I am just watching a show on the National Geographic channel about the power of snow. There are lots of scary stories about how powerful and scary Mother Nature and winter can be.
As an adjunct, I had an interesting experience yesterday. A year and a half ago I put chains on the tires of my snowplow truck. Winter in southern Alberta was a non-event last year. This winter we have had LOTS of snow and temps alternating on a weekly basis from 10C to -25C. After an interesting week where we went from temps about the freezing point to an Alberta Clipper storm (60 to 90 mph winds and -25C temps) and the temps above freezing, I had a first time experience for a moderately seasoned snow plower.
I decided yesterday morning plow out the windrift snow in the 300ft driveway. My plow truck is a 1987 GMC Sierra 1500 with a 305 cid engine. It isn't the biggest engine on almost any block but it has always been good to me and even in 4wd I have always run out of traction before I have run out of torque. Not so much anymore.
The tire chains have totally changed the equation. I have stock tires on the truck and the chains aren't the most agressive chains I have ever seen but WOW what a difference. I was pushing a pretty good piles of wet, heavy snow and more than once I stalled the engine. Like I said, I have plowed with this truck since about 1995 and I have never stalled it from a heavy load on the plow. Traction has always given up first. Tire chains changed the entire equation!!
I am sure some of you with more chain, snow and mud experience will chime in with your stories but I was REALLY amazed how much difference a set of chains could make to my whole plowing / traction situation!

 

Chains on any vehicle help it maintain, or regain traction. I used to have them on an old F150 I had years ago, and I was unstoppable in a 2wd pickup, but I never plowed with them on it.

Negative side of chains will be that they will grab just about any surface and instead of spinning in the snow, lock the wheel against the ground with increased traction. IF you have weak driveline parts, such as u-joints or worn differential parts, the increased traction will bind against those worn parts and can cause failure of that part much quicker. Generally, if you don't beat on the truck, it will serve you right, but then again, if you're pushing a load of snow that exceeds the joint or part's ability to handle torque, it will fail under that load, instead of just having the tire freespin in the wet conditions.


In most plow contractors experiences a 3/4 or 1 ton or greater rated truck doesn't fail nearly as much as a 1/2 ton due to their higher capacity engineered duty ratings. Engine size doesn't matter, as the rating of your axles generally dictate which will tolerate plowing better. and fail less.

 

I have chains on all four also.
About 10 years ago I got carried away and broke the rear drive shaft.
U-joints were fine, the shaft was the weakest point.

 

I carry chains, but I never put them on. I throw them under other peoples tires so they can get moving again. In the rare cases I get stuck, chains would not have prevented it. My shovel sees more use.

 

When I worked in Big Bear I ran vee-bars on all four tires on my F-350. The thing was a tank.

I would air down the tires to about 25 psi, get them on as tight as I could and bound them with the short rubber truck straps, at 12 and 6 then cross them over and hook at 3 and 9.

Air them back up and they are on tight and don't rattle, good for about 50 mph....I know, i know, I'm not 23 anymore, but I never got stuck.

Downside: I became the goto tow guy when my buddy's got stuck.

Upside lotsa free beer!!