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Depending on where you go chains are required by law to go past certain points, some you don't need chains if you have a 4wd vehicle with snow tires. So it's not that uncommon.
Thanks to everybody for your answers, I was asking mainly for icy roads heading up to the mountains, no offroad type stuff. I don't have snow tires on the vehicle, just Falken Wild Peak A/T. When I lived up in Oregon and I was headed up to Mt. Hood for some snowboarding, the roads would get slushy during the day and then refreeze back into ice in the evening when the temps dropped again, and chains were required not just for getting going, but stopping was important too. Assuming the same scenario, wouldn't it be better to have all 4 tires chained up? If you only had 2 chained and in 4HI, wouldn't that change the turning ratio of the front and rear wheels, causing the diff to try to catch up?
Thanks to everybody for your answers, I was asking mainly for icy roads heading up to the mountains, no offroad type stuff. I don't have snow tires on the vehicle, just Falken Wild Peak A/T. When I lived up in Oregon and I was headed up to Mt. Hood for some snowboarding, the roads would get slushy during the day and then refreeze back into ice in the evening when the temps dropped again, and chains were required not just for getting going, but stopping was important too. Assuming the same scenario, wouldn't it be better to have all 4 tires chained up? If you only had 2 chained and in 4HI, wouldn't that change the turning ratio of the front and rear wheels, causing the diff to try to catch up?
I don't think the chains would add enough to be noticeable in the drivetrain if you only had them on two tires. However, chaining up all 4 means better traction, and so if you are trying to slide 2.5 tons of metal down sheer ice it would not be a bad idea to have all 4 chained.
By the same theory, 4L is kind of the Expedition's crawler gear, so I might use that on the hills going up and down just to try and keep everything spinning at low speed. That's just me though. Others may feel differently.