Tire chains, front only?

[deepsnow]

Longer (~0.2mi), hilly (steepest pitches ~10%) driveway in Lake effect snow country. Living without chains for the past several years. Over the past few seasons our winters have been getting warmer and warmer. Problem has been icy drive. Couple days ago snow blowing the drive (NH25D with 60" 3pt rear snowblower) the same getting old situation. Can't get up the steeper sections. Loss of traction. My neighbor has put chains on the front only of a Class2 JD. Claims works fine. Has front mounted blower. I leave the FEL on. Figure the weight load on the front wheels should be similar.

All wheel drive with chains only on the fronts. Any bad things possible? With the minimal rear wheel fender clearance (running ags), big $s and mounting/removal issues I'm trying to avoid chains on the rear.

 

[Ezlivn]

You're going to get a million different responses on this one. I just did this very thing to my JD 790 and it has made a world of difference. I have NO regrets whatsoever. I just needed that extra "bite". I'm not working the front end hard at all......just need that 'bite"
I likey:thumbsup:

 

[atgreene]

It's your tractor, do what works for you. Just be prepared and forewarned. I snapped the front end of my older Kubota 345 30 hp a few years back as I didn't have enough rear weight, even with rear chains. The front chains dug in and BANG, snapped a gear in the front drive. Kubota no longer made the part, had to have it specially welded and machined. Real ugly.

I run front chains now, but never w/o rear chains and LOTS of rear weight.

 

[firefighter jim]

I believe chains on the front is a no no. I also believe some front wheel slippage is a good thing.

 

[204saskman]

i run them front and rear. i was running just fronts but i needed the extra traction so installed the rears too. It makes a huge difference with just the fronts, but with all 4 its perfect, now i can steer and i have traction doing it. IMO i would run what ever you want. I know this much, they call it Front Wheel Assist for a reason, its there to assist you when you need it. but thats just my opinion.

 

[First one]

Longer (~0.2mi), hilly (steepest pitches ~10%) driveway in Lake effect snow country. Living without chains for the past several years. Over the past few seasons our winters have been getting warmer and warmer. Problem has been icy drive. Couple days ago snow blowing the drive (NH25D with 60" 3pt rear snowblower) the same getting old situation. Can't get up the steeper sections. Loss of traction. My neighbor has put chains on the front only of a Class2 JD. Claims works fine. Has front mounted blower. I leave the FEL on. Figure the weight load on the front wheels should be similar.

All wheel drive with chains only on the fronts. Any bad things possible? With the minimal rear wheel fender clearance (running ags), big $s and mounting/removal issues I'm trying to avoid chains on the rear.

Check out 4x4 chains- front only, Under owner/Operating
Alot of different points of view.

 

[RickB]

It's your tractor, do what works for you. Just be prepared and forewarned. I snapped the front end of my older Kubota 345 30 hp a few years back as I didn't have enough rear weight, even with rear chains. The front chains dug in and BANG, snapped a gear in the front drive. Kubota no longer made the part, had to have it specially welded and machined. Real ugly.

I run front chains now, but never w/o rear chains and LOTS of rear weight.

Best answer yet on a topic that will get widely varied responses. Remember that paint color is a non-issue, the quoted response is non-denominational.

 

[deepsnow]

Enough doubts about front only chains. Will continue to remove the snow as in the past. Worse situation is climb back up the slope on the cleared section of road and clear the snow from the top down. Todays light snowfall (~6"), slick but not ice covered drive was not an issue. Didn't even need to lock the differential to blow snow while scooting up hill.

 

[JB4310]

yeah there is some fear about using fronts only, enough that I felt guilty running them on the front only, and that was using loader for snow removal, (the max stress on front end) I did it for a few years now I have all four. I always had all four as I have all kinds of surplus chain around, just in the past I didn't think I needed all. But this year I did and I'll prolly chain all four going forward now.

atgreene gave you a fair warning from real experiance, but people break all kinds of things doing all kinds of things. I'm sure there's more folks who ran/run fronts only who haven't blown their front ends than those that have.
It's hard to recomend something that even Might do damage to your equipment, but maybe get the fronts this year (just assisting that blower up hill, no loader work) and try them out and work towards getting the rears in the future.
Chains will make your snow work that much more efficient and you will have no regrets, no one ever does!

You mentioned your front loader, you could try loading up the bucket with ballast, snow or sand etc if your not gonna get the chains. Don't do that with front chains only though.

I've got a nasty mess to clean up as soon as I finish this post, 5" snow with 3 hours of sleet and freezing rain on top. I'm gonna be very glad I've got all four chains again today working on fairly steep inclines.


JB.

 

[crazyal]

I run chains on just the rear. I've read both the pros and cons people have posted but at the end of the day I figure if they are on the back I can always lock the rear diff and now have two tires with chains. I've also heard of people saying it's a bad idea to remove the rear drive shaft on a 4wd (knew someone who pulled a 4wd truck behind a motorhome on a dolly) and drive that way.

I guess it could be an old wives tale or you could find out it's true the hard way.