Skid steer in snow

[kshansen]

overkill is awesome, quad vbar chains is a good way to go. having a full cab is nice too, sure beats a set of coveralls and a motorcycle helmet to keep your face from freezing.

Carhartt coveralls and my motorcycle helmet was the combination I used many mornings at the shop when plowing with the open cab 1845C Case! Of course I used my sidecar to ride to work so the helmet was already on when I got there!

 

[check]

Someone gave me a huge pile of old log truck chains and I modified them for 12x16.5 skid steer tires on the 246, pretty easy job with 36" chain pliers. The smooth chains are enough to make them ride rough. I made a set of studded chains for my 1845C but haven't tried them yet. I imagine they will rattle my teeth out.
Bought the 7 1/2 foot snow bucket last month, waiting for a big snow to try it out.

 

[ThreeCW]

I bought a set of Trygg tires chains on the local buy and sell site (Kijiji) recently. The Trygg information that came with the chains had some interesting information on it about chaining up for different situations. Here is a photo of their recommendations:

I find it interesting that "too much chain on the tire will make it more difficult on ice ... i.e. less chain is better". Something to keep in mind if you are primarily on ice!

 

[check]

I find it interesting that "too much chain on the tire will make it more difficult on ice ... i.e. less chain is better". Something to keep in mind if you are primarily on ice!

Ever put ice grippers on your boots and then walked on a concrete slab? All of a sudden you find it's like a skating rink! Steel on rock is very slippery.

 

[Ronsii]

Ever put ice grippers on your boots and then walked on a concrete slab? All of a sudden you find it's like a skating rink! Steel on rock is very slippery.

Yeah, or leave you logging corks on and step out something really smooth and hard

 

[ThreeCW]

I added a second set of tire chains recently to the front wheels of our 2006 CAT 242B with the aim of improving traction. Previously I had only chained up the back two wheels.

All chains are the same design ... made up of heavy duty twisted “ice claw” cross chains mounted every 4th side chain link (see attached photos).

We recently had an 18” heavy snowfall so I was able to test out the 4-wheel chains during about 10 hours of snow removal.

I use an 8 ft wide Virnig Snow Bucket for snow removal on 3/4 mile of gravel driveway, 1/2 mile of hiking trail, 1/2 mile of pasture feeding path and a few other gravel parking areas around buildings.

Our terrain is a combination of low to moderate hills and some flat areas. Roads are mainly raised profile.

Snow removal typically consists of plowing with the snow bucket, then pushing the snow off the road and dumping into piles.

I noticed a marked improvement in traction with the 4-wheel chains resulting in:

• An increase in the amount of snow I could push
• Significantly less wheel spinning in all operations
• Being able to remove snow from a ditched area where previously with 2-wheel chains I did not have enough traction
• Avoiding getting stuck when backing out of ditched areas. When using 2-wheel chains, I would occasionally not have enough traction so I had to “bucket back out” of the ditch.

As previously discussed in this thread, some HEF members have noted that using 4-wheel chains results in reduced stress and wear to the drive system.

Now that I have experienced using 4-wheel chains in heavy-duty snow removal, I agree that 4-wheel chains seems to reduce the drive train stress.

My recommendation … if you find you are spinning and getting stuck using 2-wheel chains, going to 4-wheel chains will provide better traction and reduce the stress on your drive train. If you are getting sufficient traction with 2-wheel chains, going to 4-wheel chains is not likely required.

 

[Welder Dave]

You would benefit from Duo-Grip style chains like tractors use so more chain is in contact with the ground.

 

[ThreeCW]

With chains on a 4 wheels, I now have enough chain on the ground to meet my traction requirements. The second set of chains made a considerable difference in traction.

I agree that Duo-Grip chains are supposed to provide excellent traction ... but are also expensive at $800 to $1000 for a set of 4 ... are rougher riding than "4 link ladder" chains ... and are not recommended for pavement or concrete. I forgot to mention that I also plow about 100 ft of asphalt pavement and would hate to tear it up.

 

[fast_st]

Indeed chains are what little skid steers need in the snow, esp on the farm. We ran v-bar chains on all fours during a heavy snow storm where we had 4' of snow on the ground with drifts and the donks were stranded out in the back corner of a pasture for a couple days, had to make sure not to get any snow under the belly pan. Was a long day in an open cab case skid steer. After scraping the path and making a huge pile of snow at the bottom where the long ears were. They stood on the pile of snow...

 

[92U 3406]

My old man had a couple leftover steer axle chains that he chopped up to fit the skid steer. Doubled up on the cross links and he claims that thing is nearly unstoppable in winter.