Thanks for all of your replies. Next question: Some trucks had chains on the front drive axle only, some had the chains on the rear drive axle only, and no trucks had them on both. So, which axle is best or correct?

 

Lot's of different opinions on the proper axle to chain. Me... I chain the front axle if conditions are light. If climbing steep grades, then I chain both axles. Yes more work it is..however..you will never get a ticket for to many chains. When I hang a drag chain on a trailer I always hang it on the left front boggie. I prefer that the chain lead the trailer towards the center of the road, versus the ditch.

 

My lead driver got me out of the bunk at the top of the pass and said, "I'll show you how we do this." The year was 1968 and I was a new driver at Tri-State Motor Transit. I had never been west before. He told me to put on my coat in case there was an accident, and we pulled off the shoulder without chains. A UPS set of doubles pulled onto the road ahead of us, and a car got between our rig and the UPS. The UPS driver had chained his drives, one tire on the lead trailer, and one tire on the second trailer.

If we had been descending by ourselves, lack of chains would not have been a problem. However, every time UPS stepped on his brakes, I thought we were going to crush that car between us. Luckily, UPS picked up a bit of speed each time the road straightened out. We could lengthen our following distance until the next time UPS used more brake. We simply could not brake that much without chains. We made it. But I thought, "Yeah Bobby, you're going to show me how we do this!" He was sweating.

 

Thats funny. Double Diamonds, ya no kidding. It is often hard for drivers to understand what we get up here until they really see it. And most don't see it when it gets bad. I am not saying it doesn't get rough elsewhere, I am just saying that if you don't want to chain, best not come to BC in the Winter. Especially Hwy 3 from Hope to the Crowsnest Pass.

Interesting point to everyone. If you have ever driven over the Rogers Pass between Calgary and Vancouver on Hwy 1, I do not even consider it a mountain pass, so much as a minor annoyance.

 

My point would be more along the line of this.

The roads may be very marginal, but with chains on, they become very drivable. In other words, chains can take roads that are bad, to roads that are good.

Also, if you are pulling a 16 mile 8% grade, and there are slide chutes all the way up, then it would be best to hang the iron to make sure you get to the top, and not spin out in front of the chutes.

I have said it before, chains are for going uphill and downhill, not for flat ground. If it is that icy flat ground, park it. You gain nothing by continuing forward, unless it is a short distance you are going.

An example. You are pulling the East side of the Kooteany pass (hwy 3 in BC), and get to the chain area, which is three miles from the top of the hill. The chain sign is down, or trucks are spun out on the hill, or it is snowing like a bastard ( I have seen a foot an hour up there). So you don't want to chain. You decide to turn around (because it is going to be like this for the next two days, by the way) and go back to Creston, and take the boat across the lake instead. Well, you have just added 6 to 8 hours to your day as opposed to one hour spent chaining, unchaining and driving one gear slower than you would have gone anyway.

When the hill was closed, it would take me 15 hours to do a 250 mile rounder, as opposed to 7 or 8 when it was not. And in that 7 or 8 could have been tossing the iron on two or three times.

 

yeah a real blast!!

 

Believe me, I do understand your point...and in your area of the world...if you're training students that live around there, or going to work local or even regional I completely understand they have to chain everyday or else forget about driving.
Now, that being said.. remember you're writing a post that maybe 80% of the drivers reading this are only driving the lower 48 U.S. States OTR--and thus are only going to encounter 5 passes on the United States Interstate system that even require "chains"...and then they usually only turn those lights on 6-8 hours at a time...long enough to clear the last accident and treat the road.

I agree 100% the every driver should be TRAINED how to use Chains.
the only place I disagree is encouraging them to Use them instead of error
on side of caution and park the darn truck for the evening--it's a SAFER thing to do in so many ways....2 drivers (1- a wal-mart driver) have been Killed so far this season on I-80 Colorado while chaining/ unchaining when a car slammed into them. In both cases, less that an hour later...those chain requirements were dropped because the roadway had been "treated'.
Your "winter story' was right on the money....over confidence is a bad thing ..but so is over confidence/ reliance on "safety tools" like chains, engine brakes, trailer brakes, etc.
We both know...that if the ice is too thick, or not enough weight on the tractor tires to force the chains to "grab" into the ice...or if driver don't get out and "clear" the build-up on the chains..they can become useless. Then the young driver can find him/herself in a fur ball situation. Instead of patiently waiting a few hours or all NIGHT back at the truckstop. Chains are a safety device..they can get you out of a iced over parking lot, or if you're empty on icy flat ground...keep the "wind" from pushing you into a "jackknife" and are not just for going Up or down grades safely..... when it's winter and icy it doesn't just hit the passes it hits the flat ground too....what's the point in throwing chains to get you over the pass...if then You park the truck because "chains aren't for flat ground"...wouldn't it have been safer to just park before the pass?

 

The correct axle on a set of tandem-drives is the rear axle....because this is the primary drive axle....without the "power divider" inter-axle diff engaged the front axle in only "free-wheeling" thus pointless to chain it ...except for traction against "skid".

For a tandem axle semi trailer:
Washington State requires 5 sets of chains + a spare set
Oregon- requires 3 sets
[2 sets for drives+drag chain set]
the chains on the drive- can be all 4 chains on primary axle or one chain on each outside tire( I'd do all on primary-easier to chain) the drag set can be both on a single axle or cross staggered as long as you have a chain one each side.
http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap...v=MinChainReqs
California- requires 4 sets

I used to have a single page that had all the legal configurations...I'll look for it.

 

Borg..your right..if you are going to run without the power divider, then it is senseless to chain the front axle. However...I guess I'm one of them odd balls.

I learned long ago that if you are going to chain, you chain that front axle, and engage the power divider. That is after all, why they designed the power divider isn't it?

Also...if your pulling a steep grade..it is far far better to have both axles chained than just one or the other. I have driven around to many trucks that were spun-out, with only that rear axle chained, to not understand, that my method works. I have a great list of passes that I have chained on as well. Some of the more intense ones were Lizardhead, Wolf Creek and Red mountain in Colorado, as well as the old version of Snowbird in Idaho. While traffic is worse on Snoqualmie...it is not all that bad a hill.

 

Well, it depends on the truck and what kind of inter axle differential it has....
most CMV's -- I've driven are equiped with what's known as an "limited slip" transaxle/ interaxle differential. That forward axle never engages until one of the primary drive axles left/ or right begins to "spin/slip" then power is transfered Or "divided' to the transverse axle---then and only then does the
forward axle "work"( i e left rear tires spin- right forward tires engages / right rear tires spin-left forward tires engage)
So the question is.....if you got that much iron strapped on that primary( so you can get traction--and it goes ahead and "spins".....I think you're just Screwed! and you probably just slung a chain and wiped out your mud flap/hanger...knocked a hole in the floor of your trailer or something else worse.

But, like in flat bedding...if it looks like it needs 3 chains go ahead and add another...
If it makes you feel safer- hell carry 9 sets of chains...chain 'em all. That forward axle is important to have traction on---stopping/slowing down and
they can "chop" that ice up ahead of your primary.
CalTrans seems to agree with you about the foward axle being important--they require all the forward tires be chained...one set on the primary axle..and a set of drag chains on trailer(same axle)