[Packout]

My wife and daughter have a Colorado deer hunt in 2 weeks and I'm wondering if we may need chains for the ATVs. Anyone Use ATV chains? Do they help? Any issues we should be aware of with them? And if you use them- any specific brand or style? Are diamond chains that much better to justify 4x the cost?
Lots of questions, because I've never used them for ATVs.

 

[Critter]

Depending where your hunt is chains might be a good idea. A lot of the high country has snow right now and while I haven't seen any in the future there may be a lot of mud.

I haven't used any even running around in the snow in January but I do have a friend that uses them on frozen north facing slopes and he says that you can't get to the top of the hill without them.

Since I haven't used any I can't recommend any.

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk

 

[taxidermist]

When I had a 4 Wheeler prior to getting the SxS I used them running my trap line. I had a set of the diamond chains that were for light trucks, SUV's. I don't remember the size of the chains, but they worked great and saved my but a few times.

The problem with buying vehicle chains, is that they might not be wide enough for an ATV tire unless you put them on the front tires. Steering is tougher if your wheeler doesn't have the EPS. Just make sure they are on TIGHT and don't have slop! If you throw a chain on a wheeler you can have major issues and can tear up brake lines and so on. Just keep your speed low and don't be racing down the trail.

 

[deerlevi]

I’ve never used them but I’d assume they would help some and under certain road conditions could be very helpful. I’ve personally never had a situation where I felt like I needed more traction, but the problem I’ve had when getting stuck in snow on atv’s has been that the snow is deep enough the machine essentially gets high centered on the snow. Lots of digging underneath the machine so the tires can actually make contact with something and usually I’m good to go. And by go I mean turn around and get out haha

 

[High Desert Elk]

10 inches of snow breaking trail and they come in really handy on a 4 wheeler.

Buy chains made for your ATV, they're not difficult to find them.

I have the V-Bar (diamond?) and chain up all wheels.

 

[DallanC]

Hellz ya... chains are great. I have probably 8 sets now for various vehicles. I picked up two brand new sets this summer off of KSL for the jeep and its 33's for a steal. Years back someone had a Ebay fire-sale on atv chains and I picked up a few sets for $25 a set.

Throwing them in tomorrow for the deer hunt, just "in case".

-DallanC

 

[Packout]

I'll have to see what I can find before their hunt. Probably won't spend the $200 for the diamond type. Thanks

 

[DallanC]

Choosing Diamond or not, depends on your tread pattern. If you have more mud paddle style tire tread with "valleys" running across the tire, normal ladder chains can get down inbetween the lugs. The diamonds prevent this... that is their only reason for that design. Normal lug tires, or tires that dont have a valley straight across the tire section, work fine with regular chains.

For example look at a popular atv tire: MudLite's. You can visually see how ladder style chains could fit between the lugs making them useless. A diamond chain would work better on this particular tire.

If your chains are slightly oversized, you can run the outside offset from the inside, making for a bit more "diagonal" fitment of the "ladder" that can help avoid slipping between the lugs. This ONLY works on tires with big lugs for the chain to hook into on the edge of the tire... otherwise they will eventually align inside to outside, which will loosen the entire chain.

All depends on your tread pattern.

-DallanC