The owner’s manual for the 2010 Subaru states “Tire chains cannot be used on any tires for your Legacy and Outback because of lack of clearance between the tires and vehicle body.” How can this be for a vehicle advertised as being great for winter driving? Couldn’t they have built the car (SUV) wi…

I assume you did mean winter tyres and not snow tyres. In addition how about those cable things rather than the chains? Check with Subaru before using the cable things however.

I thought it was usually not recommended to put chains on any 4 wheel drive vehicle?

I have an Outback with traction control, vehicle stability control, and (obviously) AWD and ABS. And, I still use winter tires! The bother of mounting and dismounting tire chains is…major. And, did you know that the maximum safe driving speed with tire chains is under 20 mph on most vehicles? P…

Your option is to buy all seasons that are rated average to good at least in snow, and KEEP THEM current. The will not perform as well on ice and maybe a little noisy. They are sold and perform decently. That’s usually not the case with original equipment tires. AWD cars should NOT be driven differ…

OP hit one of my pet peeves. More and more manufacturers are making cars that don’t take chains. Some states, such as CA, still require chains on certain mountain passes when it snows–doesn’t matter what kind of tires you have on your car (although this is rare for AWD vehicles, admittedly). And …

Scrabbler makes a good point. A Subaru Outback is a car…IMO and I wouldn’t expect ANY car to run with chains. They have 17" low profile alloys ? Even if you could squeeze them in I’d hate to take a chance with the rims. If you anticipate ever using chains, get a truck/truck based SUV and steel rims…

Here is a list of the products I’ve considered (I have a similar problem to OP, except I don’t have AWD): Spikes Spiders http://www.spikes-spiderusa.com/: Basically you attach a hub contraption to your car at the begining of winter, and then the spikes spiders themselves just snap on when you nee…

I have used a FWD car in the snow and can put on chains easily in 5 minutes per wheel – my wife driving, turning the wheels either direction, using a metal “U” to hold the end of the chains to the tire (hard to find these U’s anymore), and rolling forwards or backwards over the chains. I am shocked…

Tire chains on a Subaru?

Maintenance/Repairs

skeptic2 February 8, 2010, 12:45am 9

I did mean winter tires, not snow tires if by that you are referring to the all season tires that come with the car. Cables are “cable chains” and would seem to be excluded by the wording in the owner’s manual. That said, cable chains seem to fit ok, and I will carry them with me.

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Tire chains on a Subaru?

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