ICE SCREWS on RTV

TRIBUTE100

Active member
Has anyone used ice screws on RTV worksites tires or other 4x4 tires ? You guys up north will know what these are. They use them for ice racing motorcycles, cars, and ATV's.

The back story: Christmas 2010 here in Western North Carolina we had quite a bit of snow, sleet, freezing rain, off and on for a week building up to about 10 inches. You could not shovel it. So I bought an Ariens 11.5hp 26" Pro Snowblower after it thawed out from a guy who bought it 2 years before and never used it because of knee surgery. Paid less than 1/2 of the retail price. I thought about getting chains but got the idea to order these ice screws. Used a screw gun to install them into the knobs on the tires.

Well, it was like I bought snow insurance, no snow here for 3 years, I was beginning to blame Al Gore. By now the machine is over 5 years and had not seen a flake of snow. But yesterday it started to snow and we got 10 inches of wet snow. So today I got to use it and I was very excited. After 3 hours of blowing snow I'm not excited anymore.

Back to the ice screws. My blacktop driveway is about a 1/3 of a mile long with a couple of steep hills. I was impressed with the traction I had with the ice screws. I didn't have any ice under the snow but the screws performed very well with no slipping. My unit weighs close to 300 lbs.

These ice screws could easily be installed on the knobby worksite tires if you needed extra traction in icy conditions. You would not want to be caught on a public road with these. You can get these screws in a couple of lengths. The head is like a hex head slotted screw, but they have 2 sharp opposing edges. You would not want let them to get too worn down or you couldn't get them out.
 
Up here in Canada we used them on bikes and ATVs for traction while racing on frozen ponds, lakes etc.

About 200 screws per tire.

Very hard on the tires because they eventually get ripped out destroying that section of rubber.

Biggest mistake, putting too few studs in the tire causing too much traction on each stud leading to more tear out.

Second issue, once removed holes get clogged up and hard to re-install.

Really a one time deal.

Set of chains are the better option. Easily installed and removed.

I too had my snow-blower upgraded to studded tires. Worked great for that application. Fluid in the tires helped too.
 
I think the ice screws are a bad idea you will ruin your tires chains will work better. You can buy chains that have little studs on them for ice conditions.
 
Thanks guys for your advice. I will stick to ice screws on my slow moving snowblower.
On a similar topic for traction, I had purchased some $30 Yaltrax Pro traction devices for my boots and used them yesterday when blowing snow. They worked well. But I found that the spiral wound wire on the heel portion did not wear well and one of the wires broke with only 3 hours of use. Just sent a 'nasty gram' to the company complaining about their product.
 
I agree with SpudHauler ice screws work great on bikes and atv's while they are on ice, when used on any surface other than ice they tear your tires up and wear out fast.
 
On a similar topic for traction, I had purchased some $30 Yaltrax Pro traction devices for my boots and used them yesterday when blowing snow. They worked well. But I found that the spiral wound wire on the heel portion did not wear well and one of the wires broke with only 3 hours of use. Just sent a 'nasty gram' to the company complaining about their product.
Time for some crampons?

lens9811731_1267671849gh_crampon.jpg
 
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