Chaining the front wheels

mtmuley said:

Most of the time if this is needed, you shoulda turned around. Course 30 years of driving Montana mountains will teach you a thing or two about reading road conditions. mtmuley

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My rule of thumb is chains on all fours is pretty well reserved for the extraction effort IF I get stuck with chains on the rears. One can, and I have, gone some amazing places with chains on all fours. If you are alone, and I usually am, you are absolutely screwed if you get stuck.

My Dodge is an 04. I can chain up all four with no issues and no damage.

buckbull said:

The only truck i'm aware of still being made with a solid front axle is the ram 2500 power wagon.

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Sounds good to me.

I can’t get big chains on the front of my f150 after replacing the ball joints. The beefier aftermarket ones are just slightly larger. Need to get spider chains, spacers or a power wagon. Father in law has a power wagon. I think dodges are mostly garbage, but that truck is nice.

buckbull said:

The only truck i'm aware of still being made with a solid front axle is the ram 2500 power wagon.

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This is true for some brands.
2013 -2018 f350 is still a 35 spline super Dana 60
2013 -2018 f250 has a solid axle it's size depends on what options
As far as I know all 2012 -2018 ram 2500 and 3500 get a version of the AAM 9.25 12 bolt with a C.A.D.(weak point) but still very strong.

These axles on the newer 3/4 and 1t trucks are sought after by the 4x4 crowd because they are of the strongest ever produced.

brnsvllyjohn said:

This is mentioned on another thread but I thought I would start a new thread about this subject. I don't have to chain the front often but when you have to you have to. A couple of years ago we were in a buddies Chevy 2500 and he got in a situation where we needed to chain the front. I had my chains in his truck since he didn't own any. His truck wasn't supposed to be able to use chains on the front. After a brief disagreement I added my chains to the front of his truck and we made it back down the mountain. We removed them as soon as possible since he was really nervous about having chains on the front. My new F250 has very little clearance on the front but I have already installed my chains on the front and driven a short distance on a gravel driveway to see how they worked. They seemed OK. Some of you have mentioned spacers. Should you install them on a newer F250? Mine is a 2017. I didn't need spacers on my older truck.

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Your issue with your F-250 is almost completely clearance related I've dealt with it on two Super Duties that I've owned by adding a leveling kit. When you see them recommending not to put chains on the front I consider that the equivalent of a legal waiver as mentioned if you were to break something due to the chains I doubt they would warranty it but do not worry about there being clutches or anything in your front axle that it will damage that's BS.
One thing to keep in mind though is you won't be driving down a flat driveway there will be washes and bumps thus your axle will be articulating in and out of your wheel wells while your tires are turned in all different directions. This is where you will find a clearance issue.

I can get where I want to in the snow. mtmuley

In reality I haven't chained up the front in years. We only did it in my buddies Chevy to get back out of the hills towing a trailer. If we weren't towing I don't think we would have had an issue. I carry 2 sets of chains anytime I travel to any location where snow is possible. My front set is a cable/chain hybrid that has seen a lot of use on the back of my older truck as well. They are pretty good. The other set is a real heavy set of chains and in the rear there are no clearance issues. I don't think I would drive into conditions where 4 tires needed chains to get there. I might get caught in a storm and need chains on all four tires to get out. A couple of years ago a guy in a campsite near mine couldn't get his travel trailer out for about 2 weeks. He had to get help and he was driving a 3/4 ton Ram and had chains on all 4 tires. I hope I am not that guy. I had left for a lower elevation campsite just before the storm hit. I could still hunt as high as he was but I wouldn't take my travel trailer back up that high.
Thanks for the info.

The other issue I have had with some is they refuse to let a little air out of the tires. In my opinion it can make a huge difference in snow or anywhere else you need better traction. The new truck has those stupid sensors that go off if I have less than 65 pounds in the tires. I will run less than 30 if I need to and sometimes less than that. Every time I take the truck to the dealer of course they put 75 back in. I have learned to ignore the idiot light. Right now I am running 65 psi and the light is off. When I am loaded I understand keeping them aired up but 90% of the time I am running with less than 500 pounds in the truck.