Snow Chains On The Front Only ??

[oosik]

Some must get "traction snow", kind of like traction sand. I certainly don't. I have the cold, fluffy kind. Need a heavy tractor or even chains with a lighter one. Then, I got a valley in the driveway. Called -"the Valley of Doom" in the winter. You can ease into it but you best have speed to top out the other side. Snow melt freezes on both the entry & exit. He who hesitates may LIVE in the Valley of Doom.

 

[CADplans]

I really don't undersand that.
I have turfs on my Ford 1510 and it is useless in anything over 3" of snow & less then that on hills.
I even loaded all 4 tires with no improvement.
Front chains (from a lawn tractor) and it can get through 8" and more.
It even can plow as long as it isn't too wet.

Some must get "traction snow", kind of like traction sand. I certainly don't. I have the cold, fluffy kind. Need a heavy tractor or even chains with a lighter one. Then, I got a valley in the driveway. Called -"the Valley of Doom" in the winter. You can ease into it but you best have speed to top out the other side. Snow melt freezes on both the entry & exit. He who hesitates may LIVE in the Valley of Doom.

In this pic, the JD 650 had a running start, in 4WD,, and I just wanted to see how far it would go up my lawn with turf tires,,

The tractor was so stuck, I thought I was going to have to tow it out of that spot,,
then it started moving,, I put it back in the shed,,, :laughing:

 

[tedfarkas]

This is from another thread, but might be relevant:
"I just bought this tractor. Since it is new, I cannot comment on its performance. I can write a novel, however, about trying to get some tire chains on the front wheels of this tractor.
It all started by asking the local John Deere dealer for the chains at the time of purchase.
The first response I got from the dealer was that for my purposes (150 ft driveway) I did not need them. I replied that having plowed that driveway in the middle of the winter for 30 years, I am very familiar with snow conditions in Mt. Shasta. I am also, like every normal human being, familiar with the fact, that rubber tires, without chains, slide on ice. Therefore, I pressed on with my quest.
My second response from the dealer was that placing chains on the front tire might void the warranty."
It's intuitive to think that most of the work should be done by the rear tires and the front tires only "help" the rear ones. If you place chains on the front tires (especially "only" front), the front end is doing the gruntwork, which is not built for. FWIW, I have a John Deere 4310 (4WD) and a 500 ft up-sloping drive way. I bought chains for the rear when I first bought the tractor and did OK in the first winter, then I added an 800lb ballast on the 3 PTH plus antifreeze in the tires and took the rear chains off. That was 4 years ago, and sold them since I no longer needed them.

 

[1Snowman]

I live in upper upstate NY and we get SNOW! I have an L6060 TLB Kubota with R4 tires and they are liquid ballasted. I found grooving all 4 tires very modestly made a significant improvement on snow and ice. No diff. in mud. Also reduce your rear tire pressures down to 12-15 psi. Do not reduce the fronts! Tire grooving tools from companies like Speedway will be in the $100 range. I have also grooved the tread lugs on on old 4x4 truck tires. Was like the tires had another year of life in them. Don't cut below the wear bars.

 

[Jchonline]

What you need is weight on the front. You don't have a FEL and bucket, so that really limits your front ground engagement.

Get front weights and I bet you will see a huge improvement. Chains aren't going to help if you are light in the front.

 

[Garandman]

A neighbor uses chains on the front only but he has turfs. My concern was that the front over driven relative to rears, and much lighter.

We grooved our R4’s and that helped. The local tire shop recommended studs but I couldn’t do it since Sid grooved them. Wound up getting the rear chains and they make an immense difference.

 

[razor]

This winter I experimented with skid steer snow tires on the front only of one of my L6060. They seem to be be an improvement over the R4s. I'm sure chains would be superior but the snow tires do help.

 

[Whitbread]

Chains showed up today in time for the weather rollercoaster. 35-40F tomorrow and Monday with rain, high of 14 and snow on Tuesday.

For cost reasons I went with front chains only. I'll give them a test spin tomorrow!

 

[Garandman]

What size tire and what chains? Those look pretty good.

 

[Whitbread]

What size tire and what chains? Those look pretty good.

The tires are 25x8.5x14 and the chains are non studded diamond pattern from tirechain.com.

 

[Garandman]

Thanks. The ones we got are studded, described by the dealer as ATV chains.

 

[Whitbread]

Thanks. The ones we got are studded, described by the dealer as ATV chains.

I would've loved to run studded, but I purposely bought non studded as I have 3 concrete pads that get cleared and I didn't want to scratch them all up.

 

[LouNY]

I have never run just front chains,
I will say that the studded Euro style chains will normally grip well enough
that there is no reason to spin the tires and tear up surfaces.

 

[fruitcakesa]

With my old L4630, I ran the diamond lugged chains on the rear w/R4 tires. They worked fine in most conditions but
the front tires would push and slide when plowing in some conditions.
An equipment savvy friend advised against front chains as they would put undue strain on the front end. So I never did and dealt with push.
On the M6040 , I have the same rear chains as before but now on R1 tires and of course they go through most everything.
On the fronts I put some lugged ladder chains from my old pickup.
I have not yet had a chance to plow with them, but they look like they will be less affected by plow push.
I also feel the M's taller R1's and stouter front axle will not be harmed; especially since the chains are only used in snow season with lots of natural slippage to allow for strain relief.

 

[LD48750]

Same size tire, 25x8.5x14, two link lawntractor chains and it handles 8"+ snow & this ICE hill with snowmelt running down it just fine.
I did take it out of 4WD and it didn't move an inch.

You will be very happy with just those front chains on your tractor.

As an aside, I got my chains free but have seen them on Craigslist for as little as $25.
MUCH cheaper then the used rear tractor chains I got for my 2N.

 

[bdhsfz6]

My JD 4105 has R4 tires in it, and,, even in 4WD, it does poorly when there is snow on the ground,
Chains are prohibitively priced for the rear tires,, considering how little snow we get,
So, I am stuck using my larger 584 IH that has AG tires on it for snow duty,,

Well, I was digging through some stuff, and darned if I didn't find a set of chains that will fit the front tires,,
The chains are not an exact drop-on, I will have to lengthen the chains about 6 inches,,
so, before I try to lengthen the chains, I thought I would ask,,,

Has anyone tried plowing snow with front-only tire chains? Will it work, or is front-only chains a waste of time?

As others have mentioned, front-only chains work fine. I've used them on all six of the Kubota's I've owned over the years. I'm currently using an 8' FEL plow on my L6060.



If necessary, I can gain traction by transferring some of the plow weight to the tires by lifting the FEL slightly. I can plow uphill using this trick.

A word of caution when descending an icy grade. The rear tires without chains have a tendency to break traction and can cause the tractor to spin around on you. Go easy on the brakes. Disengaging the FWD can minimize this effect. I plow a private road with a steep hill. If the surface is glaze ice, I'll back the tractor down.

 

[CADplans]

OK, I finally went "digging" through my storage,,
I found the chains that came with my Mitsubishi MT372 for the rear tires,,
I thought they looked like they would be close to fitting the front tires on the JD 4105,,, size 10-16.5 R4,,

Well, all I had to do was drop them on, and add 3 links to the outside chain,, this was the result.

I think it will help the traction a little??

 

[BrokenTrack]

I have always just run front chains, and in some ways it is best if you are primarily pulling. Running chains on the back, or running four sets of tires chains in primarily pulling applications breaks things, or causes the machine to rear-up...also called "pulling a wheelie". That is silly because it keeps you from steering, and does not pull any better with only two wheels on the ground. Putting chains on the front gives you grip where you need it, and keeps the front end down.

I also prefer double-diamond ice chains, and not ring chains for what it is worth. You can see from this picture though that the chains are just about all worn out.

 

[fruitcakesa]

I like your choppers safety gear

 

[RalphVa]

Don't you have dual brakes on the 4105? My 4010 had them. That's what you use to steer in snow/ice. Yeah, R4s don't steer even on wet grass. One bad thing, other than their hard ride, about them.

Ralph