Has anyone used snow chains?

[ultane]

Welcome to the asylum @SnakeMagnet.

 

[SnakeMagnet]

This is follow up to my original post.

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Sideshow06 said

So I had a minute to take a close look at the clearances around all four wheels. I can see Toyota’s point about the front wheels. It’s not the wheel well clearance, but the suspension. If I run my fingers over the inner edge of the tire, the back of my finger contacts the suspension (I don’t know the name of the part). It’s tight. Maybe an inch. I’d be nervous even with low-profile “S”-rated cables.

But the rear wheels? I can reach my whole arm over the inner sidewall and touch the inner wheel and my entire forearm touches nothing. Tons of clearance. There’s no reason even full chains would be a problem here.

I have a set of self-tensioning chains that fit that tire size. I’m not going to use them unless absolutely necessary but I’ll be carrying them when I head to Tahoe. If it got real icy I cannot see any reason they would be a problem on the rear wheels only. Front wheels, definitely not.

I read what sideshow06 wrote, and then, like him, stuck my arm over top of the rear tire and felt lots of room. I was likewise perplexed by Toyota's position on chains. My situation varies from sideshow06's in that my LC is a 1958 and had OEM 245/70/r18 tires. Also, I previously replaced the OEM 245/70/r18 tires with 255/70/r18s.

My Toyota manual states that I can use chains on the OEM 245/70/r18 rear tires, but says nothing about 255/70/r18 tires. However, my manual does warn against using chains with 265/70/18s.

As a test, I mounted a set of cable chains to the passenger rear tire that purportedly fit 255/70/r18s. I expected no problems since the replacement tires are only slightly larger than the OEM tires.

Surprise! Please see the photo attached: The center cable on the inside of the tire does not clear the bottom shock mount. I believe that this would have happened with the OEM 245/70/r18s also.

There may be alternate explanations here. Maybe the chains are defective. Maybe they are the wrong size but mislabeled. I may be able to remedy this by extending the center cable a few inches, but if I had mounted these chains in a snowstorm, I might not have discovered the problem until the chains had done some damage.

I am hoping that some of you have chains and can do the test I did and post photos. In any event, please check for this issue before you use chains.