Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Winterizingly Speaking

Dwight, we'd use mylar barrier tape anywhere aluminum would contact steel on the truck bodies. If you're attaching the aluminum to wood, then no worries. (aluminum stems in the rivets, I assume)

Dismantled all the electrical, cleats, motor mounts, and seat mounts from the Barge. Everything was in great condition and will be re-used.

Deck demolition was a lot more work than I expected. Made it about about 3/4 of the way before time expired. Sore for a few days...........

All chained up and tested.

Summer or winter... keeps on working, eh? I'm glad I don't need chains, tho!

I can't even imagine it.

What are the 2 tires in the bed for ?

Structure - for when he rides that bad boy thru the ice...

There are actually four in the bed. Those are the Mule's open water wheels/tires.

Making Progress.

Wow, great work! I was lazy and paid someone else to build mine. Came home one day and it was there! It probably wont outlast me like yours will though.

What? No heat shrink tape on the connectors to prevent water migration up the wires?

Looking good Dwight!!

Quick question about the chains on your tires (see Mule picture above).

I have a JD X series tractor with knobby tires (HDAP), fluid filled for ballast and an asphalt drive. I bought the tractor with chains but wanted to see if I could do without. I use it for snowblowing and this year for the first time get to trial the set up. I have a grade going up to the house, gentle. If it is too packed or icy I start spinning unless I have momentum.

So I had time to break out the chains and it was a real learning curve trying to struggle to get those one with my 11 year old boy. I read about people laying them out, driving on them, and then wrapping each side around the top and fastening them. We tried and tried and that didn't work so well. It didn't help that the previous owner had oiled up the chains to keep them from rusting (Glad they are not rusty, but...)

So then tried jacking up a wheel, put tractor in free spool mode and spun the tire to get them on. That seemed to work a bit better.

The chains were for the turf tires, the knobby tires are taller and bigger so I didn't even know if the chains would even fit even though the size of tire 26x12x12 is the same.

I got the latch to latch and the chains are on but they seem a bit loose. They don't spin on the tire but the horizontals part tend to bunch together on the upside and downside of the tire rather than stay evenly spaced all the way around the tire like in the picture of the Mule/UTV above. By hand I try to extend the locking arm to the next link to tighten it but then I can't crank the tightening/locking arm down without worrying about bending it.

Took them for a test drive and they seem to help a lot with traction. But that was on snow not ice.

So the question, I see some adjustment on the chains above where a small circular chain is installed with what looks like turnbuckle fasteners to tighten all the way around. I have not seen that before. Is that helpful/important for my use?

Chains intended for bar tread tires are often slightly longer than the ones for the same size tire in a less aggressive tread, but sometimes they will work just fine.

When you put your chains on, jack up the wheel and let the air out of the tire. Cinch them down as tight as you can, then re-inflate to proper psi. If that still doesn't tighten them up, they may need to be shortened, although shortening the cross chains is not usually much fun.

Thanks sprkplug.
I imagine I could take a little air out of the tire but would have to be careful in how I did that (not sure how much room is left in the tire for air after all the beet juice was installed) and would have to be sure valve stem is at 12 oclock position. But that is something I did not try.

The HDAP are not ag tread or bar tires and the chains do settle down in between the knobby rubber parts. I agree, the tension on the 'circle' is pretty tight, the horizontals not so much, but the tensioner system used in the picture above may help me.

I guess if there is slack, as long as the chains aren't spinning independently of the tire we should be good.

Dwight, the decking on that dock looks great. I clicked the picture to make it bigger and found your pics that are online.

You should start a thread on the awesome modification to the boat trailer that involved adding extra rollers. Never saw that before, that is brilliant! I'd love to know how you make the 'channels' that the rollers bolted to?

Tire chains take a great deal of fiddling to get them secure. The HDAP tires are in between the turf and the lug, so I think chains intended for turf should work. Deflate as much as you can, then keep working with the chains...keep tugging the circular chains, (both outside and inside) down towards the middle. This will let you gain a link on the latch, then latch and repeat, latch and repeat. Once you've reduced the circular chains to their absolute smallest diameter, (and I have shortened those many times, even to the point of having to remove one cross chain to gain more room), reinflate and see how they look.

Are they 2 or 4 link chains? (Is there a cross chain every 2 or 4 links on the circular chain?)

I'll double check but my recall is that they are 2 link chains. Why is it that you have to shorten chains frequently or take out a cross chain? Mine are such that there is a span of tire where the two ends of the chain connect where there is no horizontal/cross chain. No chance of overlap, again, probably because the HDAP tires are wider and taller on the rim than the turf tires.

I like the gain a link, latch, repeat.

I take it that others do not have the added tensioner that spans the rim like in the pictures above?

It's a sign of the times. Some companies manufacture their L&G chains to be able to fit more than one tire size, thereby reducing inventory requirements. When the specs on the chain lists multiple tire/rim combinations for the same set of chains, it's a pretty safe bet that at least one of those combos will be a "best fit" scenario, rather than exact fit, requiring additional work by the installer to get a set of chains tailored to fit that particular tire/rim combination.

The chains in Dwight's photo are two link style, and I have seen those with the center spider design before. I've also seen them crisscrossed with bungee cords in an effort to remove the slack.

Hopefully I didn't stray the thread too far although it is under the 'winterizing' heading yet. Here is my picture.

My first impression is that those chains are intended for lug tires, or, they are not cinched down tight enough. They are latched in the first link, and I normally can move up a few links.

Pull em' tighter, they appear way too loose. As you're trying to latch, you need to be picking up on the chains, wriggling, and adjusting. They will cinch down further.

sprkplug, I agree they seem loose. But I have hard time getting slack.

So do you adjust with the tire jacked off the ground and able to free spool? this way I can easily spin the tire but also means it is hard to pull tension as the tire can rotate one way or the other.

Also, the inside chain clasp is just a single hook, not a tensioner type. So do I hook that first and then try to pull slack out of the outside circle? I found through trial and error that if I got the wrong link on the inside hook (there are only 3 to pick from) that I couldn't even get the tensioner arm through the first link.

I'll get my brother over and maybe the two of us can get some better tension.

I thing part of it is truly that if these were mounted on my turf tires which are noticably shorter from top to bottom when lined up on the ground side by side, that the chain would overlap a bit more and look more 'matched for size'

Thanks

Latch the inside first, try for the middle link. Then set the latch in the corresponding link on the outside. If you can deflate the tire any at all, that will help. As you attempt to swing the latch up and hook it, keep tugging and pulling on the chains, especially the cross chains...keep working them over and between the tread, gaining a little slack on each one. Pull, tug, adjust, and repeat.

You should notice the latch swinging a little further with each adjustment you make, until it breaks over fully. Then evaluate the chain for overall tightness. Many times I have found that what seemed at first to be way too tight, was now way too loose. In that case, unlatch, go to the inside and rehook that chain shorter, pick up another link on the outside latch, and start all over again.

I know what you must be thinking....but once you establish which link count works for your tires, you won't have to go through this anymore, as now you won't be wondering if it will fit, you'll KNOW it fits...then it's up to you to cinch it down.

Once you're sure that you've cinched the chains up as far as humanly possible, you still might have a few cross chains loose. That's where re-inflation comes in. Be sure that you are latched fully before re-inflating.

I'm sure this is confusing and I apologize for that. I'm not doing very well at trying to describe a process that I've performed hundreds of times, just never long distance.

NO problem, your explanation is clear. I'll get a helping hand and we'll try to cinch them better. Thanks!

Once the decking is installed the wires are enclosed in waterproof aluminum enclosures. The wires run in PVC tubing back to electronics control central which is enclosed (though vented for heat dissipation from the on-board 2 bank charging system).

There is a thread on it but not much of an explanation. Roller Thread I will answer your question on that thread.

Thanks Dwight, I understand now why you used the connectors that you did.

CC, I havd the same style chains for my JD345 and have 2 sets of tires, one ag "bar" type and one turf tire type. I use the chains on the turf tires, but they will fit on both.

I use bungee cords criss crossed across the outside of the tire to keep any excess slack out of them. I can't get them one link tighter, but they seem too loose where they are.

I got tired of fighting with putting them on and took the tires off of the tractor to install them.

And YES they are a great big PITA to install!!