Polaire GRIP polyurethane ladder-track snow chains (pair) size 20

In summary:

• Suitable for almost every vehicle, especially those which cannot use traditional snowchains because there's not enough space behind the wheel, or because there's not enough space to fit them - to fit traditional chains you need to push both your arms into the space between the wheelarch and the top of the wheel
• These are unique, high tech, innovative chains - a polyurethane tread, with an Aramid core to give them essential strength
• They are unusually quick to fit because they can't get tangled, so no time is taken in getting them ready for fitting
• The same adapter fits all wheel bolt / wheel nut sizes from 17mm to 22mm
• Suitable for all vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes, including heavy 4x4s and medium to large vans
• Once set for a particular wheel (which only takes a couple of minutes), they are tensioned against the wheel by moving a flip-over lever
• Their patented X-shaped treads (the red parts) will flex as required to maintain the optimum tension on the wheel
• They can be driven (for short distances) on tarmac - which will reduce their lifespan but means that users don't keep having to fit and remove chains as the road conditions change, which is a time-consuming, messy and potentially hazardous process, especially in the dark. For example, a city commuter might drive a car with Polaire GRIP from home to the station car park, non-stop, on a mix of soft snow, compacted snow, salted road, compacted snow again, with no risk of getting hands and clothes dirty on the journey. (Snow chains tend to get very dirty if they're not just being used on fresh snow.)
• Another example of tarmac driving is when travelling through tunnels on Alpine roads - snow, tunnel, snow, tunnel, snow...
• They have all necessary snowchain approvals, including TÜV, ÖNORM (Austria), B26 (France, snowchains compulsory) as well as various car manufacturer/OEM approvals

We think they are excellent.

In much more detail:

We are snow chain specialists, and it’s in this context that we rate Polaire’s GRIP as being the best all round single-point front-fixing car and van snow chain available.

We say “single-point” because the exceptional Spikes-Spider systems are fixed to more than one wheel bolt (Spikes-Spider have a patent on this). In any event, Polaire GRIP are very different to Spikes-Spider because (1) they’re made from Elastollan, a polyurethane thermoplastic, and as such may be driven for short distances on tarmac and (2) they’re much cheaper.

Polaire GRIP are a sensible choice for any type of car or van wheel. Many people choose them because they can also be driven on tarmac – more information is given below – which massively increases their overall usefulness as well as minimising the health and safety risks of frequent fitting and removal.

They are ideal chains for use on vehicles which have a “No fit” for traditional snow chains because of the lack of space behind the wheels, or where there isn’t enough space to push your hands into the space between the top of the wheel and the wheel-arch – you need to be able to do this to fit traditional chains.

Note though that Polaire GRIP are not suitable for use on vans or minibuses with twin rear wheels – you need ‘automatic’ chains for these (e.g. RUD Classic), or AutoSock – no other chain type can be fitted easily.

One reason that Polaire GRIP are so quick to fit is that they can’t get tangled; if you’ve used traditional chains before you’ll know that untangling traditional chains often takes much longer than fitting them!

Every ladder track / front-fixing chain on the market, except for the Spikes-Spider chains, works on the principle of fixing the chain to a single wheel bolt, and bracing against this to hold a chain mesh tightly over the top of the tyre. Polaire’s GRIP does this more efficiently than any other system because:

• the same patented adapter fits all wheel bolt / wheel nut sizes from 17mm to 22mm
• the standard adapter, working together with a cord tensioning system, is suitable for approximately 95% of alloy rim shapes; shorter and longer adapters are available for the extremes. If we know about alloy rims that need extra adapters we'll tell you - you'll need to choose your car make and model first, then your tyre size. (Note that most other wheel-bolt-fixing chains are supplied with a bag full of different bolts, spacers, and adapters, to take account of different wheel rim shapes; the Polaire GRIP is, in contrast, relatively extremely easy to set up for first time use.)
• GRIP chains are held onto the wheel fixings with Dyneema cord – with a breaking strain in excess of 1 tonne!
• the Dyneema cord pulley system makes it relatively very easy to tighten the chain against the wheel
• they don’t need tensioning every time – you adjust each chain first time out, and from then on you just flip a lever to lock the chain into place at the correct tension

Their performance – their grip - compares with the best metal snow chains, and they're also very strong; the polyurethane tread has a Kevlar / Aramid core, just in case the polyurethane gets scrubbed off under e.g. emergency breaking on tarmac.

Driving on tarmac:

• The ability for limited use on tarmac is a significant benefit, especially for example for commuters who are heading from home to the railway station, and experiencing a range of conditions from fresh snow to salted road. Removing chains is usually a dirty business, so people in their work clothes may prefer to fit their chains and leave them fitted – if it’s a short journey, and mostly on snow
• We have seen GRIP chains that have done several hundred kilometres on dry tarmac, at a steady 50 km/h, with no damage to the polyurethane, and approximately only 1mm ground off the stainless steel ice grippers
• If driving on tarmac, never exceed 30 mph (50 km/h), and generally use common sense about whether to drive with the GRIP fitted or removed. They will of course wear out, which is not a guarantee issue! But if you get to work easily and safely, then this is probably a price worth paying
• You can leave the wheel bolt adapter in place in the short term; it doesn’t cause vibration