Tire Chains

[allen8106]

Planning a summer 2022 trip to Alaska. Expect to enter Canada around the middle of May, enter Alaska around the first week of June, exit Alaska around the middle of August, exit Canada around the middle of September.

Any need for tire chains for this trip?

[Yukoners]

No you will not need chains from the middle of May to the middle of Sept. This is fifty winters up here for me and countless trips up and down the Alaska Highway.Good for you for planning and thinking ahead though. Enjoy!

[wilber1]

I carry a set for the truck and a set for the trailer, only so I can say I have them if asked. I never plan on using them, I'll just wait storms out until the roads are cleared.

[Darryl_Rita]

PA12DRVR wrote:

Darryl&Rita wrote:
If you've never used chains before, on the side of the highway isn't the place to learn their quirks and foibles. Especially on an RV.

While technically, that may be true, 😉Murphy's Manual of Tire Chains (with examples and scenarios, 1965 ed.) 🙂 says in Chapter 1 that one has not had the true tire chain experience until they've had to put chains on on the side of a road, in a snow-rain mix, late at night. Extra credit is given if the user has left his or her coveralls at home. A one time 5 point bonus is given if the user's work gloves are left on the dresser at home as well. A one-letter grade promotion is given for each of the following which occur: i) the chain tensioners are left in the garage; ii) the chains in the RV are meant for the car; iii) the incident happens in below zero weather; and iv) the incident occurs as one is already running late to get somewhere.

Without undue puffery, suffice to say that I've long since graduated, with all honors and bonus points, from Mr.Murphy's advanced course in Tire Chains, (minor in focus on Alaska). :B

^^All the above is triggered due to last night's hour spent organizing tire chains for the ATV, pickup, and Plow Truck.

I, too have encountered Mr. Murphy. Tractors, trucks, even snowblower has had chains. If I need to reach for my galoshes and Nor'easter to go RV'ing, I've made some poor decisions.

[SideHillSoup]

RV’s in BC are not required to carry chains, however you are required to have the correct tires on your vehicle depending on the month (s) of the years.
RV Chains.

I’ve pulled a RV including 5th Wheels all over BC in the mountains, in the winter months and have never found that I needed tire chains.
I also snowmobile and I used to carry tire chains for the truck back in the day, however we were parking way up logging roads for days on end ( we had cabins ) with the possibility of no one plowing the road to where we parked. And then I can count on one hand how many times I used my chains.
I guess the question should be: what type of roads and conditions are you planing on traveling on and in?
Again as others have said the time of the year your traveling, if it snows, just sit a few days until Hwy maintenance clears the roads and or they clear up enough on their own to safely continue your journey.
Have fun on your trip.
PS; we got 6 inches of snow in the valley yesterday, and lots more up higher on the mountain passes....
Soup.

[ppine]

GeeWillakers wrote:
You aren’t legally required to carry chains between those dates, at least in B.C.

A sensible law.
I carry chains about 6 months out of the year in the Lower 48. Some of the state highways in Nevada are dirt.

[thomas201]

Wait, did you make sure you had a couple of cold shuts for the side chains? Chain pliers and spare crosschains? Do you like ice cutters (reinforcing bars) or just plain chains? Some wire, to save your fenders, if the chains are a little sloppy?

To make a long story short, just when you think you are a genius for bringing the chains, just when you get them on the truck, you break the darn things and you got to do it all over again. Thanks for reminding me to get them in the truck and jeep. Not sure about the wife's 2020 Honda, gotta read the book.

[PA12DRVR]

Darryl&Rita wrote:
If you've never used chains before, on the side of the highway isn't the place to learn their quirks and foibles. Especially on an RV.

While technically, that may be true, 😉Murphy's Manual of Tire Chains (with examples and scenarios, 1965 ed.) 🙂 says in Chapter 1 that one has not had the true tire chain experience until they've had to put chains on on the side of a road, in a snow-rain mix, late at night. Extra credit is given if the user has left his or her coveralls at home. A one time 5 point bonus is given if the user's work gloves are left on the dresser at home as well. A one-letter grade promotion is given for each of the following which occur: i) the chain tensioners are left in the garage; ii) the chains in the RV are meant for the car; iii) the incident happens in below zero weather; and iv) the incident occurs as one is already running late to get somewhere.

Without undue puffery, suffice to say that I've long since graduated, with all honors and bonus points, from Mr.Murphy's advanced course in Tire Chains, (minor in focus on Alaska). :B

^^All the above is triggered due to last night's hour spent organizing tire chains for the ATV, pickup, and Plow Truck.

[Darryl_Rita]

If you've never used chains before, on the side of the highway isn't the place to learn their quirks and foibles. Especially on an RV.

[GeeWillakers]

You aren’t legally required to carry chains between those dates, at least in B.C.

[allen8106]

I appreciate everyone's feedback. Thank you.

[PA12DRVR]

I have far too many vehicles up here in Los Anchorage. Plow truck, daily pickup, old pickup that I can't sell for enough money, ATV, etc. I have chains for all of them.

Over the past 5 years (as best I recall), I've only used the chains on anything except the plow truck only once to get out of my 120' driveway, on a slope, in March, when it snowed 12" then rained, then dropped to -5. The plow truck wears chains pretty much non-stop December - April.

Chains are worth their weight in gold on a steep icy hill. Nice to have but don't help as much in "just snow".

You won't need them for your trip.

Have made somewhere north of 20 trips up/down the Alcan (quite a few mirroring the OP planned trip) and only needed chains (that I had fortunately) one time back in the dark ages (79 or 80 IIRC) and that was for traction in the mud.

[Lwiddis]

Does GM recommend chairs or cables for your 3500? My 1500 says cables.

[ppine]

Yes. For a trip like that, bring chains along with down sleeping bags and warm clothes for everyone on the trip. In cold remote country, that stuff goes in the vehicle in the fall and stays there until the spring.

[EEWally]

And I've always said that chains (real chains, not the cable types) were for the extra weight in the trunk and not to be put on (a miserable undertaking).