Does anybody use tire chains on their bus?

[Mex-Busnut]

Dear Friends,

Just curious to know if you have ever had need to use tire chains on your bus in winter time. I have seen quite a few sets of these chains at a local truck wrecking yard that has a bunch of dismantled imported trucks. Or do the various highway departments keep the roads pretty clean?

Or maybe adapting our buses like these in the pictures.



Thanks in advance!

[Ed Hackenbruch]

In many states you are required to carry chains from November to April when traveling. Since those trucks you are talking about were running all over the country that is why they had chains. There are times when the hiway dept can't keep up with the snow, especially in the mountain passes. If you want to travel at that time, you may need to use chains. I personally don't have chains,(for the bus, I do have a set for the jeep that i have never used) don't want chains, never used chains,(on the bus at least), and make sure that i am south before the snows start. 

[lostagain]

If you're going to drive in winter conditions, you need the best snow/winter tread on the drive axle you can get.  Buses have a lot of weight on the rear tires, that is very good traction. If you are just driving your rig for pleasure, you can wait out a storm for a few hours or a day until the roads are plowed and sanded.

I carry chains in my bus but have never used them. That is for complying to some state laws if a trooper asks to see chains. We often travel in early Spring when we might (and do) run in to snow. I probably shouldn't even bother carrying this extra weight.

I drove a hockey team's bus in BC and Wa state for years without chains. We always kept good winter tires on it though. I would routinely drive up mountain passes past spun out semis that were chaining up.

None of the commercial bus companies around here (BC and Alberta) use chains. They are next to impossible to put on anyway on a highway coach.

The first picture is of a MCI Courier 96 converted to a snow coach that Brewster's (Banff, Alberta, who I was driving a bus for at the time) who still owns the Columbia Icefields Snowmobile Tours, had done in the '70s. There was about a half a dozen of them at that time. I know a guy near Vernon, BC who has one in his hard, along with 6 or 7 Courier 96s.

JC

[luvrbus]

No one it their right mind would use chains on a RV bus just pull over and park enjoy the scenery I went over Donner's Pass without chains and the chain law was in affect never carried a set in 40 years

good luck

[bobofthenorth]

I carry chains to stay legal but I can flat out guarantee you I will never hang them.  Like Clifford said - pull over, fire up the furnace and watch the snow storm.  The frenchy bus handles snotty conditions just fine - there's no way I need to travel somewhere if it actually needs chains to get through. 

[AndyG]

If you start to have a little trouble with traction remember to dump the air on the tag axle.  The added weight on the drivers makes a very big difference.

[bevans6]

I run Firestone FS 560 Plus tires in all positions.  It's an all position rib type tire, not a "traction" tire.  I always felt that I would have to be very circumspect in any winter driving I might do.  With tires like that on the drive axle (no tag) how poor will my performance be in snow?  My only snow experience with a bus was driving school buses in Ottawa - we had traction tires and drove in anything.  I drove in 10" of snow to get kids home when they called a snow day...  And honestly didn't think twice about it.  I was a snot nosed kid at the time, I knew everything then...   

Brian

[Rick59-4104]

  Don't carry any in the bus, in the big truck we carry and use both the cables and chains. Like said if it gets that bad I would pull the bus over and take a break....If I thought I had to have something on the bus I would carry the cables, lots easier to put on and then I would just run until I found a stopping place.

Driving the big US Mail truck over the mountains I will chain up several times each winter, many times it has been the difference in getting in or not, but even with chains/cables you are just going to go until someone has the road blocked.

 The idea of the chains or cables coming loose and beating the aluminum on the '04 is not a pleasant thought..and they can and do break and come loose.


Rick

[bobofthenorth]

I run a relatively aggressive grip on the drives Brian so I can't say what ribs would be like.  I can't find a link to exactly the tread pattern we run but this is close.  They don't make a lot of road noise and they seem to work well in the limited winter driving that we do.  I've noticed that there's a huge difference between what we call winter driving in western Canada and what we typically encounter in the PNW and Midwest US.  We can run on snow packed roads in western Canada when its -20 or colder and have pretty good traction, not as good as summer conditions but very passable road conditions.  OTOH when the temp is up closer to freezing, snow on the road is like greased snot and its a whole different experience.  I think a good deep rib tire would likely work in those conditions but I like the centre diamonds with the solid shoulder. 

[RJ]

They are next to impossible to put on anyway on a highway coach.

If you're talking about chains for duals, like on a truck tractor, then yes, they are extremely difficult to hang on a coach.

However, here in CA & NV, only the outside rear dual must be chained when CalTrans has the signs up.  I suspect, but am not sure, that this is the case in other states that may require chains under certain conditions.

Back in my charter driver days, I could hang chains on the bus faster than I could hang them on my cars, usually less than 10 minutes and I was on my way again.  There was a method to the madness, tho. . . it's called preparation before you leave, and good quality, cam-lock chains.

Like Clifford, I, too, have come over Donner Summit (7,229 ft) in a snowstorm (a couple of times so bad you couldn't see the equivalent of two white stripes on the roadway ahead of you) w/o hanging chains on both Buffalos and MCIs.  Slow & steady in 2nd gear, mostly.  (In one MCI trip, a 2nd coach was 5 minutes behind me leaving Reno and he had to chain - I got thru the chain control before they opened.)

But I totally agree with the others - as an RV, park it until the storm blows thru, or head south long before snow season sets in.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[lostagain]

Last Spring in March, I drove my 5C over to Trail, BC to pick up my friends for our trip South. Lots of snow over the Salmo/Creston and I was worried about it because of the Summer rib tires on the bus. No problem at all, lots of traction. Just as good as the hockey bus.

Then the next day we pulled over into a rest area on top of the pass a few miles South of Kenewick on I84 for a break. There was an inch of fresh Spring snow around freezing temp. It was so slick on a slight incline, we were spinning our wheels for half an hour trying to get out.

JC

[Ed Hackenbruch]

 Like Bob, i also run traction tires on the rear. I think that that has saved me from having to be towed out of friends yards twice over the years. Never even tore up the grass doing it, but i was real gentle on the throttle, and having an automatic tranny allowed me to creep out. A few years ago i was talking to someone about chains and snow and they told me that the MCI 5's handled real well in the snow even without chains on. I looked him straight in the eye and told him, "that may be true,........but i never intend to find out!"   Probably lack of a tag and only being 35 ft. helps.

[rv_safetyman]

First, I am not convinced that our drive axles have enough weight on them to count on superior traction - at least for three axle coaches.  For example, our Eagle has bogeys that can't be lifted.  My axle weights are set pretty close to factory recommendations and I have been stuck on a fairly level site that had wet "switch" grass!  That was with steer type tires with good tread.

I have toyed with the idea of traction type tires on the drive axle and it has been bounced around on the various bus boards.  One of the things that I concern myself with is having the aggressive tires dig in, making a bad situation much worse.

CO is one of the states where you must have chains on-board large vehicles (not sure of the exact wording).  They are very clear (big electric signs on all the major highways) that if you block the highway and don't have chains on, you will get a $500 fine (at the minimum).  On normal size cars the chain law reads something like: snow tires and 4WD are acceptable.

I have a set of chains - just in case.  They are for the outer wheel only.  My research confirmed what RJ said - that is acceptable for a bus.  I got them for the situation where we needed to leave the house to head towards Quartzsite in Jan.  Since I got them, I have not had the bus out in the winter, and won't again this year.  The other issue I had to address was when we were doing trade shows, we had no option but to be at the location on time.

We live at 7500 feet with some pretty good hills no mater which way you go.  My thoughts are that I would only use the chains for less than 10 miles to get in or out of our subdivision.

Chains are less than $100 and are good insurance if you live or stay in an area that is prone to snow.

Jim

[HB of CJ]

Way back in 1969-70 or sosss, my assigned 1963 Crown Supercoach 3-axle 10-wheeler had to be chained up to get the kids up and down the top of the Ridge Route in Southern California.

Only had to do it maybe four (4) times.  With the tandems locked up with chains on, the schoolie had too much traction and had to be steered like a pulling farm tractor.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[Fred Mc]

A number of years ago I had to deliver my daughter, her horse and the bus from Vancouver Canada to California on New Years day.. The Syskyous Pass on the Oregon Califorina border is famous for snow in the winter. After spending 2 days in Oregon waiting for the road to open we headed out. At the base of the Syskyous we had to chain up, both on the bus and the truck towing the horse trailer. So while my wife and daughter stayed in the bus keeping warm "dad" got to put on two sets of chain on the bus and truck(both with duals). It wasn't bad. I had practiced at home and had cardboard to lay on and all the right equipment. COMING DOWN THE PASS I WAS NEVER SO GLAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE TO HAVE HAD CHAINS.It made the bus very stable. I wouldn't hersitate for a minute to chain up. I'm not usually one who likes rules and regulations but chaining up-thats a different story.