Building up my first week post count here.

1999 Explorer XLT Eddie Bauer all wheel drive.

Tire chains?
Do you put them on the front or back tires?

Don't have an owners manual and both chilton and Hayes don't say anything.

Thanks for the newbe help friends.

 

Welcome to the forum!

if you have to chain up your AWD vehicle, it is recommended to chain up all four. Under extended use during extreme conditions it would be possible to overheat and ruin the viscous clutch in the transfer case unless the front and rear both have similar traction.

that is to say, whichever end does not wear chains would be trying to always slip, and the viscous clutch would be constantly trying to transfer power away from those wheels to the end with chains.

I've got chains for all four corners, though, i've never had to hang them. i've found the AWD VERY capable and effective in all types of terrain. I'd be willing to bet with the right set of tires for the type of use you expect, you'll never need the chains.

 

Thank you for the reply my friend.
Have mismatched set as of right now but they have great tread.
Car was just purchased and wanted to hit the slopes this winter.
In Oregon you have to by law have traction devices when the weather turns.

Sooooo buy 4 new tires or two sets of chains just incase or both?

Time will tell I guess.

Thank you so much for the info.

 

I'd be careful running a mis-matched set of tires. Tread pattern doesn't matter too much, but overall tire circumferance does.

The spec for tire circumferance is 0.25". meaning they all need to be within a quarter inch of each other. Even with the exact same tire on all corners, that translates to mean that they all need to be within about 3/32" worth of tread wear before they go beyond that 0.25" circumferance.

my 2000 came with 235/75r15, but i switched to 16" rims so i bought 235/70r16" so that they would be the same size as the original, or as nearly so as possible. I've had to run my spare for a couple days here and there and i can tell that the transfer case isn't to happy about it. even though they are the same size "on the book" they are different enough to cause a problem.

in fact, with my current set i've got a couple tires with slow leaks in the rear, and if they get more than 5psi low in the rear i can feel it in the transfer case when i take off with the wheels turned.

now, all that being said, i think my transfer case is wounded and overly sensative to differences in tire diameter. BUT i've been very fastidious with maintaing my air pressure (before this current bout of slow leaks), and i'm still having problems..... so i guess what i'm saying is that even being careful you can still have problems over the long haul (i've got 173k on mine)

ideally, get 4 matching tires with matching tread depth. If you need to hang chains, hang 4.

 

I see a lot of explorers here that have been lifted with beefy rims and tires.
Surely a few of those are AWD right?
Did they drop in new transfer cases?
How do they do it? Different transfer cases?

Great advice and insight. Really appreciate it.
Was pulling parts yesterday. Should have grabbed an extra transfer case.
So much to learn.

 

having different size than stock tires/rims will have no ill-effects on the transfer case.

the problem is from having ONE or TWO that are different than the others. In my case, i chose the 235/70r16's such that i could retain my original spare and use that in case of emergency with out too much worry about fragging the clutch in the Transfer Case.

but it doesn't take too much for it to become noticeable.

i think the transfer cases on the AWD's are plenty reliable as a whole. mine hasnt started to act "unhappy" until this last year.

 

Found one set of unused chains at goodwill for $6.
One down....one more set to go.

 

that's a heck of a deal!

nice score!!