steering chain

[larry emrick]

I was up north over the summer and the subject of off-roading came up, specifically, a reference to a "steering chain" i.e. just one chain on one front wheel, which is apparently more effective than two chains on the front. Does this make sense and if so how and why is it more effective? Larry

[Greg S]

I've never tried it but I think the opposite wheel would spin as easy as ever and you'd have no go. And no stop on the unchained side too. Of course, the back would be chained too, on both sides, so maybe you still would have go but I can't see how it would be any better forward traction than 2 wheel drive. Or? Is this for 2 wheel drive application? Then maybe it would work.

[rezdiver]

can you confirm what greg was asking regarding one chain in front and two in the back or just one in the front in total, if this is the case then i dont see how it would work.
all i can see is when you hit your breaks the chain wheel grabbing and throwing you into a big spin since you will have no traction on three tires.

[larry emrick]

According to the two guys who told me about this, you put one chain on a front wheel and chain both rears, and it apparently improves the steering in mud and presumably snow. I even did a cursory google search with no results. Maybe they were just having on an innocent city boy. Larry

[DBrands]

I could see the possibility of it aiding in steering in certain situations. With just one front wheel chained, all of the power to the front axle will in most cases be sent to the unchained tire as again, in most situations it will have less traction (keep in mind this wouldn't be the case on a vehicle with Traction Control, LSDs, etc.). Anyways, with all of the power to the front axle being sent to the unchained tire, the chained tire will only deal with steering. Therefore there would be no loss in traction from throttle on the steering/chained tire. But in my head it would only really help at very slow speeds, where momentum/inertia don't have such a great effect on direction.

Not sure if my thoughts came out correctly, but if you've ever driven a fwd car at any speed, and tried to turn while under throttle.. you'll understand what I am talking about moreso I hope.

In any event, it's a bit of thinking on their part. It'd be interesting to test it out?