ricky racer
501 Club
In an ever increasing effort to improve the snow plowing efficiency of my Cub, I've focused my attention on the tire chains as the next thing to address. This past summer I picked up a couple of sets to tire chains at a garage sale at a killer price. Did I ever say, I love garage sales?!! The new tire chains were brand new and had never been on the ground and were about the same size as my current Cub tire chains. As much as I'd love to do the same modification that Stanton did, I figured I'd try a different approach since I put this off until the chains were on the tractor and snow was on the ground.
I got to looking at the new chains and the cross links looked like they were a pretty good match to the ones on my current chains. by using large screw driver and then a pry bar I was able to spread the connecting links on the cross links. It was easier to spread than I thought it would be. To bend the links back down after installation, I used Vice Grips for the additional leverage they have over any of my other pliers. If I would have done it before mounting the chains on the tires, I would have done it in the bench vice.
By adding the new cross link in between the existing cross links I was able to nearly double the amount of chain that will contact the ground at any given time. The 4 take up links in the chain to tighten the chains kept me from adding addition links in those areas but the additions I made should make a difference in traction. We'll see next time it snows which is supposed to be "lake effect" early next week.
I got to looking at the new chains and the cross links looked like they were a pretty good match to the ones on my current chains. by using large screw driver and then a pry bar I was able to spread the connecting links on the cross links. It was easier to spread than I thought it would be. To bend the links back down after installation, I used Vice Grips for the additional leverage they have over any of my other pliers. If I would have done it before mounting the chains on the tires, I would have done it in the bench vice.
By adding the new cross link in between the existing cross links I was able to nearly double the amount of chain that will contact the ground at any given time. The 4 take up links in the chain to tighten the chains kept me from adding addition links in those areas but the additions I made should make a difference in traction. We'll see next time it snows which is supposed to be "lake effect" early next week.
, so I am cutting them down. The cross-link ends spread apart pretty easily with a vice and pry tool. 101"X14" is what I read somewhere.