Video Transcript for DIY 2023 Toyota Highlander Installation for the Titan Chain Snow Tire Chains

Hi, Matt with etrailer. Today we're gonna be talking about the Titan Chains Twist Link snow tire chains on the 2023 Toyota Highlander. We're gonna have them on our 235 65 R18 tires and it's gonna be situated on our front axle as per the owner's guide. Always make sure you check yours as well. One thing I would like to note is that the Highlander does have a lot of limited wheel well clearance, but I think these chains can be very nice if you do find yourself in areas with a lot of snow and maybe ice. In the manual it doesn't say it needs to have S class chains and honestly these are probably gonna be one of your better options if you do have a lot of snow in the area, you need something with a little bit more bite than your smaller chains.

Part of what it makes this a good fit for the vehicle, though, is that it has these twist links and these twist links are what gives it that lower profile and still give it that bite into the snow. Now I won't get as much bite as compared to square chain links, but that's one of the sacrifices you make for this lower profile and a smoother right as well. Something else to note, we're gonna have our ladder pattern chains and that's just gonna provide us with better pulling forward and backwards in a straight line as opposed to making a lot of turns. We're also gonna have it made from a low carbon steel, so that's gonna make it durable. Now it might not hold up as well as some of our alloy chains that will help it be more corrosive resistant but these are still gonna be very durable.

The only point they're really gonna be tightened down and really secured to is this lever down here. You're just gonna pull that lever and it'll tighten everything down and hook onto this other link. We're still gonna have maybe a little bit of slack there too, so if you are worried about that, I'd recommend going to our website and getting one of our rubber tensioners. That's just gonna help pull any extra slack, especially when you're driving and things loosen up some. They're gonna come two to a set in this bag and this bag is gonna be made out of a light canvas.

So with these being somewhat heavier duty chains I think they'll probably last you a season or two, but I'd definitely be wary of it degrading or tearing up some. I'd also recommend maybe eventually buying a tote to store your chains just so they're nice and secured and they're not out in the elements. Then as for the install process, it was pretty simple, straightforward. The main issue I had was just trying to get underneath since the Highlander does have a lot of limited clearance underneath so it was a tight fit to hook on the back links, but the front links, super easy, just had to hook it on and attach it. Something I'd recommend doing too is when you do get your chains, try to lay 'em out, make sure everything's very secured and make sure they fit your tires before you get into any harsh environments where you have to put on your chains in the snow or very cold and harsh weather conditions.

But if you do need a hand installing them or you just need something to reference, just stay tuned and we'll show you how to do that. Let's start off with, I like to lay out my chains, make sure there's no tangles in 'em and there's no damage to 'em. Once I do that and everything's laid out I like to make sure everything's oriented in the right fashion like that. Lift up on these chains and we'll see it's flat on the bottom here and that's the side that's gonna sit on your tire and the top side's gonna have this hook to it. And if we go down all the way on this chain here we will see we have this lever. I'd like to make sure that it's facing the outside. Once everything is situated I like to grab my chains from the center here. And I'm just gonna drape it over our tire like so. Just walking it across the tire. Making sure everything's even and our chain is centered in our tire, it's not overhanging on our rim. And once you have that completed, you can go on the backside and hook on the back links. When you're underneath here you'll notice it's probably pretty tight, especially if you're a larger person. But to be able to reach that chain over here you can grab this hook at this point and hook them on together. It might take you a few tries, but you'll eventually get it and you might need to go back and forth just depending on your tire size. In our case, you've already checked and we're gonna do the first link on this side. And now I'm gonna come up to the front side and hook on the front. On the front side we're just gonna take this chain here and our lever on the other side and I'm just gonna push it through the center second link like so and you'll be able to pull on that lever. I had to push on the chains a bit just to push it to the base. And slide it back and you'll have this other link here just to secure it so it doesn't pop back off. Might be a little difficult, but if you put your body weight onto it you'll attach it there and it'll be very secured. Next step, I'd recommend using a rubber tensioner. It doesn't come with the tire chains, but you can order it off our website. And when I put it on there I'm just gonna make sure our hooks are facing away from our tires so it doesn't damage them and I'm just gonna make sure they evenly spread out so we get a nice good tension on all the links. Just like so. And when you complete this process you'll just do all this on your other side. Once you've installed the other side, I'd recommend either pulling up or backing up some just so you can make sure everything's very tight and secured. Once you have, then you can hit the road and that would pretty much conclude the install process and look at some of the features on the Titan Chains snow tire chains on the 2023 Toyota Highlander.