Tire Chain Testing

Periodically my company conducts product testing and usually this is done down in Prineville, OR.  This past week I got roped into working one of the test sessions.  On the way over to Prineville on Tuesday there was a coating of snow on Mt. Hood and we were pleased to see that some people were having to chain up.  And along the way we got a few good chuckles watching some novices roll around in the snow trying to install their chains. 

If you look closely in the lower lefthand corner of the pic above you can make out the Cadillac emblem.  Yes, one of our chain testing vehicles is a Cadillac!  A fine tank like model from 1990.  Here's a shot I took of our crew getting ready for the first test run.

As per usual, the sales guys (including myself who took the picture) are standing around "supervising" and thinking about what kind of donut to eat next.  As you can see from the open trunk of the Caddie, a family of four could live in there.

The piece of junk in this picture (not my company's product) didn't make it far at all.  When we went to re-tighten it after a few miles of driving the handle didn't cooperate.

Anyways, we basically drive a loop from outside of Prineville along the Paulina Highway, passing through the fine towns of Paulina and Post.  Post looks to be a one building town, and for miles and miles the cows outnumber humans by the thousands.  Plenty of deer, coyotes, eagles and other animals around.  I was hoping to get more pictures but it rained for two of the days.

The whole testing process can get tedious, but just about the time you get bored.....KABOOM!  A chain will break and it sounds like an M-80 exploding.  Even though I know anyone that's read this far is really fascinated by now, I won't go on about the intricacies of tire chains.  But I do want to emphasize that if you happen to use tire chains this winter, it is very, very important to keep them as tight as possible on the tire.  Pull over a short distance after putting them on and re-tighten them.  A loose chain won't last very long and as you can see from the pics below a broken chain can do all kinds of damage.  The spots pointed out in the picture are just a small sampling of uh-oh's on that truck.  Now we do intentionally run the chains until they break, but I don't recommend doing that on your own car!