Dually in snow

[Jeff Heiser]

Gordon,
You are always welcome to stay on our property. It's 30 arcers with no one around; very quite, very dark at night and very relaxing. Closest town is Chiefland Florida about a 20 minute ride.

Skip,
I tried to go down the route of chains on my daully and the dealer and the place I tried to get the chains installed said it's a BIG NO NO on duallies. I have no idea if this is true but it makes sense. You either have to chain each tire seperately which means the chains from the one tire rubbing the other tire and vice versa. Or, you have to have a chain set that covers both tires together which I havent found anyone who makes them. My rear tires have just about an inch between them which would make it impossible for me to get chains on my truck.

Has anyone out there used chains on their rear wheels of their dually?

I have been in some really bad snows in the NC mountains 12 plus inches and honestly I have never been stuck do to snow. One of the things I do when traveling to snow country is I carry between 300 to 400 pounds of sand (6 to 8 50 lb bags) in the bed of my truck. Never have had to use it for me but have used it for others.

I found out something interesting this past hurricane season. We evactuated to GA and of course the strom followed us and YES this time I got stuck (really bad) in GA clay. We sunk about 6 inches with the truck and about the same with the trailer. Anyway I was talking with the tow truck driver about getting stuck etc and he told me to carry a bag of cat litter with me. He said if you are in the snow or on a slippery wet surface, sprinkle the cat litter on the ground where you are stuck and 1. the cat litter absorbs the moisture and; 2. it gives you better traction than sand or gravel. I havent had to try it yet but it makes sense. I am going to carry a bag of it in the truck when we had to the winter mountains.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[Bob Pasternak]

Jeff: If you use kitty litter, you must make your attempt right away. Kitty litter is nothing but baked clay and if it gets wet, you're no better off than you were. As for chains for dual wheels, they're made for large trucks but I'm not sure about pick-ups. In 40+ years of driving truck I never "hung iron" as they call chaining up. If I came to an area that required chains, I waited 'til it cleared or found another route.

[NJ Hillbilly]

Lime also works good in a pinch in the mud. Dried things right up.

Jeff, I use a set of cable chains (1 on each outside tire) that have worked well. I needed them plowing in a ice/freezing rain/sleet/snow storm. A soon as the snow was pushed off, everything turned to a sheet of ice. If You can get a finger between the tires these will fit. For the winter I have a row of 12" solid concrete blocke across the tailgete, 900 lbs or so really improves the ride also.



John

[Jeff Heiser]

quote:Originally posted by Bob Pasternak

Jeff: If you use kitty litter, you must make your attempt right away. Kitty litter is nothing but baked clay and if it gets wet, you're no better off than you were. As for chains for dual wheels, they're made for large trucks but I'm not sure about pick-ups. In 40+ years of driving truck I never "hung iron" as they call chaining up. If I came to an area that required chains, I waited 'til it cleared or found another route.

Bob,
Thanks for the great infromation. I might try the cat litter but I do have my reservations whether it will work or not. I agree with you on if the area requires chains to just wait until it's cleared. We did just that in DC a few years back.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[BillyRay]

we had over 2 feet of snow on christmas of 2002 dually pushed right through!

[GordonR]

BillyRay, Six wheel drive... ya gotta love it!
Gordon