I re-read my earlier posting about tire chains. I must have been interrupted during my composing the message. I meant to say that "I could not recommend the chains until I had tried them. I have now tried them and am very pleased with their performance."

I was trying to climb a slushy, snow-packed trail and had only limited sucess with the MT tires. They would slip and dig holes, even using BTM. (It was difficult to stand up on this road, too.) Lowering the tire pressure helped only a little. I managed to turn around and go back down to put my chains on. I returned the tires to normal pressure, and mounted the chains on all four tires. BIG DIFFERENCE. Very little slipping, and no BTM necessary. I climbed the trail easily. (Had to turn around later anyway. Hummer just won't do 6' snow banks. Oh well...)

These chains are manufactured in Germany. I tried every US manufacturer of tire chains. No one made chains like these in a size suitable for the Hummer tires.

They are stocked in the US by Rud Chain, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Contact John at 1-800-553-7993. Order chains "90020 with modification for use with Hummers". John was great to work with. I am not getting any kick-back, but mention my name anyway. The cost is less than $250.00 per pair. They weigh about 67 lbs per pair.

These are heavy duty truck chains. (The same manufacturer also makes them for dual wheels.) They have a built in tightening system that uses a chain and a cam-type lock to tighten the chains. (No rubber bands to break!)

The modification necessary for the Hummer is to shorten (!) the inside of the chain. Rud did this for me at no charge. They added seven shorter links to the chain, which shortened the inside by about 7 inches. With this modification, the chains fit *perfectly* on my MT tires. If you have larger tires, you could remove some of these links. (The original links were left in place as a safety factor.)

The pattern that these chains make in the show is like this:

_/\_/\_/\_/\
 \/ \/ \/ \/

(or like this if the above looks funny on proportional fonts)

- -<>-<>-<>-<>

I would highly recommend these chains to any Hummer owner. The chain pattern provides very good cornering and side-hill traction, and eliminates much of the vibration associated with conventional "H" pattern chains. Installation is no more difficult than other chains, and the tightening system works very well.

Dave Breggin
'95 Diesel Wagon

Quality makes chains that will fit. Recommend getting square links, they are stronger because they have less tendency to bend, especially with the weight of the Hummer.

Got stuck in WET spring snow, with a dead pregnant cow in the back, put on the chains and drove right through. Snow was 1" above the bottom of the door.

Wholesale $98 or so (bought them a while ago) Local tire store sold them to me for $123 a pair.

Dan Astrom

Dan:

I like the Quality brand chains very much. However, they do not make a diamond (a.k.a. rhombus) pattern in a size that fits the Hummer. The lateral traction is very important to me.

Dave Breggin
'95 Diesel Wagon

I don't get much snow here in Florida, but how do tire chains fair in that ever sticky/stinky gumbo mud?

I would imagine pretty good, it's the rest of the trail that would be hard on the chains. How long does it take to put them on and take em off? (the chains)

Miked
95 Diesel Wagon

One of the reasons that I carry the chains in the summer is for mud. (Although, we don't have much mud like you have mud.)

If you have a really agressive tread, the chains will have less benefit. If you were running Mudders already, the chains would tend to seat into the open spaces in the tread, actually reducing traction. (This is my reservations about using cable-type traction devices on MT tires.) If you are running the MT tires, the chains will make a big difference.

If you are using them mostly for mud, the "H" type pattern might be a little better than the diamond pattern. The "H" pattern acts more like the paddles on the sand / mud specialty tires. However, they do not have much real traction for cornering or side-slope use like the diamond pattern does.

It takes about 10 - 20 minutes to install the chains (much longer the very first time, so practice in advance). It takes about 1 - 2 minutes to get them off (not counting stowing them in the truck).

Dave Breggin
'95 Diesel Wagon