I need some advice on chains.

I have an 01 4x4 Taco, and I tow snowmobiles in the Lake Tahoe area in winter. Tires are 265/75/16"s, and I have about a 1" lift over stock.

This past week, we had about 7 feet of snow, so I decided to run my cable chains to tow.

I tightened them up, rolled forward, tightened them, did that about 4 times, also put on the bungees. They were super tight.

Problem being, in 15 miles or so going less than 20MPH, I managed to rip off three of my mudflaps, with some noticeable fender damage as well. Also, the bungee clips wore the side of 2 of my tires down to the cord, NOT GOOD.

I've run cables before on other vehicles with much less clearance with no problems, and I know how to put them on, but I can't figure out what is going on here.

My only guess is that I need wider chains? These only extend inward maybe 1" from the edge of the tire, i'm thinking they may have been shifting side to side, letting them roll off the tire. I still find it hard to believe that they made contact, I have at least 2" of clearance in the wheelwells and I couldn't pull them even slightly off the tire with all my strength.

Any thoughts on this?

Mark

 

Sounds like the wrong size chain. See what tire sizes those chains are recommended for.

I run a set of SCC Z-Chains, and while I have not used them on the highway, they seem to go on easy and stay nice and tight: