You will need heavier for sure. If you are going to brew your own consider this design; I made a set for my F250 using this pattern. You don't need a welder, no cutting and splicing, chains are easier to put on because they don't slump as much as a straight bar type, and the anglular pattern runs smoother. You would get better traction with 'real' chains with v-bars, etc but I you want a cheap easy solution this might work for you.
This pattern is made from one continuous length of chain and the triangle tips are joined by clevises. Your local Princess Auto will have both go on sale periodically so you don't have much invested. If decide you don't like the tire chains, just undo them and you still have a nice long chain and a bucket full of clevises to play with
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Nice, that pattern certainly looks simple to figure through and actually DO, but;
I figured the amount of chain needed for each "side circle" plus the length of the 12 cross chains as follows.
The tires on my little tractor stand about 46 inches tall, but the part of the sidewall where I would want the chains to link up would be about a 32 inch diameter circle, OK so that times pi gives the circumference - times 2 because there is another circle on the other side.
201.06 inches so far (WAYyyyy too precise). Lets say 16 ft 9 in ?
These are 17.5Lx24 R4s and to avoid the cross chains going down into the gaps between the lugs I figured the best way to route them would be between the lugs near the edge and over the lugs near the middle, easier to see than to write about, but going from a gap on one side to the best available gap on the other side leads to almost a 45 degree angle along/across the tire.
Anyhow the number of lugs on each side and the offset between one side and the other got me to 12 cross chains each 32 inches long.
So another 32 ft for those makes 48 ft 9 in total without including the effective length additions of the joining links.
Seems 50 ft per tire would do it, 100 ft pail/bucket, so I can price that easily enough.
I think the number of joining links is equal to the number of cross chains per tire - plus one, maybe plus 2... anyway it is a couple of dozen or so.
Anchor shackles ain't cheap, neither are the E shaped links with a drive across roll pin. Round numbers, you need so many of them that they cost about as much as the 100 ft of chain )-;
So I am back to procrastinating and re-figuring.
Against this I looked at some VERY aggressive skidder chains for ~$900 and some much thinner "mesh" pattern tire chains for ~$600, which made the price of shackles look more acceptable (-:
The "mesh" pattern ones are by OFA and are probably FINE for ice, which would be my primary rationale.
They also have a low profile, so would work out for anyone with fender clearance issues.
My tires on that tractor are spaced out all the way, so this doesn't really apply to me.
I looked at them at B&B chain/Chappell Tractor in Milford, NH.
(locals take note)
~$600 is a lot for the small number of times I have lacked traction on ice, my snow clearing conditions are fairly easy/simple without any grades or re-freezing run-off, so somewhere in the back of my mind I guess I would like to get some mud duty out of them.
Maybe not, if I had enough forethought to put chains on I would have enough forethought to keep out of a muck hole anyway.....
Yeah, I ain't going in those places REGARDLESS of chains and winches (-:
