Guys,
I run chains all year round. If you think you can go through some mud with your 4x4, put some chains on and you will be surprised. In the summer I use my snow plow to push horse manure into a pile. The chains allow me to put a lot less stress on the quad.
To get the chains to fit real tight, let the air out of the tires. With the tires off the ground put the chains on as tight as you can get them. Then air the tires back up. This will take the slop out of the chains.
As far as going fast with chains on, I put them on my Raptor and haul a$$ across the fields. It puts out about a 40 foot roost.
Denis Kirk sells some real good V-bar light weight chains for ATV's. They're inexpensive and look great.

 

letting the air out and reinflating sounds like a real good idea.

 

Scott:
I checked my front end this morning.. the rubber of the tire at mid point from the edge of rim to the top of the tire is about 5/8" - 11/16" from the strut and the tie rod is about 1/4" max from the tire and it is also about 1/2 way up between the tire top and rim top. My tire chains on the front are only about 10 1/2" wide at the max and only drop down the sides of the tire about an inch, They just miss the grease nipple on the tie-rod. If you look in my pics it appears more but there is 5 - 6lbs of air in the tires which appears to round them out in the pics. I didn't mean to pull to the outside with the bungees, mine have the outer and inner chain lengths equal, I just use the bungees to prevent the chains from twisting on the tires while turning (it seemed to help on the originals and always install them now on the bear claws, force of habit)

Anyway, I just went to toy shop and found my reciept for my chains, they where bought November 19, 1997 at 16:21 (must of been stuck in a snow storm LOL): I just went a checked and they got a good web site and found the following

"kimpex V-Bar 2 space chains" web page: http://www.kpx-kimpex.com/
click on "tire chains" and it will download in acrobat reader the catalog pages.

My Front tire part Number = 133569
My Rear tire part number = 133572
and they are pretty well the same numbers from 1994 on up to 2003 for everything above a 400 up to 700's with the odd exceptions, looking at their pages...

I looked at those tire chains from wallingfords, nice sets but they do appear to go almost to the rim...

Hope this helps....

...Honcho

 

Honcho,

That definately does help. I'd have to look at mine again but I can honestly say that I believe we have the exact same front end set up. You have given me renewed hope on my project. I'll check out the kimpex website. Those ICC chains I bought draped over the tire way too far and would have tore my front end all up. Sending these chains back on Monday....definately getting the rears (the right size)....still studying the front. Thanks again.

Scott

 

Just my humble opinion..... Driving 40 MPH with chains on for 3 miles is not a recommended practice. The problem is if you are not in snow or at least on wet ground, the chains heat up. This is when the chains are most likely to break. The cold snow or wet ground cools the chains down. However, the faster you go the hotter the chains will get. In a car its not as bad if a link does let go or a chain comes off. The worst that can happen is it wraps around something, the least a couple of scratches to the paint. But now we are talking about a machine with a saftey issue of the driver being exposed very close to the tires. I dont know about you all but I would want to be hit with a set of chains at 40 MPH. But just an opinion here.

Ice

 

My old man had a chain come off his F250 when he was going down the road at about 50 mph. I think he forgot they were on. Anyway, the chain swung around and beat on the fender a few dozen times before seperating completely from the tire, tearing the hell out of it. It not only took the paint off, it took chunks of metal out of the fender too. I can imagine it would go through a plastic fender like butter, and that is way too close to the rider for my liking.

 

Honcho,
I will agree with you on one thing, A tire chain in the right situation can be a great advantage. I have used chains for years. However, as I stated before I don't like them on cement or pavement due to the fact that they will scuff up the surface. Every time the chain contacts the cement or pavement the tire looses contact with the the surface do to the chain being there. When the chain contacts the pavement/cement if it does not have something to bite into it will slip, and now you have marks in your nice pavement. A chain will only bite if you have a surface that is soft enough to dig into, but also will not just spin on out from under the tire. That is why chains due work on ice because they will dig into the ice with the links, but the ice does not just spin out from the tires like snow that is not very hard packed (ice). A tire chain will not dig into your nice cement/pavement and give you the bite you really want. And I would hope you wouldn't want it to. However a tire chain does work good on icey dirt/stone driveways and grass/yards because it can really dig into the yard or can break up the ice and get to your dirt/stone driveway. That is why I stated I prefer not to use them on a nice driveway. I feel that I get more surface area of the tire to the driveway and I usually have less problems spinning without them. But your technique has something to do with the amount of spinning also. Nice and steady goes a long way, verses a lot of rerring and tearing that is not good for the machine either. As for the 40 mph tire chain rides. I hope your just showing off. If not, someday you will more than likely have one come off. And if you do, It has been nice sharing internet space with you. You may not make it back to your computer to tell me, "Maybe you were right"


Everyone please be safe out there, and if you area running chains, keep the speeds to a minimum.

 

I picked up a set of for chains from Denis Kirks Outlet store = A great Deal. For my SP700

It is a real Pain in the royal behind to get the chains on tight:
1] Make sure the tires are warm
2] Let all the air out of said tires
3] Get those things as tight as you can (Swearing cussing and a liquid beveage or 12 of you choice is recomended)
A] Have a friend help you by pointing out what you are doing wrong/ what would work better.
4] If you want to run chains on the front, get 1" 1/2 spacers from HL and put them up front. Works perfect with chains on my stock tires.
A] Once your tires are chained up LEAVE the things alone, unless you have another few hours to rechain the things again later on in
season.
B] This gives you a reason to buy another set of tires.
5] My chains have stayed nice and tight, they don't flop around at all. And yes they do give me better traction pushing snow then just the
stock tires. Thus less wheel spin, equeling less wheel hop. I dont have to "Get a run at it" I can keep the machine at lower speeds and
RPM's. Generaling plowing at a slower wheel speed. YMMV
6] As for bunge cords, only use those things on stuff you can aford to loose or want to get broken. You ever wonder about all the bunge
cords along the road. They were holding something down when they let loose.