Use Tire Chains To Your Advantage
READ THE TIRE SIZE
There are series of digits and characters printed on the side of every tire. You will see on most modern tires the size shown like this: P205/70R14,this example indicates that the tire is 205mm wide, has an aspect ratio of 70% and is mounted on a wheel whose diameter is 14 inches. Understanding these numbers are especially important for you to find the suitable safety chains for your tires.
WHICH TIRES TO CHAIN UP
Since the drive tires are the ones provide force, they are where the tire chains should be mounted. On front-wheel drive cars you should chain up two front tires, on vehicles with rear wheel drive this would be the rear tires. If you don’t know what kind of drive you have, then check the vehicle owner’s manual. One more thing, if you have a four wheel drive vehicle, and you only intend to chain up two tires, always check the owner’s manual for advice on which axle to chain up. If you’re not feeling comfortable with chaining up only 2 tires on your 4MATIC vehicle, put tire chains on all four tires.
If you drive your vehicle under regular condition, a vehicle has about the same amount of traction at each wheel, you will feel nothing unusual when asserting brake, acceleration and cornering. Under snow and ice conditions this balance is destroyed. If you only install snow chains on the front tires, you will find the rear tires will swing when braking and driving. If snow chain is only installed on the rear tires, you will have limited steering ability of vehicle. To restore the balance, you should put snow chains on all tires, driving or not. In most cases the snow chains on the market are sold in pairs, if you want to cover both axles on the vehicle, you will have to get two pairs. Don’t forget there are truck tire chain and passenger car tire chain , the car tire chains are smaller in size and cheaper on price than truck tire chains.