Suggestions for traction aids in deep snow?

Thank you.
Would the OnSpot actuator and arm not become caught and jammed and bent in deep snow?
I’d rather put on tire chains and not have such co$tly obstructions.

Good info SF,wondered what they called those things,they use them on school buses around here,but they will close school for the least little inclement weather now and the mail is eaasy to stop now(Hmmm,could the advent of all these lady drivers and carriers have anything to do with this? I wonder)-Kevin

In the winter we all should keep a blanket in the car. It can help a lot if you get stuck or the road is closed or not passable. That blanket can help you get out or stay warm.

I highly recommend keeping an old blanket in the boot. It can keep you warm or help you get out of a problem.

"I highly recommend keeping an old blanket in the boot."
When a snowstorm is approaching, a survival bag is placed in the emergencyehicle. It contains food, MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), water, Ensure (nutritional drink), garbage bags, blankets, warm clothing, gloves, gallon of windshield washer fluid. Always in the vehicle: fire distinguisher, spare cell phone, LED light, butane lighter, toilet paper, aspirin, can of 3.2% beer, collapsible shovels, 200 feet of 1/4" polypropylene rope to tie to the spare tire as a flotation ring or fold as tow rope, pillow and sleeping bag - often must sleep when returning from a distant hospital in the middle of the night. (Need an air mattress because the floor of the back gets cold.)

Shadowfax, Wow !
Onspot - That Thinking Outside The Box Made Me Dizzy !

I’m going to have to try thinking harder and using more imagination, I guess. Wow.

CSA

@Robert , it’s used by emergency vehicles in areas with a lot of snow, such as upstate New York, etc. If it’s good enough for the ambulance, it’s probably good enough for your lifted 100 mph Expedition.

CSA, I read about these things years ago in some magazine talking about a new ambulance that some outfit in the north east USA got. I thought at the time “Cripes, I should have thought of that and patented it” :wink:

Even James Bond Would Be Green With Envy.

CSA

"it's used by emergency vehicles in areas with a lot of snow, such as upstate New York, etc. If it's good enough for the ambulance, it's probably good enough for your lifted 100 mph Expedition."
It cannot fit an Expedition or Suburban, etc. Also, not good for snow deeper than 6-inches. So far, tire chains remain the best traction aid.

Chains always help. But, unless you are willing to take a knee, mount the chains on all four wheels, which is safest, then prceeded to drive at speeds less then 20 mph, it probably ain’t getting done to go through a couple of snow drifts. So, everyone talks about carrying chains, but few, unless they are mandated or find them selves suddenly in the Outback, are ever going use them. So @Robt, just continue what you are doing.

Actually if it were me, after all this, I’d tell them to find another patsy. If the regular couriers won’t go out in the storm, its time to call the Highway Patrol and the plow trucks for emergency services. More than once we used the Highway Patrol for medical emergencies. Sounds like these hospitals need to work on their inventory control or get realistic.

"...I'd tell them to find another patsy. If the regular couriers won't go out in the storm, its time to call the Highway Patrol and the plow trucks for emergency services. More than once we used the Highway Patrol for medical emergencies. ..."
The state patrol has performed emergency blood relays but it often takes too long. Troopers have been too far away or were working accidents and not available. For a specimen rushed east to the blood center, a trooper picked up the specimen at the mountain hospital, rushed it to the border of his/her jurisdiction, handed it to another trooper who met me at an eastbound interstate on-ramp and I took it the rest of the way to the blood center. That relay tied up two troopers.

Hospital blood banks are well stocked, they stock even more when a blizzard is forecast, but sometimes there are complications.

"... unless you are willing to take a knee, mount the chains on all four wheels, which is safest, then prceeded to drive at speeds less then 20 mph, it probably ain't getting done to go through a couple of snow drifts.
Would chains only on the front wheels be sufficient? The back wheels follow mostly in the front wheels' tracks. Putting chains on is fine with me. Have gotten wet digging through drifts and climbing through parking lot drifts carrying boxes into the hospitals.

If the chains provide grip in the front, the rears might not have any traction. Any maneuvers could result in the rear end suddenly coming around to the front

@robertgiff
You can’t make statements like “would chains only on the front wheels be sufficient ?” and expect anyone to take you seriously as a driver who can handle an Expedition at 100 mph with the nations blood supply and any of us waiting on the operating table. ;=((

. BEST TRACTION ON THE REAR if you are pressed for time and only want to mount one set of chains. Even then, turn the abs OFF. Remember what I said. It’s doubtful you will ever put them on…so don’t bother buying them.
Just call some one, like a plow, to lead the way.

ThExpedition is smooth and stable on clean, dry, daylight roads at 100 mph.
No, I don’t drive fast in snow and ice and certainly not with chains on.
But since most weight is in the front, and the front tires will make a track in which the back tires mostly follow, does it not make sense to put the chains on the front?
I know they want the best tires on the rear. But this would be deep snow at low speeds.

There are two kinds of problems. First we think of is getting the car to go from point A to point B. However it is far more important to get to point B safely and getting there a little late safely is far better than loosing directional control (happens most often when you loose rear traction and the back end ends up in the front.

Over the years of driving I have done two unintentional 360’s. Luckily neither ended up in any accident.

Drive for safety, not speed.  Control is primary!

http://www.rubicon-trail.com/ML320/ml_chains.html
@Robert. You’re going to do what you want regardless, .just don’t do your thing and say anyone here agrees with you. That’s the easy way out. Accept your own responsibility when you loose control. Read what it says about your abs and traction control.

But, I do not recomend a novice chain user like yourself to even buy them. You’re questions indicate you will get yourself in trouble doing what you want to do and probably hurt someone else.

"...I do not recomend a novice chain user like yourself to even buy them. You're questions indicate you will get yourself in trouble doing what you want to do and probably hurt someone else."
Better to have such questions answered now than in a blizzard. I have used chains on station wagons. Manual says do not install chains on the front wheels because it may interfere with suspension components. But on the 17-inch wheels, there is plenty of room, even with centrifugal flinging, and I am not driving fast or turning sharply in deep snow. Ford recommends cable type chains or their own chains or equivalent. "Link-type chains may cause damage."

Well Robert around here the Rednecks used them on the front in ice storms-but that was before ABS and traction control or even AWD,best do what the manufacturer and the experienced writers on this forum says,when it gets snowy forget high speeds-Kevin