Run Your Chains Floppy or Tight?

[John_Mc]

No chains for me this winter and I kind of miss them, even if most of the links seem to fall between the lugs of my R4 tires.

But I keep remembering my neighbor's chains. They seemed to fall on the ground about six inches or a little more in front of his tires. Seems to me in my case, if the chains fell on the ground in front of my R4 tires, then I would end up with more chain between the rubber and the surface I am riding on, as compared to what I had when running the chains tight, and mostly pulled in between the tire lugs.

If I buy the wheel spacers, I will try running the chains loose and report back. Still seems like a viable option to me though...

Bill

Whether to run tight or loose depends o the style of chain you are using. All of the manufacturers I'm aware of recommend running ladder style chains tight. The same is true for Duo-grip style chains. All of the Euro-style chain manufacturers seem to recommend running them a bit loose.

 

[Oldoak]

When I used chains, I didn't purposely leave my chains loose, but I just ran them with whatever little slack was left after my initial installation. Worked just fine on multiple tractors (double bull ring chains and road chains for tractors).

Try double bull ring chains. Then you will really know what a rough ride is when on frozen bare ground or hard packed snow. I don't think anything beats their traction in deep snow though.

 

[rd_macgregor]

I have duo grip and have to tweak the tightness to keep them from whacking the fender. The duo grip has a rough ride and can be jerky because of the gaps. I wish I'd gotten Eko or Trygg style.

 

[John_Mc]

I have duo grip and have to tweak the tightness to keep them from whacking the fender. The duo grip has a rough ride and can be jerky because of the gaps. I wish I'd gotten Eko or Trygg style.

I've seen people add cross links between the Duo Grip parts, so they end up with a cross between a Duo Grip and a ladder style, with the ladder rungs filling the large gaps between the duo grip patterns. They said it inproved the ride a good bit, but still not as good as the Euro-style (Eko, Trygg, etc).

 

[buickanddeere]

Ladder cross links here spaced every other link on the side chains . Even if a few are between the lugs , others are on top of the lugs and digging in.
Tried to blow snow Wednesday during the storm . Thought that maybe the rubber tire would dig in and not slip at below 0F temps . Tractor was useless until the chains were installed .

 

[John_Mc]

Ladder cross links here spaced every other link on the side chains.

Those are known as "2-link Ladder Chains". The ones with wider spacing between cross chains are referred to as 4-link Ladder Chains.

 

[tmcj]

I would say that mine are just snug. This is the first season that I have run chains on my Max26 XL and they have made a world of difference on the snow and ice. I have the Aquiline MPC's and I'm pretty happy with them. I mounted them, drove it around the yard and driveway a bit, then snugged them up again by hand, no tools needed. I was surprised at how much looser they got after the initial installation and driving around, but they have been fine after the 2nd adjustment. They are just snug enough to stay in place and they leave plenty of clearance to the fenders.

I remember having ladder style chains on my Dad's old FarmALL M and traveling 2 miles up the snowy road to plow for my grandparents and they would lift several inches over the top of the tire if you went too fast. They were pretty much tensioned with bungee cords, which worked fine at plowing speeds, but I quickly learned that traveling up the road a little faster would make them fly and had to slow down, lol.