's what I suspected. I was hoping for some truck room savings but it would've been way too easy for them socks to replace old fashioned chains effectively.

 

The only thing about chains being hard on tires is when they want you to chain up, like they do sometimes in Truckee, CA and you need to run 10 - 20 miles on only wet road before you hit the snow and ice, but once you do, you feel good about having them on.

 

they are good for getting over mtn passes where trucks are going slow, not for constant use or running "back roads" but good going up and down mtn passes slowly in bad weather. when chains are required, ive put on 2 chains and the rest socks depending on conditions, most of the time when chain laws are up the roads arent even that bad so for me its just about gettin over the mtn. the package says dont go over 25mph and dont spin drive tires when starting out or they will tear so im not sure why drivers would think they are good for running back dirt rosds at 45mph, of course they aint good for that if you read the pkg. mtn passes when chains are required and roads are covered thats what they are good for.