Chains Front tire chains

[bstrom]

I use front wheel drive all the time since I am always on gravel, in the woods, on snow or mud, rocks and dirt. After reading the pros and cons on another thread I finally found I think I won't get front chains since with rear chains only it works pretty darn good. I found that if I load the front bucket with snow and keep it low when pushing snow with the rear blade it gives me better traction up front - I've got loaded rear tires so plenty of weight back there.

Plus I'll save some money to put towards forks for all those spring projects

 

[Oleozz]

Only have chains on the front, have had no problems. We are getting a lot of ice this winter and chains are necessary with those conditions.

 

[Fromjim]

Wondering what the consensus is on using front tire chains. I've got chains on the rear but notice the front wheels spinning sometimes especially when pushing a lot of snow backwards with my rear blade. (We get a lot of ice and wet snow here). Wondering if it could cause any damage using front chains with rear chains. Kind of like how you are not supposed to run 4 wheel drive on dry pavement, you want a bit of slippage. Don't know if it's the same principle.

It seems like if I had front chains I would never lose traction when pushing or pulling big snow piles.

You mention seeing the front wheels spinning sometimes, they can't spin unless at least one rear wheel spins, as for using chains on the front, if you look at the Kubota calanders the photos often show the large Kubotas with heavy cross link ice chains on the front only. Unless you do a lot of high speed driving on hard surface I would think everything should be OK.

Jim

 

[bandit67]

I've been plowing a 3/4 mile stretch of dirt road and 4 other driveways for 2 seasons now, and run mostly the front chains only. Without chains the front gets pushed all over the place (I have a 6' plow mounted to the FEL arms).

The only reason I rarely run the rear chains is they occasionally whack the fenders as the chains move a little during the course of a 2 or 3 hour plowing run. I plan to get the wheel spacers this summer so that I can go back to running chains on all 4, without worrying about the chance of tearing off a rear fender.

I read a ton of posts over the course of a couple of years before I decided to give the front chains a try. I wasn't able to find examples of damaged front ends due to chains at the time I was researching. I do NOT engage 4wd, with or without chains, in good traction or dry conditions. Since you can easily feel the front binding when in 4wd and there is good traction, I'm not concerned that I'm doing any damage to the front when traction is bad and I'm using 4wd and chains on the front. I currently have 250 hours on the machine.