With chains in front, but not rear, hitting the brakes can cause you to swap ends. The front wheels will bite and stop, the rear wheels won't.

With FWD, there is no better place for chains than the drive wheels, so that's where they go.

Fir 4WD or AWD, they belong in the rear.

I was in a vehicle ONCE with these (photo below) on the front and chains in the rear.
They actually worked for that type of snow we were in.
(It was the "sticky" snow) I can't speak for the heavy wet, slushy, or powder.


I guess the idea is that snow sticks to snow better.
When they are snow covered, the traction is there.
You can emulate this with your own socks.
Try wool socks over a flipflop or something and you'll see how you can walk easier on certain types of snow.





Sort of off topic...

One year, I had about 11" of snow in my driveway, that is all uphill and has a hairpin turn. I few pals were behind me in their Jeep, 4R and a few other 4WD's all with dedicated snow tires on.
I was in my Disco 1 with Goodyear Triple Treads (Discontinued). I could not make it up. They tried and could not do it either.
I tried it in reverse, and while it was a little hairy, I backed all the way up.
The rest tried it in reverse and no dice.

These are very similar, but not exact.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...red+All-Season

Wow, I never thought of this. I’m from Michigan, so I grew up with plenty of snow, salt and rusted cars, but now I live in the PNW. I’ll be heading across the cascades for Christmas in my AWD LE and I just bought some chains off Amazon in case I’m required to use them. I only bought 1 pair of Security Chain SZ441’s and was initially planning on putting them on the front if required. It sounds like I should put them only on my back wheels now though?

I’m hoping I don’t need them this trip and can return them unopened. I’m installing a lift and larger tires in the spring, so the chains won’t fit anymore after that.

Chains or Cables which one do you prefer and why? Thanks

I mean, at least as per the manual it's rear-only

I don’t know the exact reason, but ...

In the old days, when my 4x4 trucks had solid front axles, it was my practice to chain up the front end. With no weight in the bed, trucks just got around better with the engine weight over chained up tires in front.

But, ever since I downsized to small trucks with a 1996 Chevy S-10 4x4, again with my 2002 Tacoma TRD and now my 2018 4Runner, chaining up in front is a no-no.

Note, all the afore mentioned vehicles have/had independent front ends, not solid axles.

My thinking, and I believe I learned that after buying the Chevy, was that if you loose a tire chain to the inside of the tire, you will do a lot of damage to boots, CV joints and the like. On a solid axle, the chains usually got hung up on the axle and stayed put and drug until you stopped and yanked them out and replaced.

Rubber adjusters are essential to keep your chains taught, as well as helping to pull the chains outward off the tire if they do come off. Always used rubber adjusters. When I was in the car parts business, you’d not believe the percentage of people who refused to pay a few bucks extra for them, having that “it won’t happen to me” attitude.

Chains. Inexpensive cables are junk and when I lived along the US395 corridor in the eastern Sierra Nevada the highways were littered with them.

If you want the lightweight advantage of a cable, I’d go with a hybrid cable and chain set.

I have a set of NAPA HD truck chains with cleats that have never been outside the box except once. I bought them in 2002 for my then brand new Tacoma TRD. I doubted I’d use them, but the Highway Patrol can and will stop and check you if there is a storm (the local CHP in Bishop seldom did if he knew you were local, but I’ve been stopped on I-80 over Donner).

When I bought my 4Runner, with a 1” larger tire diameter, the sticker on the case said they’d fit. I was skeptical so put one on in the driveway to check. They did. So I carry them mainly to say I have them when I travel to California to see family.

Everything I've seen says "no" to front chains. Things will break, and it won't be the chains.


I DO like Nobody Special's fabric alternative; those look to be very low profile.

What I'm seeing recommended a lot of "quality" chains are vbar style chains.

My 2020 owners manual (attached) seems to show the link diameter shouldn't exceed 5mm, which unless I am mistaken is on the very small side?

Attached Images

 

thanks

Having written many technical documents for complex systems I realized that you need to do more than telling a user “do this” or “don’t do that”. They need to know why. You have to give them a decent understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish and they’ll comply. Otherwise you get callbacks from a customer who didn’t take it seriously, or thought they knew better, and did something wrong or in the wrong order and they damaged an expensive machine. Then you have to help them deal with a remedy.

So it drives me nuts when so many businesses do the absolute minimum required documentation. Toyota’s owner manual is a fine example. To help the owner understand and comply it needs one more sentence about why no chains on the front wheels. And one more on why the specific diameter of tire chain is required. I’m sure you all can think of several more. Like why the motor oil specified. Or the limitation of the 400W/100W inverter operation. Otherwise we all wonder, guess that it’s not a good reason, then design a hack to overcome it.

BTW, I’m guessing that specified tire chain diameter is so the chains stay flexible enough to be stretched and fit snuggly on the OEM tire size. So they’re not too high and won’t sling around too much.

Skip the chains, just get yourself a set of these "winter tires" instead.

Why Toyota says no chains on 4runner front tires - YouTube

Fun little video

Sometimes the only way to find out, is to go out and do it....







and please post a video after you are done.

If you find yourself needing chains, you’re better off with studded tires.