Chris Nelms

A week of unusually heavy snow has given many drivers in the UK an experience that they have either not had before, or that they had forgotten about. My 50 mile drive home from work on Monday evening (2nd February ‘09) which usually takes around 1 hour 20 minutes took 3 hours 30 minutes. Worse, there were several modest slopes that my car struggled to climb at all. Once rubber tyres lose their grip on snow, or snow that has been compressed and polished by other vehicles into ice, it is very difficult to regain any traction.

For several years I have carried a pair of snow chains in the boot of the car as part of my emergency kit. I tried fitting them a couple of times when I bought them but that isn’t the same as using them on snow. I carry them not so that I can get to work on the snow but purely as a last-resort emergency measure if I need to get home and am stranded, or perhaps if I must ferry someone to hospital when the roads are otherwise impassable.

Today I have stayed at home, the roads this morning being covered with such deep snow that attempting to drive to work would have been foolhardy. It was a perfect opportunity to try fitting the snow chains and driving on them. When in the box snow chains are a confusing tangle of coloured links. Even when laid out carefully they can be hard to understand. The brief, multi-lingual instructions don’t help. Nevertheless I crouched by my front wheels in the snow this morning and fitted the chains knowing that I might one day be grateful for having undertaken this exercise. The first chain took about 10 minutes to fit but the second was completed in half that time.

I then took the car out onto the snow-covered roads. Grip is immeasurably better and one quickly gains confidence that the front wheels will retain grip when ascending and descending the slopes. The steering is still awkward as the front wheels follow ruts left my other vehicles and I found myself gripping the steering wheel tightly. The sensation is not a pleasant one and the car doesn’t travel as smoothly as if on a normal tarmac surface. Nevertheless as an emergency measure they are well worth having, the purchase price being an insurance premium to give peace of mind.