Chains loosening?
 

After today's snow cleanup I noticed that one of my tire chains are loose. Not to the point of them falling off, but enough that I can pull the circumference chain out about 1-2" from the tire, and the opposite side I cannot do this. I do not run any chain tighteners on the outside of the wheel; I've never needed them. I was thinking the tire may have lost pressure to cause it to be loose, but it is at the same PSI as the opposite tire, and the chains are tight on that side.

Keep in mind these are 3 season old chains and they were new when I got them. They are tightened at the same link equally. Normally I jack up the rear end, let the air out of the tire, put the chains on tight, then air up the tire again. So far it's holding for one wheel but not the other.

When chains get used, it's it normal for them to wear and loosen like this?

Thanks for your help.

Just tighten it up and go!!

I do pretty-much the same thing that you do, I put my chains on, then load my tires and then put the air to them.

I run loaded turfs and chains all year round on at least 3 of my tractors, I usually have to put a couple pounds of air in each tire when it gets cold. I've never had a chain "get loose" enough to need anything (other than those couple of pound that I mentioned earlier).

So the long answer is, no, I don't notice any wear to make the chains loose.

You don't have a broken link somewhere or a bent "connecting link" do you?

Did you bungee cord your chains???

No bungees or springs. I thought the link on the backside could be bent or loose, but it doesn't appear so. It can't get caught on anything because it's taped over (on purpose).

Maybe you opened a weld on a link,
or they stretched a bit.
I would check that and if no problem tighten it another link.
I will not use bungee or springs, not the right way to install chains.

That's why I currently do not have any.....

thanks

I have had chains kinked when they are put on, do something like that.. Take it off and try it again.. What could it hurt??

The chain tensioner (bungee) are optional. You could either love 'em or hate 'em. I have 'em and it saves me the trouble of pissing around out in the cold.

I'm going to try this tomorrow. Thanks

Depending on the quality of the chain, they could have streched. I's hook some bungee cords up and forget about it.

im not neccesarily a "bungee" fan either, but i use the black cargo straps, very strong..also, i take the tires off to put the chains on...thats why i also install wheel studs and capped lug nuts (makes this easier to do....course i would rather just run ag tires and weights like on my cub....

sorry about the off brand rig.......kinda cousins...or should be

I need to also get new chains for my 129, as they are starting to loosen a lot and fall off. Also, they're of different types (4 link vs. 2 link) and I don't even know as they're are the right size as hey we're already practically wore out, the package song gone of course. I can understand in my case that they're wearing out, as who knows how old they are, they could even have been original to the tractor from purchase, but I would expect more than 2.5 to 3 years lif out of a brand new pair of garden tractor chains, unless it's being used in an industrial application. Good luck with them, though!!

I don't know how people can have such loose chains they fall off. Most loose chains tend to spread out at high speeds from inertia and hook on the rear lip of the fenders, bending them.

I get my chains from tirechain.com and am really happy with the quality. I have a set of 5yr old 2 link vbar chains from them and other than a little rust they still look and perform like new, the spikes haven't even begun to wear.

I took them off and put them back on again today- same result. They are not loose to the point of coming off but loose enough that I can move the cross chains on the tire pretty easily. I'm not concerned about them hooking the fender as I've got the inside connecting link taped closed pretty securely.

At this point, they aren't loose enough for me to be overly worried about it. Thanks for the replies.

I never use bungee cords or tarp straps on my tire chains.

I have an off topic tractor snow thrower that I purchase tire chains 19 years ago and only had one time the one chain came off because I didn't put the connection link together right. I spin the tire/chains in the past and have no problems running down the road wide open.
The chains are 2 link that are on a 23-10.50-12 tire.

It sounds like someone isn't installing tire chains right.

Oh heck, put on a bungee strap.:biggrin2:
& be done with it.
Nik,

Sorry that didn't work out for you. So its not a kink, thorough inspection is probably due.. Got me on this one, sorry!?!?!.:bigthink:

My set of chains is quite old, and I know they have stretched a little bit. What I did to solve the issue is just connect a few links further down, then zip tie the excess chain in place so it's not flapping. Worked fine all last year, hopefully same results this year!

The chains I have were the ones my grandpa bought in 69' when he bought the cub. To my knowledge I am the only one whos ever had to change any links due to wear mostly. Ive never had a problem like you are explaining other than when my right rear tire was leaking air,the the whole chain would get loose. Other than the chain links stretching ive no idea what happened ? Can you maybe cut them down to fit better on the one side ?

Made a short vid. to help describe what I'm working with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9v8...ature=youtu.be

Clarification: when I say "tight equally as they've always been" it means they are both tightened to the same link AND the way they've been for the past 2 seasons.

I do not believe the loose chain is loose enough to worry about. I do not know what may have changed but I may have experienced the same thing. I do strap my chains and secure any loose links and have not had any problems doing so.

If it were mine I wouldn't worry about it. That being said, I bet you could work the slack around and get one more link tighter on atleast one side.

On a side note, copper wire works great for securing the end of the chains. A stripped piece of 14 gauge can be threaded through the links and twisted tight. Its easier to install than trying to wrap tape and in the spring just snip it off and put it back in the scrap bin. :beerchug:

Bill

Thanks.

I looked into chain install via other sources than this site, and everything else I've seen the chains are installed much more loosely. It just threw me off because I've done everything the same for the past three years with install and the right one is not as it has been the past 2 winters.

I wonder if the cross chains themselves "broke in" during the last few winters and that's what's causing the looseness. Is it a big deal? not at this point I don't think. I've just never ran chains in my life until I got them 3 years ago and I wasn't sure how tight they had to be, like sitting on the tire or actually affecting the shape of the tire.

I tried getting one link tighter the other day- no dice. Maybe next year I'll fight with it, when it's not 10 degrees out.

I run chains on my turf tires on a couple tractors all year long. Helps with wet grass on slippery hills. Like you, I deflate them slightly, pull them tight, a little at a time, working from one side of the tire to the other. Then reinflate. They don't seem to work loose over time, so I doubt yours are stretching.