Thread: Taking my D3 to the snow.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Have you read your handbook? It basically says;

Snow chains can only be fitted to the front wheels, snow chains MUST NOT be fitted to the rear wheels of any vehicle. Unfortunately the handbook does not say why chains MUST NOT be fitted to the rear wheels.

For next time but you got there and that is what counts .

Garry

A few reasons I can guess why they say to fit chains to the front 1)the ability to help with steering 2) better braking control 3)chain clearance - you may risk ripping off brake lines, ABS lines etc on the rear 4) Some AWD vehicles have a drive bias to the front wheels and only direct drive to the rear once slippage is detected (not saying this is true for the D3)

Always refer to owners manual when fitting chains and not rely on the chain rental place for advice as to which end to fit the chains to.

It has always amused me in Australia when it comes to using snow chains - spending many a winter in the snow belt of North America - only time I saw chains used was on tractors to feed out to livestock in the back paddocks.
A lot of people did use either an All season rated or dedicated snow tyre in the winter.
In my opinion an All terrain tyre would be the best to use on the roads going up to the snow.

Snow tires ! Never had them , just followed the ruts til the snow pow cleared a path , and of course drove slower !

Originally Posted by jazzopuk

Well made it back from the snow, but thought the wasn't going to start after being stood for a couple of days. However eventually rumbled into life accompanied by a large cloud of black smoke

On -7 mornings here, I normally go through two glow plug cycles before actually firing up and it starts fine. However after 20 years driving diesels I still sometimes jump in and forget the glow plugs - she still fires up but is a bit grumpy and lots of smoke and a diesel smell but still goes.

Garry

That's a good point, I have only just started driving a diesel after many years, and since the glow plug light extinguished immediately under normal driving conditions, I didn't realise I needed to wait for it to go out in cold weather. I did eventually, and it was after a few more cycles that she fired. Thought I was going to flatten the battery.

The chains on the rear wheel could be considered a problem with rear aircon maybe (?).