If you’re going to be anywhere near snow or icy roads in a camper van, especially if the countryside is hilly or mountainous, you’re going to need chains for your tires. It’s not really up for debate either. For safety purposes, it is basically a necessity that will keep you from sliding down a mountain at uncontrollable speeds.
Snow chains for a camper van are essential for any kind of travel that’s going to take you into an area with heavy snow, or if you live in a place where the roads are rural and there is no priority in terms of salting the road and moving the snow.
Fortunately, you can order snow chains online, get them from just about any auto shop, and purchase them from most supermarkets, such as Walmart or Target. There is an endless supply of them on the market and they are not too difficult to put on.
How Do Snow Chains Help in the Winter?
Snow chains are fitted to the drive wheels of your vehicle and they go on much in the same way that you would put on a shirt or pants, by sliding the chains over the exterior of the tires. Fitted to your tires, the chains give you extra grip on icy roads and help you navigate over treacherous black ice.
It’s especially helpful if you’re in a camper van because you are that much heavier, pressing the chains into the ice for better grip. Without the chains, the camper van’s weight would be used against it, making it harder to control as black ice doesn’t care much whether you weigh 1.5 tons or 10 tons.
The links of the chain that pass completely across the tire are the most helpful, like cleats that dig into astroturf, the horizontal chains provide a level of grip that would be absent otherwise.
However, you shouldn’t keep chains on throughout the winter, just because it’s cold outside. For one, the chains won’t allow your vehicle to travel at a high rate of speed, as they’ll likely come off and cause severe damage to either your tire or anything that they hit at a high rate of speed underneath your camper van.
You should only ever put them on if you’re going to be traveling through fresh snow and ice or going out in heavy snowfall. The salt trucks usually don’t arrive until after the snow has passed through.
How Do You Put the Chains On?
You don’t have to remove the wheels in order to install snow chains as they are designed to go on over the tire while it is still mounted.
- Lay the chains out flat and right next to the tire
- Clear the chain of any kinks
- Make sure all of the horizontal links are straight and untwisted
- Lay the chains over the tire like a blanket
- Ensure that they are perfectly even and cover the whole of the tire tread
- Get in your camper van and drive forward for about a yard
- Be sure to drive straight forward, without turning the wheel at all
- Get out of the camper van after you place it in Park
- Fasten the loose links together by starting with the inner link first
- Ensure that the chains are secured and tight against the tire
- Use a tightener (if applicable)
You want to make sure that it’s snug all around, especially where the chain comes down around the sides of the tires. The tighter it is, the more effective it will be out on the road. Always check the user manual for your chains to ensure that you didn’t miss anything.
How to Get the Right Size Chains for Your Camper Van
All you need to know is your tire size. The tire size numbers are located on the side of your tires, assuming that they’re not worn off, or you can find the tire size on the info label inside the door and in the vehicle’s user manual.
If your tires are really close to the wheel-well, you need to double-check your manual and make sure that you can even install snow chains on the tires. Not every vehicle can take them and it boils down to how close the wheel-well is to the tire.
As far as the three numbers on the side of your tire, the first number indicates the width of your tire. The second number is the tire height ratio, and the third number is the diameter of the wheel in inches.
Once you know the size of your tires, you can pick out a set of snow chains that match your tire size numbers.
Which Chains are Best for Snow and Ice?
There are four types of snow chains and one of those types is basically a traction-enhancing device that’s designed for vehicles that can’t fit traditional snow chains without coming into contact with the wheel-well.
- Alternative Traction Devices
- Premium Snow Chains
- Standard Snow Chains
- Entry Level Snow Chains
Alternative traction devices are for vehicles that don’t have room for standard, premium, or entry-level snow chains. They’re easy to slip on and have a very low profile.
Premium snow chains give you maximum braking and traction performance. These are the chains that you put on when the end-of-the-world snowstorm is about to roll in on top of you. They’re larger and bulkier than the others.
Standard snow chains are just what they sound like and are best used when you have to go out into snowy weather that doesn’t fit the description of a full-on blizzard.
Entry-level snow chains fall somewhere in between the alternative and standard designs. They’re for light snow and getting through potential ice on the roads.
Final Thoughts
Snow chains are a must if you’re going to take a camper van into heavy snow and winter weather, especially if you’re going into mountainous or hilly terrain, where losing traction will be a disaster.
So long as you know what kind you need, how to install them, and how to use them, you’ll be able to get through any weather and stay safe inside your camper van.
If you get stuck and don’t have snow chains then good winter tires will be helpful. Good tires is very important during winter time. In the winter you should wash your tires at least once every week. When you know you are going to drive in bad weather you should always wash your tires before the trip. Doing so will make the tires much better in difficult driving weather. There is special made soap for tire cleaning which is the best to use. But most kind of soaps, for example the one you wash your car with is better than not doing it at all.