[politovski]

To fellow owners:
I live in western N.C. and recently purchased a 2007 Forester. When asked about chains, the salesman said, initially, no chains. Then, only front wheel chains. Then, he contacted a dealer in vermont and they said to get good snow tires. So, since my road is rather steep and people with chains slide down often enough, i measured, and there is ~25mm of clearance between the tire and the suspension in the front, and ~15mm in the rear. I looked on:
tirechain.com
Got a pair of the diamond chains for 215/60R16. put them on the front, and they fit just fine and no interference with the rest of the car. drove about 20 miles on them so far on ice and snow, and the Forester now rides like a sherman tank, but i have unbelievable traction (in a vehicle that already had really good traction).
here are some pictures:
flickr.com/photos/politovski/4356451727/in/photostream
now, i have a set of low profile diamond chains coming for the rear wheels (they only need 10mm of clearance), hopefully to make getting to work a bit less hair raising. later.
-P
:starwars:

 

[FPT_RAIDER]

the main reason is it can off set the outside wheel dia, which can trash the AWD system, if anything its worse to drive with just front chains, then to drove with chains all around, just my thoughts. and good snow tires are one of the best things you can do

 

[crewzer]

^^ Another hot topic!

You might find this discussion informative, especially the link to the SCC Super Z6 "chains".

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

 

[adc]

Problem is with chains is that you high side a bit further in the snow and then you are really stuck. Ask me how I know.

 

[JBX]

I agree with FPT_RAIDER, I'm thinking that you should go with all four tires chained, or none.

 

[politovski]

definitely going to go with chains all around. would rather not use them at all, truth be told. moved to WNC to get away from this crap. i'll post an update when the new set come in.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I would tend to listen to the Vermont dealer when discussing driving in the snow.

 

[markyh]

Chains? People really still put chains on their tires? I live in Northern Illinois and I can't remember in 20 years of driving seeing a car with chains on the tires. Maybe I'm not very observant! We get a lot of snow and have pretty long winters and that's something I would never even consider. Maybe if I lived in the mountains or something and had to drive 20 miles uphill every day it would be different, but I would just get some winter/better tires.