I've read most of the tire chain threads and already have 2 sets of quality chains. Wondering if someone might have come up with a creative way to haul those bad boys around?
Tire chain storage
- Thread starter NOTNSUV
- Start date
Birey
New Member
I to am wondering where to stow tire chains. Am I crazy to be considering mounting both chains on the spare tire or hanging from the stock recovery hooks on the front bumper?
I don’t need to hear about why you don’t use chains. My LJ is not a daily driver.
I don’t need to hear about why you don’t use chains. My LJ is not a daily driver.
I bought a set years and years ago. Havent used them once. They were stored in a toolbox on my truck. If I had a set for my jeep they would be stored the same way. Otherwise keep them in the garage until you need them.
I personally like tool bag. I have one for tools, one for my tire repair,air up down. I have one with a bigger set of tools for week long trips or to throw in the motor home. I keep one with my recovery gear and one with all my tow stuff to hook the Jeep to the motor home. Toss the chains in on winter in the Jeep summer in the garage.
I don't have chains for my LJ, but I have them for my hunting rig (an older Expedition). I bought an Army Surplus heavy canvas tool bag for them, and when they are in the rig, they are in the center of the vehicle because they (I have a set of 4) weigh about 80 or 90 lb, and I want that weight in the center of the rig.
I wouldn't put them in either location, personally. Both are the worst spot for adding weight to a vehicle (farthest from the CG). Also, depending upon your tire/wheel weight and spare tire carrier, it may not be a good idea to add weight to the spare. Putting a 35" tire/wheel on a stock tire carrier with stock tailgate and hinges is already too much weight. Adding 40 pounds of chain would destroy the tailgate pretty quickly, I fear.
Fair enough. It's your rig. You do you, and I'll do me! However, I will share why/when I do use chains. With my Expedition, I've used them in slick mud and on glare ice to get off a mountain. In both scenarios, it would have been a death rodeo getting down without them.
I have found this set up works well for me, granted I have multiple tool sets but the set for the Jeep stays in it, that way I don’t forget the wheel hub socket or something else that is important when needed. I can pull all my bags out to clean the Jeep. Before long trips I will go through each bag organize and inventory then toss in the Jeep. I built a box for my spare fluids and parts so that can go in or out depending on situations.
My chains stay in the garage in a plastic milk carton with the tightners. If I do use them I hose them off and let the dry out. They ride around in the back of both of our 4 WD’s from Nov-Mar as required by law.
I usually end up using mine at least once a year. The set on my wife’s car have never been out of the case.
I usually end up using mine at least once a year. The set on my wife’s car have never been out of the case.
Birey
New Member
Thank you for all this. Like you I use them for getting into and out of the mountains and frequently put them on as soon as I hit snow, leaving them on until I get back down to dirt. Thus I’m looking for a place to put them where they are handy, where they will not leave too much of a mess, and in a way that they can’t become a missile in an accident. I think I know where I have some old canvas laying around. I’ll probably just tie them up in that and then tie them down to something in the cargo area.
I keep mine in canvas bags along with bungies. There also supposed to be a set of gloves in the open bag but my Son must have forgot to put them back along with some bungies as he was the last to use them. Chains have saved me countless times over the years.
Thanks for bringing up the subject it made me check the bags. Here in Ca drivers are idiots and the CHP makes you carry chains with 2” or less of snow.
Thanks for bringing up the subject it made me check the bags. Here in Ca drivers are idiots and the CHP makes you carry chains with 2” or less of snow.
Birey
New Member
Birey
New Member
How much snow do you need to get to have to use chains? Just curious, since I was fine in 3' of snow with stop and go driving. We rarely ever get that much snow here.
OP
There's a lot more to Nevada than Las f'n Vegas.
My house is at 5500'. Come to 7000'+ in the windblown mountains of The Great Basin of NE NV and we'll talk. Apples and oranges vs. east of the Rockies.
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OP
I'm talking offroad/snow wheeling, not highway passes. And, notwithstanding other opinions, chains are the shit that works in our snow and terrain.
Birey
New Member
You can never tell by the amount of snow that falls. Maybe it snows three inches and gets a little windy and it gets like my driveway (pictured) in an hour. Or, on your way up a logging road into the mountains in the morning and you can drive ontop of a foot of refrozen snow. Then you park to go for a ski and then the sun comes out and you gotta get back down through a foot of snow turned to slush. Or it is a 1/2 inch of snow driven over by several hunters refrozen into the slickest thing you have ever experienced and you are on a steep and narrow logging road. I could go on and on about all the times I’ve needed chains. I’ve even need them (and not had them) in the middle of the summer.