2016 Peterbilt 579, ISX15, 18 speed, pulling a Wilson grain hopper out of Great Falls. sixth winter on my own truck and every november i have the same argument with myself about how many sets of chains go on the rack.
Montana doesn't make me carry them for most of what i run. but i go over Lookout Pass into Idaho on 90, and when barley heads to the coast i'm in Washington, which wants chains carried on its mountain passes from November 1 to April 1 if you're over 10,000 lbs. that one i know.
last january i caught a load into Denver and learned that Colorado has its own carry rule on I-70. i had one set of triples and a cable set i wouldn't trust on a shopping cart. got lucky, the road was dry.
so what's actually on your truck for 70, 80 and 90 this winter. how many sets, triples or singles, and has anybody ever been checked for them at a port or a chain up area?
x15_565_guyMillion milerSalt Lake City, UT73 posts, joined Nov 2025Runs2018 Kenworth W900L, X15 565, 18 speed / steel on a 48 ft flatbed
Wyoming doesn't have a carry rule on 80 like Colorado does on 70. what WYDOT does is put a chain law up on stretches of it during a storm, and the level they post decides what they want from you. if it's up and you've got nothing, you sit at the gate in Laramie with forty other trucks. honestly most of the time 80 just closes before the chain law matters. Elk Mountain, the wind, light trailers lying on their sides by Arlington.
W900L, X15 565, 48 ft flatbed hauling steel for an outfit in the valley. i carry two sets of triples and one set of singles in case the steer needs help, which has happened once in nine years. i chain the outside duals on both drive axles and that has satisfied every chain law i've driven under.
for 70, get the rules from Colorado, not from some guy in Salt Lake. Parleys has chain control too but i've only seen it enforced twice.
cvsa_inspector_retMillion milerSioux Falls, SD88 posts, joined Nov 2025Runsretired, 26 years SD Highway Patrol motor carrier side
retired off the motor carrier side of the SD Highway Patrol after 26 years. on 90 in South Dakota nobody checks whether you carry chains, there's no carry rule here, and what shuts 90 between Sioux Falls and Rapid City is ground blizzard. you can't chain your way through zero visibility. we closed the gates on the ramps and that was the conversation.
something from the inspection side people forget. chains hanging on the rack are something you have to secure. a set of triples that comes off the rack at 65 goes through somebody's windshield, and a bungee cord isn't a tiedown. bolt the hangers on or put them in a box.
for Colorado, the CDOT site lays out the commercial chain law, where it applies on 70 and what a Code 15 and a Code 18 mean for you. read it there, not on a facebook group: codot.gov.
laredo_reefer_runsOwner operatorLaredo, TX41 posts, joined Nov 2025Runs2022 Volvo VNL 860, D13, I-Shift / reefer, produce north
texas guy. never put a chain on a truck in my life, and i've got avocados going to Denver the second week of december.
VNL 860, D13, I-Shift, Carrier reefer on a 53. so the dumb question. do i buy chains here in Laredo where nobody stocks the heavy stuff, or do i wait until i'm up near Pueblo and pay what the truck stop asks? and how many sets is enough for a tandem drive tractor pulling a loaded reefer?
also, does anybody really practice putting them on before the night they need them, or is that just something people say.
eighteen_speed_onlyOPMillion milerGreat Falls, MT64 posts, joined Nov 2025Runs2016 Peterbilt 579, ISX15, 18 speed / grain hopper
not a dumb question. two sets of triples for the drives is what everyone i know runs into Colorado. order them online before you leave. the truck stop closest to the pass knows you need them that day and prices them like it.
and yes, practice. dry lot, daylight, gloves. drape them, pull forward onto them, hook the inside first, then the outside, then the tensioners. my first time took fifty minutes. last winter on Lookout it was about twenty and i was still swearing the whole way.
throw in a cheap pair of rain pants, a headlamp and an old floor mat to kneel on. you'll be on your knees in slush next to a truck that's spraying you.
lease_onto_or_ownOwner operatorMemphis, TN57 posts, joined Nov 2025Runs2019 International LT, A26, automated / dry van, leased on
the carrier i'm leased to sends a memo every november saying chains are the owner operator's cost and the driver's call. then dispatch sends you to Denver anyway. which is fine, Denver pays.
i bought two sets of triples and a set of singles three years ago for about 1,100 total. they've been on the tires exactly once, on 70 west of the tunnel. i moved them off the rack into a diamond plate box behind the cab because the rack ones were rusted stiff after one winter of brine.
if you're leased on, read your lease before winter. some of them charge you when a load goes late because the truck sat waiting on chains.
dispatch_from_homeMillion milerOmaha, NE102 posts, joined Nov 2025Runsoff the truck, dispatches four owner operators
from the desk: when 80 closes at Laramie i would much rather my guy sit in Cheyenne with a full tank and his clock running out than be the one who made it through. chains get you up the hill. they don't stop a loaded trailer from shoving you around on the way down Elk Mountain. i've watched one of my drivers jackknife with all eight on.
laredo, you never said how Denver went.
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