Chains Snow Chains on just front tires?

5030 · Feb 4, 2022

!5 years for me with only ever fronts.

Cycledude · Feb 5, 2022

YBSMike said:
Hello,

I have been here for a while but got locked out of my old email so I had to re-register today. We have a 2020 LS XR4155H/Cab with chains on the back. To do that we had to remove the little plates that hold the fenders, and the fenders but it's 3 screws each side if I remember correctly. It works well now and only hits rarely when driving at the top of 2nd gear. It hits because we have the "every other link chains", and some of the cross links are actually overlapped, so this makes for a couple loose one on each side that I am going to cut off. That will end the loose links hitting.

About the chain topic, We also bought 4 chains, but once they were on the fronts, I saw that they were lightly rubbing the housing for the front diff, so I took them off for now. I have been using the box blade to plow with only the rear chains, and it seems to do very well when I angle the back blade way back so it's not a sharp edge catching. We have a double blade box, one forward and one rear kinda like this --> )( I only tried this because our new plow failed and I'm waiting on material to fix it, but I assumed this would not work. When you use the scrapper blade, we assumed it would fill up and overflow back onto the road but when angled way back it does not do this. I'm planning to get a top link for it very soon. Had I known this, I would have not bought a plow. It turns out that the snow compresses at the top in the pocket of the box blade, and all the extra snow flows sideways out each side and makes the road perfecty flat, and 7' or 8' wide. (I forget which width we have)

About the chains rear or front, I would strongly prefer using them on the rear if I had to choose, and it's not just because of the ballast filled tires on the rear, it's because you can lock the rear diff and not the front. I have seen my front tire spinning many times now, and it's either the left or right, but with a true posi rear, they both always spin when it gets deep, and I have gone up some very steep hills. We are at 8500', and I found that filling the front bucket with snow and packing it in by really driving into it to fill it as high as it can get for weight, I can get up almost anything. Once I get some weight in the bucket, I take the front boom and bring it very high, to put as much weight directly on the front tires as I can, and I have gone up some very, very steep hills. Just my own experiences guys, I'm far from a pro and this is our first tractor, but what I post does work out pretty well on the worst of roads.

So far no serious need for tire chains on my LS XR4155 , yes sometimes they would be nice to have but because of the possible damage they could cause I will probably never install chains.

Cougsfan · Feb 5, 2022

I have both front and rear chains. Sometimes I just put the front chains on if I just need to "get around" on the ice and snow. If I have work to do (snow removal, pulling someone out of a ditch, etc) I put all four on. The fronts are so much easier to put on. I never put the rear chains on unless the front chains are on too.

YBSMike · Feb 7, 2022

I should have also mentioned, it really depends on your tractor, and your terrain.

The first year up here I lost count after getting stuck in our trucks 15 times. We have had to lift all of our 3 vehicles. We have 33's and 35's now and 4 chains on all vehicles now, and winches. Our situation is extreme though, and its also very rocky. It's very much like driving through riverbeds so we didn't have a choice in using Chains. I was very surprised the rears alone work so well, but we will be using all 4 if I can get the fronts straightened out to fit without risk. We use the tractor not just to plow, but also to get stuck vehicles sometimes, and we need it to be able to go anywhere at anytime.

I can certainly relate to those who have been fine with front only setups. I wish I could do that but it's just too steep. I can run front only chains on our vehicles the 1st half of winter here, but once the ice is the base, I need 4.

We left our rear chains on over the summer, because we also get mud after rains here that can be worse than the snow. The first time I needed chains was for mud before winter. We put the rear chains on and have never removed them. They worked out great.