How do Rubber Tire Chains Work?
Tire chains are primarily designed to do two things:
1) Cut through a layer of snow, mud, etc to a firmer surface beneath. Once there, the chain will be able to gain better traction and push the vehicle forward.
2) Another way to gain traction on a slippery surface is to add weight to the vehicle. This creates more friction which in turn creates traction. Normally, the weight of a vehicle is spread out over the entire surface of a tire. When a vehicle is driven on chains, the weight is concentrated on a very small area (the chain) which has the same effect as actually making the vehicle heavier. The friction and compression caused by weight will also create a small amount of heat which will increase traction as well (although the actual effect would be fairly negligible most times).
Steal chains do an excellent job of cutting through a layer of snow and then do well at "digging into" the surface beneath (i.e. your expensive driveway) to get traction. The problem with steel; however, is that a steel surface itself can be slippery. If you were standing on a sloped roof, would you rather be wearing rubber-soled boots or steel-soled boots? When a steel chain cuts through the snow, the only option it has to create traction is to "dig in." Otherwise it will most likely just slide across the surface.
Our rubber "chains" are narrow enough to use the weight of the vehicle to cut through the snow and dig down to the driveway or grass below. Once there, the rubber contacts the surface and, like your rubber-soled boot, create excellent traction - and all that without having to dig in and mark the surface.
Steel chains may have a slight advantage on solid ice; however, even in that situation the rubber chains don't fair too bad because of rule #2 mentioned above, and the fact that rubber on ice is still better than steel on ice (talk about going for a slide!).
Over the years, we've manufactured thousands of chains and have never had someone complain that they didn't work as well as their steel chains. We are confident that our product speaks for itself. We'd love to add you to our list of satisfied customers.
Click here to buy our rubber tire chains
