Wrong size snow chains (too big)

A snowHead

Last year I bought some Maggi The One snow chains (model 100) which fit the tyres on my car 225/55 R16.
I did the test to put them on at home before going but never used them at all when the car was moving.
In the Spring the car died and I now have a car that would require model 95 of the same chains for it's tyres of 215/55 R16.
We are looking to head to St Foy for New Year this year.

Does anyone have any experience of using snow chains that are slightly too big like this?
I suspect it would be pretty bad/useless but would like to avoid building up a collection of snow chains if at all possible!
(I probably ought to try them on and see how bad it looks.)

A snowHead

snippins, Try it out, most chains will fit a range of tyre sizes.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks.

There is a sticker on the front of the box that gives the various size combinations.
So the current ones would fit these 2 bracketing size combos (amongst around 25 total different combos) :
215/60 R16
215/50 R17

I guess I will try it out.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I'd guess that if they go on and hold securely and firmly they'll be fine - even better if your new tyre size is listed on the package as them being suitable.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Depending on just how too big they are snippins, they may slip off.... After car swapping, I had some that seemed to still fit - on the drive at home - but kept slipping off the first time I tried them on snow, which was on the road to Weardale ski area in the Pennines.

That road is only a couple of miles and I managed by re-tensioning them with bungees pulled super-tight across the font of the wheel. Don't know if that would have worked longer term (I bought new chains after that) but it got us away. So that could be worth a go.

In view of the fact that the old chains seemed ok on the drive, I'd recommend trying yours - either on tarmac slowly (a few hundred metres won't hurt them, only prolonged tarmac use) or on a grassy (flat wink

) field if you can find one - though you might have to hose them down afterwards.....and you could be fined by the local Council for ripping up the park Toofy Grin

.

My current chains are Lidl's £20 jobbies - which are better-made than a previous £70 Halfords set where the links just came apart - and which have worked well so far. IIRC, Lidl get the chains in once a year at the end of November.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Too big will get loose and end up wrapping round your axle or flinging off into paintwork. Rubber tensioners ( you do have these right? - essential. ime with chains) may help and/ or cutting down by a few links. Or just wait until Lidl have their winter motoring kit week and buy the right size sub£20.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

This was my solution, in an emergency (snow in October). And, I have to say, about the most useful thing I've ever done with powder traces. The only other useful thing was lashing up my friend's very ancient ski boot which kind of fell apart from plastic fatigue in Les Contamines one day. I knew that carrying them round in my pack whilst skiing exclusively on piste wasn't a waste of time.... Blush

After all it is free

@snippins, be carefull if you decide to use the same chains on smaller wheels (you new wheels are 1 cm narrower and 0.55 cm lower than the previous set-up). If it becomes loose and tangles or cut through your break tubes - this is recepie for disaster. Do not want to scare you, but too loose is not a good thing, could also be very expensive.

Do not know if it helps, but here is a guide of how to read tyre size info: your tyre of 215/55/16 is:
a) 215 is mm of tyre width of the flat tyre surface that touches the road;
b) 55 is a% from '215' and it denominates the higth (how high is tyre profile) - which is 118.25 mm
c) 16 is rim radius in inches ..

Thus your previous 225/55/16 was a tyre 225 mm wide, 123.75 mm high. while your new 215/55/16 is 215 mm wide and 118.25 mm high. Is that substantial - depends on how tight/loose your chains are.

I saw a couple of blokes in Andorra trying to use snow chains which were too big for the wheels (or badly put on). They got in a right mess, with snow chains tangled all around the axle and slushy ice all over the wheel arch.

It is always worth watching people do things badly if you want to avoid their mistakes.

My snow chains fitted on some slightly smaller wheels, (eg. chains I bought for a Peugeot Boxer managed to fit quite well on a MX5 with low profile wide tyres). However, on very much smaller wheels they were no use at all.

Try it out before you try it on snow and ice.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

You can sometimes use a few of these to take up a little bit of slack.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

bear in mind that taking up the slack on the front of the wheel might end up with it getting very close to the shoulder of the tyre on the back of the wheel, and possibly slipping off. By all means, try out tensioning it up to take up any slack, but pay attention to what's behind the wheel and out of sight

snow reports

snippins, If you have a spare wheel the same size as the wheels on the car why not see if they fit that. Saves all that phaffing about on the ground. If it's a straight no they don't then you know where you are.....

Help!!

Wrong size snow chains (too big)

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste