I'm off on a skiing trip to France at the end of Jan and will be taking my car for the first time.
I drive a 2004 Alhambra TDi. Can anyone recommend the best snowchans to use and where I might get them? I don't want to spend a fortune and in fact will be saying goodbye to the car within a fortnight of the trip so renting may be an option.
Have seen 9mm chains as cheap as £29 to buy or £35 to rent up to c.£300. Handbook says I need 15mm chains or smaller.
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Try www.roofbox.co.uk - click on SnowChains.
Never used them, but seen the company referred to a few times.
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This also came up via a forum search - www.snowchains.co.uk
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- You shouldn't need winter tyres as well as snow chains. I'm pretty sure it's a case of either/or.
I don't think there's a specific brand of chains to look for. Many chains will fit a variety of wheel/tyre sizes so you may be able to use them again on a different car in the future.
Most French DIY centres and hypermarkets stockpile loads of chains for £30-£50 a set.
Most important thing is to practice putting them on at least once. When you're up to your axles in wet slush on a mountain road at dusk with temperatures plummeting, it's not a good time to start teaching yourself how to put them on!
It can be a filthy job. I get SWMBO to put them on for me - her smaller hands can get under the wheel arches more easily :-)
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Also see
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=36051
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I once saw a picture in the newspaper of a Mini Cooper with snow chains very nicely displayed on the back wheels.
I had a pair for my Volvo 340. They had a rubber O ring to keep them in place. In 6 inches of snow they were a beggar to get on. When the O ring stretched and the chain flipped up and jammed between the wheel and the brake drum they were a beggar to get off too. I only used them two or three times. They are like insurance, it's only if you haven't got it that you find you need it. I still have them somewhere in the loft.
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I bought mine last year in Leclerc hypermarket's motoring section when I got close to the mountains. I didn't need to use them because the roads to the ski stations were kept ploughed however I wouldn't take the risk of going without (see HJ's press release).
I was quite impressed, the chains are colour coded for fitting and the instruction leaflet was plastic laminated (for use in a blizzard) and in 6 languages, including English).
I totally agree with the suggestion of practising fitting the chains in the dry and daylight. I would also suggest you have a pair of rubber gloves to wear whilst putting them on/off, have one of those torches that straps round your head and also have a watertight plastic bag to put the chains in when you take them off.
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Be warned that snow chains cannot be fitted to some combinations of wheels/tyres-particularly ones on vehicles from the UK-due to lack of clearance round the wheel arch.Most manufacturers will reccomend that chains are only used with one particular tyre size and that tends to be one of the smaller steels not your big alloys!
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www.autosock.com/default.aspx
If they made a set to fit my tyres I would have bought them already. Much lighter than chains, claim to be easier to fit and it they do slip off, hardly likely to cause any major damage. Not approved for countries with mandatory snow chain regulations though.
Won't be as durable as chains I imagine, but for getting you off that snowed in car park or through a minor unplowed road to a plowed one they look to be the ticket.
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After my prvious posting,the obvious thing to do is to get a pair of steel wheels,fit the chains off the vehicle and wait till you get to the snow.
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In that case, get steel wheels, fit winter tyres, forget about chains, leave alloys at home. Job done.
Drive to resort trouble free.
By the way, it is extremely likely at this time of year that snow will be falling at valley altitudes, not just on access roads to the resort, and a French autoroute is definitely not a place you want to be on in a car with snow chains.
Good luck BTW to all driving to the Alps this winter, and have a ball.
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