SCC0153505 Auto-Trac Tire Traction Chain - Set of 2

Bought these a few years ago, but only recently had the need to use. Double-checked the size chart, too. I'm older (60+yo), and installed while in my garage. They are snug fitting, so you have to read the instructions, reviews, and watch videos for installation tips, otherwise they probably won't work. I took my time and installed one, which took about 15 minutes (remember, I'm old). After a rest and glass of wine I installed the other one, which also took about 15 minutes.They worked great in snow on top of a bed of thick ice, in a hilly area. No slips, slides, or wheel-spinning. No damage to the car, either. Drove a short distance on bare pavement on the main (plowed) road, but went slow even though people behind me weren't happy. I did not drive in the wheel ruts, but drove with my tires in the snow humps.As I get older I'm not sure I will be able to install these because the last hook is a bit tight and requires a little strength. However, I think I can get a neighbor to install these in my dry garage for a few bucks, and then I can scoot around in any snow conditions feeling safe and responsible.As for the quality, I'm skeptical that these may not last very long, but that is a premature statement. I may purchase another backup set, or carry some other device should the Peerless break while in use. Truthfully, I don't think I could install/uninstall out in the cold snow, so I'd have to call for help if they broke while driving.Overall, this old lady is pleased with the first use in rough weather.-----------------UPDATE: I contacted Peerless to see if there was a slightly larger chain that would have a bit more slack to make the connections easier. Unfortunately my tire is between sizes, so anything larger would provide too much slack so the chain would not be tight. Peerless customer service response was quick (1-day).I decided to keep the Peerless as a backup chain, and purchased another set from Les Schwab Tires called Quick Fit (Laclede Alpine Premiere brand). The Quick Fit has a more durable and adjustable connection system (not ratchets). They are a bit more expensive than the Peerless, but appear much more durable. Same diamond pattern, S-rated, etc. Check YouTube for the Les Schwab Quick Fit to see for yourself.

TL;DR: This is one of those products that have exceeded expectations. Every time I use them I am more and more impressed. When they wear out I'll buy them again and feel just fine about it.PACKAGING: The heavy bag that they come in has held up well getting moved around from storage bins to trunks to floorboards, getting the chains taken in and out. Very convenient. Also the plastic sheet with instructions on it is a very thoughtful include in the package. I'm kneeling on the ground to get these on and off and this keeps me dry. It has held up as well.FIT: I used the manufacturer reference tables and bought the size indicated for my tire size. It was a perfect fit. Close enough that installation is a bit of a chore but with enough slack to make it doable. Once installed the fit is perfect, no slippage, no flopping.INSTALLATION: The process can be a bit of work but it isn't bad at all. Figure out which end to sling under the car first so that when installed the reels are facing out, stand slightly behind the tire, hold one end in my left hand, draw back the other end with my right and then sling it under the car behind the wheel. The free end wraps around the tire. Find the other end of the cable and hook it in the coupler. Rotate things around so that the gap to be taken up by the reel/cable is at the bottom of the tire contact patch. Pull the cables from the reel and hook the ends. Release the reels to take up the slack. Giggle and work things around so that the amount of take-up is even between the two reels. That's it. Drive a few dozen feet and check to make sure everything is tight ant take-up is still even. Adjust if needed. Good to go.REMOVAL: This one can be a pain. You never know where the coupler on the cable on the back side of the tire is. Pull slack from the reels, unhook the cables. Grab the cable from the back side of the tire and pull it up or back or something till you can find the coupler and release the main cable. Sometimes it's packed with ice and in an inconvenient spot. If you care enough to do this you could find out where it was at prior to starting the removal process and roll the car till it gets to a good spot. About half the time I can uncouple it with nothing more than some strategic shaking, a few times I've had to chip ice and thaw with my hot hands, most of the time it is somewhere in between. Once everything is unhooked move the reels to a safe spot and pull the car forward a couple feet to get off the chain so you can pick it up. Shake off the ice and water and lay out to dry before re-bagging.PERFORMANCE: I've used them through two winters now, driving on hard ice, grainy piled up sleet, wet packed snow, and deep dry powder. Total mileage is about 30mi, about 2/3 of it on hard ice with grainy sleet on top of it, the rest of it in snow and slush. Probably less than 1mi total on bare asphalt. Without the chains the poor rear wheel drive Smart car is nearly worthless. The dumb traction control uses braking instead of power vectoring and the result is it becomes immobile pretty quick in slick stuff, bogging down the motor with braking. With these chains on it drives almost as sure-footedly in the slick stuff as it does on dry pavement. It is actually very impressive, much better than I expected given the relatively small diameter of the chains. On really hard ice they will slip if I try to put too much power down or try climbing up a very steep hill, but if I am being careful at all they don't really slip much. Even when they don't feel like they're slipping they throw up a rooster-tail of ice behind me as I drive. Very grabby. On hard ice and pavement it is a very rough ride, but with a little bit of a soft surface they're very smooth. I can comfortably do 25-30mph on snow and grainy ice and feel like they would work well as traction beyond that but I don't want to stress them beyond their structural capacity.DURABILITY: I've been worried about this based on other posts but so far they've been great. No rust, no broken parts, reels still work well. The only issues I've had are minor things which have little to know bearing on performance and utility. One of the reel cables has a slight permanent bend in it, presumably from the cable being pulled at an extreme angle from the reel while in use. It doesn't affect the reel take-up or performance, it just looks like it might could become a problem some day if it happens more. The other thing is that the reels can occasionally be sticky, not wanting to take up the cable, as if there is some source of catch or drag internally. I solve it by fully extending the cables and taking them up again. Again, not really affecting much now but I could see whatever is going on inside could maybe become a problem. Despite these couple things I feel like I've more than gotten my money's worth so even when they finally do wear out I'll not feel bad about it.

Fairly easy to put on and take off, after you've done it once. I'd recommend practicing it at home first (I wish we did) instead of trying to read and follow the instructions while on the side of the road in the freezing weather.Out of the package the two chains were tangled up and it took us 5 minutes to untangle them (it didn't help that our fingers were already numb from the cold). I wish they have separate compartments in the bag one for each chain.The chains already started to rust even though we washed and dried it as soon as we got home, after using them on and off for two days.

My tires are 225-65-17. Very difficult to install by myself but not impossible. With 2 people it is very quick and easy.The reason is because once to connect the top wire it tightens slightly so you can’t get the bottom wires to reach. With a 2nd person, you can hold the wire loose and easily clip the bottom wire. (Note: this happens even when the self-tightening system is unlocked, meaning it just naturally tightens slightly but doesn’t lock like it would if you flipped the lock down. So super simple to stretch it to loosen if you have another set of hands)I think my tires are on the larger side for this set of chains so it probably would not be an issue with smaller tires.As far as working-they do the job!

Never put chains on before in my life. Took my '12 VW Golf (FWD) up to the mountains and was expecting to just need to have the chains in the car in case of a checkpoint. Got up there and realized we would have definitely gotten stuck multiple times without them.Easy to put on and take off, self-tightening tech is pretty amazing. Would buy again.

I’ve meant to review these chains for a while but wanted to have something constructive to say about them. We bought them for a 2017 Outback - the owner’s manual says roughly: don’t use chains, but, if you do, use Class S chains. These have been good in that regard, they cinch up nicely and we’ve had no clearance problems.We are on our 3rd ski season with these, using them weekly for a few months each winter on our local mountain accessed via a 10km FSR on the west coast of BC. Most of the time they’ve gone on quickly but occasionally something doesn’t quite work out and it takes a while to get them on. That said, ours have been fine overall.Last weekend I had the opportunity to help 2 other vehicles chain up and, as it happened, they both had the same set of chains - and both of those sets had the exact same problem: on the blue plastic housing that holds the tensioning cable there is a red plastic ring that flips up to release tension for putting them on and flips down for adding tension once you have the chains on. This red plastic ring has a tab that extends out from the blue housing to enable you to flip it up with a finger. On both these other sets of chains that I helped with, that little tab had broken off - probably due to rough treatment, maybe being dropped on the floor, possibly due to the plastic housing being run over when taking the chains off. On one set this took a minute of fiddling, prying with fingernails, to get the red ring up. On the other set it was quite a problem to get the red ring up but we eventually did.So my suggestion to the manufacturer is to nix the tab and carve out a little fingernail groove to help pry the red ring up.And to buyers: treat them sensibly - don’t toss them around - and they should be fine. Pay attention to the model number in relation to your tire size on the sizing chart when ordering.

I have used these chains for two times in front wheels drive Nissan Sentra. Initially, I didn’t like the wobbling kind feelings but I was feeling much happier with products when I saw the difference when others were stuck in snow while my car was moving very smoothly in 20cm snow without any issue. I don’t know how long it work but very easy to install and remove. I would highly recommend to keep in your car while driving in snowy and icy weather. It will save you from towing your car and skidding. I would say two pairs of chains or at least one pair chain should be in everyone car. I hope, it will last longer.

OK, I live where we got 16ft of snow last year, (not all at once, but over the winter). So, the landscape was always snow. Underneath it, regularly, there was slush, and mud. Think lot's of driving pain, then you've got it. I live in a place where everyone else has four wheel drive vehicles. I have a two wheel drive mini-van. These chains got me through some insane amount of snow. One day I was driving through snow that was over the front bumper of my van and so it was gliding up over my windshield. I put these chains on and off in the absolute worst conditions in about 10 minutes tops. When I got them they didn't quite fit, but I bought two small chain links and added them to each hook end, problem solved. The auto-tighteners are simple and amazing. The Chains don't come loose, I was even spinning my tires on hard, icy, frozen mud ground at one point, and they still didn't come off or come loose (yes, I pushed these chains to the absolute limit, probably more than they were meant for). The manufacturers deserve a pat on the back.

The chains worked reasonably well in terms of traction and the self tensioning system made them easy to install without moving my vehicle . Although the sizing chart included my tire size (Ford Ranger)I had to use the small extra links supplied with the chains to shorten the tensioning chain so that they stayed tight. There were no instructions on how to do this so hopefully I did it correctly. Overall, if I was buying chains again for my truck I would not buy the diamond chain pattern. Most of the roads I drive are unplowed so I think I would have obtained better traction, especially on the hills, with the v-bar style traction chains for a bit more money.

Impressive and so easy to use. Much quieter and smoother driving than the old school bungees and logging chains. Cheaper, cleaner and much better looking too. We drive a Toyota Tundra Crewmax.I’ll buy another set for those occasional steep icy areas on the coastal mountains, but just using the back tires easily kept outstanding traction and tracking both up and down the mountain road, Including hairpin turns. We bought a set for our Honda Fit as well.