My snow blower came with tire chains and I have to admit that I never have used them. In fact, I don’t even know where they are at this moment. I might have used them a few times in the beginning, when it was really icy on our driveway, however now I just don’t bother. It is just too much trouble to get them on and off. My snowblower is about 24 years old and still going strong. Sure I have had to do a few repairs to it over the years. Rebuild the carb, replace a couple of bearings on the auger shaft, but that is about it. As far as snowblower tire chains are concerned I think the only time I would use them is if I was clearing snow on an icy slope.
The thing that I have not missed is the snowblower tire chains that came with the machine. You would think that after all of these years, I would have had to use them. I have a large driveway and it has a slight slope to it. Most of the time there is compacted snow on it and the tires can grab onto this for traction. A few times there have been ice covering the driveway and the tires will slip a bit while pushing the snowblower forward. all you have to do is place the snowblower in a lower gear and take your tire. Sure the tires will slip here and there, but you will still move forward.
Tire Chains
If tire chains come with a new snowblower that I was buying, I would take them, but probably never use them. I would not ever pay extra money for the tire chains as an option after my experience over the past twenty or so years. this is the reason we are writing this post. Some people may be conned into buying tire chains for their snowblower and we want to save them the money. Now if I had a driveway with a steep slope or a sidewalk with a steep slope, I might feel differently.
Snow Blower Tire chains – Flat Driveways
As I said our driveway is pretty flat and does not present much of a challenge other than it is long and wide. If it was sloped, it would be a different thing altogether. Even with a little bit of ice, you might have a tough time getting up the driveway with your snow blower and then tire chains would definitely provide the grip you would need. It is important to make this evaluation and then decide based on the circumstances that you are dealing with.
Also if you are clearing driveways in the neighborhood for money, I would have chains on my tires as well. You do not want to waste any time with the tires slipping on the ice. Tire chains will definitely make sure that you do not slip and slide. You might save 5 minutes on each driveway so this can add up over a number of driveways. If you are doing 10 driveways, that’s almost an hour you can save. Which is time you can use for more driveways or just control the time you spend outside in the cold.
Not Everyone Needs Chains
We do not need to have snow blower tire chains for our situation. We realize that there may be some situations that do require tire chains on snow blower wheels. That is why we discussed these situations in the preceding paragraphs. You may agree or disagree or have other opinions about when to use snow blower tire chains. Feel free to leave a comment on this blog. Any well-written comment that is well written and about the subject of Snow Blower Tire chains will be accepted along with a link back to your site. We will not approve comments that are spam or comments that are just looking for a link with no supporting comments about our site.