Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Better Tire Chain Straps

Yesterday, I had picked up some nylon webbing and some steel slides. The heavy duty velcro ties that I had picked up were a couple of inches too short. I made these short extensions as I like the idea of having the velcro straps double back on itself for additional strength. I knew that they would be a little short when ordering but I couldn't really find anything ready made that were the correct length.

I put four of the pairs on the rear wheel to check the clearance at the drive shaft. No problem at all and it only took a couple of minutes to put them on. I then drove around our neighborhood again heading up and down the hills to see how well the velcro holds.This time, no problem. I'm leaving the leather straps on the other four as I can always use them on the front or sidecar wheel. Now I'm ready for the next heavy, wet snow.

Last night, I plowed the church parking lot for the first time. One of the guys that plow it regularly gave me tips. He is out of town this week so I figured that it would be good practice. The most challenging part were the entrances to the lot as they slope down towards Farmers Loop Rd. There were only a couple of inches of fresh snow so it was a good opportunity to get more used to the controls and plan on where to move the snow. I stopped there this morning to see how much I missed. This was the smaller of the two lots. Both lots took me a couple of hours. Some of that time was going over what I had done before as I didn't have the blade angled enough or tried to take too big of a bite. i.e. Snow spilled over onto what I had done on the previous pass.

I just received an update from Aerostitch. The repairs on my Roadcrafter Light are done and it should be shipped out later this week!

4 comments:

  1. I hope the velcro straps work well for you....can you email me the link to them please? I plan, if needed, to use the leather straps for now until they eventually break from being wet in snow over time.

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    1. The Velcro straps are easier to put on and seem to be strong enough. If the straps were about 2" longer they would be perfect.

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  2. Yes, but are you still having fun plowing?

    Yay for your 'Stich being done.

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    1. The plowing is still challenging and it sure beats a snow shovel!

      I had sent an email earlier asking about the status but sent it to the wrong email address. Once I used the correct address I got a response pretty quickly. It'll be good to get it back...

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