spec me some snow chains in prep for the winter

bigjimmyauk

bigjimmyauk

bigjimmyauk

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2009
Posts
6,038
Location
North Leicestershire
well i moved to a new area and got stuck in for 5 days earlier this year due to my new house being only accessible by going up a hill and a road like a ice ring plenty of us got stuck and depite my own efforts with nearly 50kg of grit i got nowhere fast. At the bottom of the hill is a major bus route so not stopping on the way down is not an option.

it did tick me off our road was almost undrivable whereas the road at the bottom was fine because it got gritted 24/7 cause it was the bus route. Think we had 5 crashes last year one of them even went through a fence into the local park

ideally i need some chains to go down this hill and come back up so they really need to be able to come of quickly and with minimal effort

car is a FWD vaux zafira tyre size is 205/55/16

and no i don't have TC neither even ABS is a load of cack on bad ice and when i looked at these last year people had bumped up the prices due to the weather so thought i should get them early this year just in case
 
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How about....

Park down the bottom and walk up? I doubt even snow chains would help you drive on ice on a hill :P Probably be better off with a proper set of winter tyres over the chains.
 
How will you get up the hill with your snow-chains on when the roads been blocked by everyone else who is stuck there?
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
How about....

Park down the bottom and walk up? I doubt even snow chains would help you drive on ice on a hill :P Probably be better off with a proper set of winter tyres over the chains.
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But if i park the car at the bottom it's a slippy half mile walk up the hill with kids etc i will bear it in mind but would love to be able to get to my front door this year without fearing for my life lol.

and what do you mean by proper set of winter tyres?
 
doofer said:
How will you get up the hill with your snow-chains on when the roads been blocked by everyone else who is stuck there?
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most people slide down to the bottom apart from the lucky few who can make it back up the hill. Last year quite a few tow trucks friends with winches etc were there daily keeping the road free from cars and the ones that were truly stuck managed to kerb them to keep them there until they could get free
 
surely walking half a mile (with kids) is easier than faffing about with snow chains and driving half a mile on dodgy ice (with kids)

I also still don't get how people are getting stuck all the time how steep is the hill?
 
whitecrook said:
surely walking half a mile (with kids) is easier than faffing about with snow chains and driving half a mile on dodgy ice (with kids)

I also still don't get how people are getting stuck all the time how steep is the hill?
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It's not actually that steep it just collects water ice etc then other cars come and squash it it freezes over again like a sheet you know how it is after 1-2 days of cold or snow it's like a ice ring
 
eBay.

Got mine (255/35/R18) from eBay from snowchainsuk, and they enabled me to drive up the steepest of icy, snowy hills in the French Alps in my RWD 3.0 diesel of doom.

But tbh there isn't anywhere in the UK I got that stuck I needed chains, and I even purposefully went out looking for places in the hills to get stuck, in preparation for driving to the Alps.

ShakenNstirred said:
surely a bit of a pain to put on just for that bit of road when more than likely the rest of the journey the roads are clear
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Takes 5 minutes max, so long as you have practiced how to fit them.

Lord-Jaffa said:
doubt even snow chains would help you drive on ice on a hill
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Says the man who has obviously never owned a set. They help wonders, the difference is like night and day.
 
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4wd helped me so much last winter. our driveway turned into an inch thick ice rink. golf and fiesta couldnt move. audi acted like there was no difference.

had to go to redhill. traffic everywhere stopped due to the hills, audi just carried on and on.
 
snowball1 said:
Get a lot of snow in Plymouth then?
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I doubt it, but he is (typically) right. The UK doesn't tend to get hit hard enough to make it worthwhile, the only reason I bought a set was due to the legal requirement for driving up to the ski resort in France.

And as I said, I found it impossible to get completely stuck anywhere I tried to go within the UK.
 
i had some nutter at work asking me about buying a c-class coupe. already told him to lay off the smack for a few days and come back to me when he had some serious suggestions, but a week later hes all paniced as hes put the deposit on one, found out its rwd and is worried about the snow

"youre worried about the snow we MIGHT get for 2-3 days a year? ive already told you to lay off the smack"
 
Will Gill said:
it took 6 feet of fresh snow for me to put my snow chains on, man up and just drive slower if you run out of talent :p
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The colder it is the easier it is to drive on, fresh snow is fairly good to drive on also.

In parts of the UK you commonly get ice in the -10 to 0 region which just turns to water as you drive over it - not as good as -15 ice.
 
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