Chains on front tires for pushing snow

[Fallon]

The tractor manufacturer may have the best say on front chains. With four wheel drive I don't understand why the front drive should be weaker???

1 word... steering. Rear axles are huge bars inside of pretty stout axle/transmission housings. All they need to do is spin.

Front axles have to spin & steer. That requires several gears lots more bearings, seals & other moving parts. The bearings are usually the weak spot that get crushed by heavy loads on the loader, which promptly cause seals, gears & other parts to fail. Also based on tire size, it's easy to figure out which axle they expect to get the most load & traction.

 

[CADplans]

In my opinion,, with that loader, and blade in front of the loader,,,
you do not have too little weight,,, you have too MUCH weight to be able to steer.

Drop the blade, and loader, get a cheap 6 foot 3 point hitch blade at Tractor Supply.
The tractor will become more nimble, and you will remove the snow much faster.

I always drop my loader when the snow is deep. Everything works much better.

Oh, yea,,, I do not need front,,, or rear chains when the loader is off.

4WD is perfect especially if you use the diff lock.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

4wd tractors are as useless as **** on a boar on the ice. I have a 10k lb JD with ag tires and all 4 tires get chained with the talons and v-bar duos. No problems on the icy hills. Also have the kubota with r-4's thats just as useless without chains when the snow pack gets slick. I run 2 link v-bars on the front of that for plowing as well. No issues in over 8 years of plowing. Also, rears are loaded in both machines, the JD has wheel weights too.

 

[PILOON]

Well my tractor (bought used) had all 4's loaded.
Fronts rotted out due to the calcium that leaked and I had to re-rim.
Over time all that pushing a plow caused damage to my crown an pinion gears in the front differential. (costly)
The rims also failed because they flexed trying to keep the tractor going in a straight line, having learned I no longer use my plow in an angled mode, in fact the blade is now welded into a straight push mode with 'ears' on the sides.
My blower is my best friend. aka: blow it as far away as possible so no more high snow banks.

In lighter events I push foreward, drive over and reverse and simply blow it away.
Heavy events I blow it all into the forest.

Oh, and to save my neck I installed a 7" display and a rear mounted camera.
Works great, especially since it cost a mere $60.00 on EBay from China.

 

[Rustyiron]

I have to think that any wive's tales about tire chains on the front being bad for the (driven) axle has to be from poor judgment or abuse by the user. Simply plowing snow that is fairly light as compared to digging and lifting a bucket of dirt in the dirt, that is as common of a task for a tractor. Similarly as with a properly ballasted 4wd tractor pulling a heavy set of plows. With a layer of packed snow or ice (on a driveway) that many of the northern state's accumulate early on in the winter season, with any type of hill or slope, chains are a big help, and with ALL tractor/machinery operation, there must be common (machine) sense applied.
I run these "ice chains" on the front and I swear their actually ice magnent's, with nothing on the rear's and have some pretty good hill's that I need to make the first pass, up hill.

 

[zmansmac]

Like k0ua, I have chains on all 4 of the tires on my little B7500, and they are turf tires. Going on 14 years and not had any drive train issues. I did have a problem with the front end being pushed to the side if I angled the blade too much and was plowing deeper, heavier snow. I have a 6 foot blade that fits on my quick attach in place of the bucket. My front tires were 8.50 width and I had to replace them last year. I went to a 10.50 width (same diameter) and had them filled with Rim Guard, like the rears. I know the chains don't help the side pushing problem but the extra width and especially the extra weight on the front tires caused my problem to go away.

 

[Egon]

Rustyiron, those are surely nice ugly looking chains.

 

[oldafretired]

Like k0ua, I have chains on all 4 of the tires on my little B7500, and they are turf tires. Going on 14 years and not had any drive train issues. I did have a problem with the front end being pushed to the side if I angled the blade too much and was plowing deeper, heavier snow. I have a 6 foot blade that fits on my quick attach in place of the bucket. My front tires were 8.50 width and I had to replace them last year. I went to a 10.50 width (same diameter) and had them filled with Rim Guard, like the rears. I know the chains don't help the side pushing problem but the extra width and especially the extra weight on the front tires caused my problem to go away.

That's interesting about how filling the front tires helped with the sideways slide. Are there any negatives to filling the front tires?

 

[Fallon]

That's interesting about how filling the front tires helped with the sideways slide. Are there any negatives to filling the front tires?

Stress on the front axle, mostly on steering components. It won't be carrying the weight (the advantage of loaded tires over weight on the frame). However there is more weight to move & more traction to overcome when turning. Extra stress on bearings & steering gear. Most manufacturers recommend against loading the front tires.

 

[Garandman]

Thanks for the great info everyone! So I guess I won't be putting on my front chains this winter. It's enough work putting the back ones on anyway. //

What do you have for earthpads? [Tires].

I grooved the R4's, which helps some. Lengthy thread here.