# Tire chains advice needed



## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Seems like these can be surprisingly expensive. Any aftermarket recommendations or other advice would be appreciated.

* If my Toro wheel is specked at 13 x 5 in. what size chain would one need?

Thanks in advance and apologies for my ignorance.

Barney.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

barney said:


> Seems like these can be surprisingly expensive. Any aftermarket recommendations or other advice would be appreciated.
> Toro 13 x 5 inch wheels.


 To be honest, you really don't need them. inless you are climbing some steep stuff. my old man used to have them on an old eska blower he had. all they did was leave rust marks on the garage floor and made it a pain in the tucus for moving it around in there. I myself have never needed them and I have gone through and over some Gnarly stuff around here.k:k:k:k:k:


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

POWERSHIFT93 said:


> To be honest, *you really don't need them.* inless you are climbing some steep stuff. my old man used to have them on an old eska blower he had. all they did was leave rust marks on the garage floor and made it a pain in the tucus for moving it around in there. I myself have never needed them and I have gone through and over some Gnarly stuff around here.k:k:k:k:k:


Man that is music to my ears. My pathway is on grass than gravel, uneven with *incline at 4ft over 30ft.
I was really afraid I was going to have problems while attempting to blow a foot of snow while climbing up that.*

*Edit: Would a 4ft. incline over 30ft. be considered "steep"?*


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## Hanky (Nov 14, 2014)

Not in my books just 1 gear slower if needed.


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## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

I put chains on mine, and did not notice any difference. I'm on flat ground with paved surfaces.


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## Spectrum (Jan 6, 2013)

Ditto, with decent tires on typical terrain there is no need to chains. You and the machine will be happier without them.

Pete


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## leonz (Dec 12, 2014)

if you figures are correct you have a 12/12 pitch 

You can fill your snow blower tires with windshield washer fluid to add ballast and increase your traction.

The key with snow chains for snow blowers is to anchor them tight before filling them with air after you load the tires versus leaving them loose enough to let the cross chains fall up and down naturally.


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## Town (Jan 31, 2015)

A 4ft rise in 30ft is a 13.3% grade slope. I think that is quite steep based upon the roadside hill markings around here which are 12% for a steep grade. But perhaps my calculation 4/30x100 = 13.3% is wrong.

The tires over the last 10 years or so are so much better than the turf tires we used to put chains on for almost all conditions. The new tires have better rubber and grooves. I think the snow hog tires will handle the side to side chains because the tread depth is low. The tires fitted to ariens are modelled after the Carlisle tires which have deep lugs and the side to side chains get swallowed up in the grooves. You probably need an X pattern chain so the blower rides on the chain on top of the tire. There are other patterned chains that angle across the tread so don't fall into the grooves.

Your tires may work ok but probably you will need chains in icy or heavy snow going up your driveway.

Good luck.


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## 69ariens (Jan 29, 2011)

Like every one else has said w the newer tire's you won't need them


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## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

i used to be chains only, but as mentioned, the new tires " mostly" make chains a thing of the past. i will keep one machine chained for those rare occasions when rain turns the base to a glare of ice then it snows on top, no tread pattern will deal with that like chains do.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

@Town 

Thank you for your time and considered reply. I appreciate it. Your information will help me to make the right choice.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

I have Snow Hog tires on one blower and chains on the Searsasaurus. Out front I have 2 steps under 3' from the lawn to the street, so it's close to 45 degree angle and typically I have a 3' drift the snow plows leave on the sidewalk.


In my case, the Snow Hogs do not provide enough bite to power through the snowplow piled snow or back up the incline from the sidewalk onto the lawn to get back to the house. The chains on the other hand do.


I have bought a couple of sets of chains online for blowers I've sold but the ones on the Searsasaurus are a set I got on one machine that had some crosslinks damaged, which I fixed. You should be able to find chains if you want some at places like Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, Ebay etc.


If you deal with ice or piled up hard snow, don't discount chains. If on the other hand you don't ice or built up snow, then they may not be a good value for you.


Good luck.


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## AriensHydroPro28* (Sep 25, 2017)

There are some real good suggestions here. My case is different, I have a dirt driveway and get lots of snow and ice and wanted to make sure my machine would be up to the task, in all encountered environments. I went with the HD 2 link space V-bar chains. They are not recommended for pavement but for a crush stone driveway, gives "maximum traction". Haven't tried them out yet but just looking at them and you can estimate how well they bite in, they ride on top of the tire knobs and don't fall between. You see a lot of logging skidders have them installed from maximum traction pulling trees out of the woods and in my option, a wheeled V-chained machine offers the highest level of traction available, even over the tracked machines. The V-bar chains can bite into the crush stone and ice and enable the machine to do most of the work (as it should) and not have to wrestle a machine around (maybe preventing a heart attack) trying to get traction in an worst case scenario heavy snow/ice conditions. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

2 - Link Spacing
v-bar
snow hawg
.234 cross chain 
$90.39
per pair

https://www.tirechain.com/16x4.80.htm


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## AriensHydroPro28* (Sep 25, 2017)

One more thing the wheeled machine with V-chains offers. It provides track machine like and above traction in icy conditions and offers the maintenance of conventional proven and ease of handling and pivoting around of a wheeled machine. If someone has a paved driveway, then they couldn't use them and use the lower traction conventional chains, which are still better than nothing.*Every person has there own unique application and requirements, this is just the way I went, based on what just mentioned.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Thank you for that follow up and link. Most helpful. 

That V bar sure looks aggressive.

Barney


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## AriensHydroPro28* (Sep 25, 2017)

Here is the 28 Hydro Pro with the V-chains.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

AriensHydroPro28* said:


> Here is the 28 Hydro Pro with the V-chains.


Yes indeed! That looks like a 'traction master' there. I visited the site and looked at the v bar chains offered for 13 x 4 inch. The only set offred for my size are described as made for a "Snow Hog" tire. Mine are "X Trac" Carlisle. So I'll have to learn more.

* I happened across a post or two by guys *mentioned using studs *as bought from an atv dealer. Anyone have experience with those?


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

barney said:


> I happened across a post or two by guys *mentioned using studs *as bought from an atv dealer. Anyone have experience with those?



If these are something like the studs you could get in car snowtires back in the 70's, they don't work well if you have concrete. They work well on ice, gravel & dirt. They can chew up blacktop if they can bite into it, if they can bite into it they can tear out chunks of the blacktop. They skate over top of everything on wet concrete.


This was what I saw running them for a couple of seasons on cars then they were made illegal where I lived.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

HCBPH said:


> If these are something like the studs you could get in car snowtires back in the 70's, they don't work well if you have concrete. They work well on ice, gravel & dirt. They can chew up blacktop if they can bite into it, if they can bite into it they can tear out chunks of the blacktop. They skate over top of everything on wet concrete.
> 
> 
> This was what I saw running them for a couple of seasons on cars then they were made illegal where I lived.


Yes., I'm on gravel with an incline and have very icy winters. I will most likely go with chains if i need the extra traction although I've read many posts by fellas getting really good traction with this X Trac type tire, even uphill. So there's that. :smile2:


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