pewag 7mm LT Studded Truck Chain with Cams

Video Transcript for Pewag 7mm LT Studded Truck Chains Installation - 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

Hi, everyone. It's Evangeline here at etrailer. And today, we'll be taking a look at our pewag seven-millimeter light truck tire chains for your larger truck tires. And these are the studded version here on our 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. So these are super-duper, extra heavy-duty tire chains. These have studs.

Some people call them cleats, some people call them V bars. Either way, what they do is that they break into the ice, they break into the snow, and they provide superior traction. So right off the bat, if you don't need all that extra traction or all those studs, these might not be the best option for you. But if you're going off-roading, if you're going to a place where there is going to be a lot of ice and you are worried about slipping and sliding around on that ice, maybe this might be the ones for you. These are ladder-style chains, which are the traditional shape or style of truck tire chains.

And that means that as you do drive around, they don't cover as much of your tires as let's say a diamond pattern chain would, but they do cover this in a way where you do get that traction. You actually get a lot of traction, so you will hear that as you are on the road. Now, let's take a look at the way the links themselves are designed. So these chains are arranged into a twist link and then they have studs right over here at each end of the link. So these links are made of the pewag premium alloy steel, which is great for durability, it's great for corrosion resistance.

So if you are doing forestry or ice road trucking, these will definitely hold up to those situations. So these are designed to be aggressive tire chains. They also have cam locks though, and that's more for ease of use. So if you have these on your vehicle, you have these on your Jeep in our case, and you need a little bit of extra tension, that's what these cam locks do. I though, personally recommend also picking up rubber tensioners because as you go along, you want to maintain that tension and add to it with those tensioners.

So this is gonna be the bag that your tire chains are going to come in. You also get instructions as well as this cam lock tightener or tool. So this is not as fancy or as sturdy as the soft shell, hard shell cases you would expect from let's say your Konig chains. But it is slightly sturdier than the softer canvas bags that I've seen other tire chains come in. So this is technically reusable. Once you're done with your chains, you can just pop them right back into this bag, but I do recommend using your own either zip tie or rubber bands. That's just to cinch this top right here once your chains are in them. Now, if you're only carrying around your chains for extreme emergency situations, although they are designed for if you are in aggressive icy situation, so you would prefer their reusability, It is still nice to see how they have this bag or this case to carry them when you need them. Now, the tires we have on our Jeep right now are size 255/70R18. If you're not sure what tire size you have, you can find them printed right on the sidewall of your tire. We also have these installed on the rear tires of our Jeep as per the Jeep owner's manual. Another thing I recommend you doing is please do not drive over 30 miles per hour with these chains on. One, because that is the rated speed for tire chains and two, if it is an extreme weather condition where you do need these, whether it's sleet or ice or a lot of snow on the road, I would recommend for your safety not driving over 30 miles per hour anyways. So my final thoughts about these tire chains is that they are definitely designed for aggressive purposes. If you are into forestry or if you're into ice road trucking, you have your Jeep out there on the ice road, then you'll definitely need chains like these since those studs are aggressive traction studs. Now, if you don't need that much traction, these definitely will not be the fit for you. If you have not as crazy ice conditions, maybe check out our Titan Diamond alloy snow tire chain. It's a low-profile class S chain, a lot easier to mount compared to these tire chains 'cause you don't need to reach behind the tire. But all in all, if you know what you're using them for and you know you need this kind of traction, this might be a really good choice for you. When you do get your tire chains, what I recommend you doing first is just to lay them out on your garage floor. That way, you can get a handle of kinda how they work, how they look, get familiar with it now before you're stranded on the side of the road where it's muddy, it's snowy, it's cold, and not comfortable. So with it on your garage floor, just check for the links to make sure that they're not tangled up. Also, that none of the links are cracked or broken. Another thing to look out for while you're down here is to make sure that the hook portion will be facing away from your tire while the flat portion will be on your tire. That's the proper way to install it so that you don't accidentally puncture your tire. And when it all looks good, since these are reversible chains, it kinda doesn't really matter which side you put on where, just lift it up from the middle, again with the flat chain facing the tire, and then drape it over it. Once you're behind your tire, you then grab the links as well as this hook on this side, and then connect the two. So you can put on the second or the third or the fourth link, whichever gets the best fit for you. We'll start right over here, then go back over to the front. Now that we're over here in the front, we're gonna connect these links as well. Now, I'm gonna try to get it onto our second link 'cause I think that's a pretty good fit. We wanna get as much tension as we can get, even before we tighten down the cams right there. Okay, now that those two are connected, it does still feel kind of loose, so we'll tighten down the cams and see if that makes a better fit. So this includes a cam tightener, and you're gonna insert that into your cam, and then just rotate it counterclockwise. That's gonna help you tighten this down and get that tension in there. All right, once you've gotten your cams tightened down, depending on how you got your links in the first step will determine how many cams you will actually need to tighten. If you can get better fit at the first, you may only need to use one cam. It really is up to you as well as your tires, which works out best for you. You can also check out the rubber tensioners we have here at etrailer on our product page. Those add a little extra tension as well as since they are rubber, they adjust as you drive around. So again, do this process on both sides. Roll forward, check your tension. If you need to adjust afterwards, you can do so. Once everything is nice and tight and secured on your tire, you are good to go and you're done with the install. And that was a look here at our pewag seven-millimeter studded truck tire chains here on our 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited..