Snow Chains On The Front Only ??

[CADplans]

My JD 4105 has R4 tires in it, and,, even in 4WD, it does poorly when there is snow on the ground,
Chains are prohibitively priced for the rear tires,, considering how little snow we get,
So, I am stuck using my larger 584 IH that has AG tires on it for snow duty,,

Well, I was digging through some stuff, and darned if I didn't find a set of chains that will fit the front tires,,
The chains are not an exact drop-on, I will have to lengthen the chains about 6 inches,,
so, before I try to lengthen the chains, I thought I would ask,,,

Has anyone tried plowing snow with front-only tire chains? Will it work, or is front-only chains a waste of time?

 

[Agvg]

Should work Ok, just be a bit carefull if you are pulling real hard, for example trying to pull up a stuck, heavy car when in reverse, that can give a very hard load on your front axle.

 

[Rustyiron]

:thumbsup:

 

[Oldstuff]

This applies to a truck/Jeep and other 4WD's from my experience in hunting in Colorado and seems like it could apply to a tractor. Out there in deep snow it was pretty common to see 4WD's with chains on the front so I asked a local fellow about it and he explained that it gives one just as good traction but adds better steering abilities. The next time I went there I chained up the front on my Jeep and decided he was correct. I also saw Jeeps with one chain on the left front and one chain on the right rear and those guys were getting around jut fine. There was 12 inches or more of snow when I chained up on the front only.

 

[LD48750]

All I use for my CUT.

 

[JLH4]

I chained up the front because I couldn't hardly get up a 50 foot slope in the mud, works great now with or without a load as long as I'm in low, 4wd & diff locked. Haven't tried in snow yet, might get some this weekend.

 

[LouNY]

Your front axle is not your stronger axle, that said you should be fine.
Most chains that get put on front axles are what I consider to be light duty chains.
You will likely get less traction with them then you do with your tires on a hard packed driveway.
The only concern I would mention is that with conventional 4 link spaced chains,
if you get to spinning and digging you may be getting some jolting impact type wear and tear
which can be hard on the drop box bevel gears as it's not a smooth hard pull but a grab and bite.
Now if you use these on the front you can get a lot of traction in snow or frozen ground, more then summer at times.

 

[MHarryE]

I have chains front only primarily for steering ability. Even with chains the tires spin easier on our frozen ground than they do in the summer on gravel with a load in the bucket.

 

[CobyRupert]

OP is plowing.
If snow is really heavy, doesn't the question become how much does the geometry of the plow connection lift up the front end of his tractor?

I agree that have any chains is better than nothing. And chains will still be helpful when you get off the plowed path or backing up, etc... And if slippage is too much, just raise plow some so weight/traction returns to front wheels .

 

[CADplans]

OP is plowing.
If snow is really heavy, doesn't the question become how much does the geometry of the plow connection lift up the front end of his tractor?

I agree that have any chains is better than nothing.

The tractor will only be used with a rear blade, there is no loader,,

Without chains, and 3 inches of non-ice snow,, it was ALL I could do to get the tractor to this location so I could take the pic,,,

The tractor did seem to go OK, but, it was impossible to steer,,,
the front of the tractor would just slide to whatever direction was "down hill",,,