Which tires on Triple Axle to put tire chains on?

Well, it turned out not to matter much this time, as we didn't have to chain up anyways. Bare pavement up, bare pavement down, and about 15" of snow in between. It was great, the Raptor did even better than I was expecting in the cold weather, and a great time was had by all. It's hard to believe how nice it is to have your own trailer up at the ski area and basically to come home each day after skiing rather than to a rental or hotel room. We will definitely be using it as home base again in the future.

gijoecam
i agree completely .
the advantage of using the most distant axle for the " drag chains " is a time honored practice .

Clearance and legal issues aside for a moment, just thinking from a purely physics standpoint for a second... Here's my opinion:

If you have torsion axles, it won't make a difference in terms of grip function. If, however, you have conventional leaf springs with an equalizer, I would recommend the rear-most axle. Why? The brakes exert a moment around the axle. Essentially, the brakes want to force the axle to rotate in the direction of travel. In theory, if only the rear axle is gripping the the ground, it will tend to force the front of the rear spring down. Because of the equalizer, that downward force on the rear will result in an upward force of the front, thereby removing some force from the front axle. That force will get transferred to the rear axle, which should further aid in tractive ability.

If, however, you install the chains on the front axle, the resulting braking force will tend to force the rear of the front spring upward, which till force the front of the rear spring downward. That motion would tend to lever weight off the front axle and apply it to the rear, which is the exact opposite of what I think one would want in the at situation...

snowpeke wrote:
If I was pulling a 40 footer I would not go in a snow storm. I have seen them stranded on I80!

They were probably stranded as they thought they did not have to do anything special while pulling a trailer in the snow. Little did they know. Pulling a trailer is a bit tougher than just driving in the snow. BUT< it can be done safely!

I remember driving all 60 miles home in the snow from I90 snoqualmie. Easy until I got off the interstate. Granted I had chains the whole time. Got to with in 3 miles of home, a city cop tried to stop me at the last minute from going down this hill. He slipped and fell on his butt trying to get in front of me to stop me. I drove around him, past 4 cars spun out and a local transit bus that was dead in its tracks. Went around the corner at the bottom just fine. Hill is probably 5-6%. That was the easy hill. I had a 1 mile 9% grade to go up just to get home! only to have a link on the chain braker 1/4 mile from the hill I had to goup. Took off the chain, already had the truck in 4wd, just hoped the one chain on the drive axel, factory GM lcoker, went up, pulled into driveway at the top of the hill, had a few issues, backing the trailer thru 6-9" of snow into the driveway.....otherwise, it was just fine! Kids thought it was fun too seeing the cops faces as we drove by with out slipping! not to mention having a foot of snow on the top of the trailer! LOLOLOL

Marty

If I was pulling a 40 footer I would not go in a snow storm. I have seen them stranded on I80!

In addition to what has been posted :
In Oregon go to Trip Check . com
There is an easily understood set of diagrams for every possibility of chaining up .
Top of the page and clicky .
Trip Check is the most useful tool for any of us in Bend regarding road conditions and chain laws and road construction available .
We have it on our TV frequently also because it gives us a clue as to which pass we have to use to get to the Willamette Valley .

Funny, I never have owned chains for anything but a Class 8 Truck (Peterbilt) In 2. 4 million miles of driving I have run chains 1 time for 4 miles on Stevens Pass when it snowed so hard you heard the shussssshing and I was empty. I ran Co for years and never carried them.

WHite pass is still reasonably steep as far as st hwys go. Similar to the road to gvmnt camp, 5-6'ish %. Not like going up to snoqualmie as I used to do. that is 3-4%.

It is very doable, just do not plan on going fast. Take your time, give your self plenty of time to get there.

Marty

Hey Marty, we are actually going up to White Pass in Washington, so no, we won't be driving down off Timberline road in the wind and snow. Headed up in a couple weeks, can't wait!!

For some of you saying wait it out! Does not work that way for the 200-300 RV's in ski area's overnight parking lot. We go up heck or high water! only time we do not, is if the road is closed. Some cases, yes one does wait it out, but most of the time not.

I used to do the rear on BOTH sides with the tandem axel TT. I also did a spring over axel lift to give me a bit more clearance for both the chain clearance to the body of the RV, along with deep snow clearance to the tanks etc under.

I also installed the covers for the overhead vents too. Do not remember the names, but that helped when one had 1-2' of snow on the roof, one could keep the vent open more than a crack.

I preferred chain chains to cables, as they have a bit more bite on the road, seen 30-40% more bite from tests.

Good luck, have fun. Hope you do not have to come off of the Timberline road with blowing snow and ice on the road. Did that with 40-50 mph winds one time....quite fun!

Marty