: "jim wallbridge" <jmew@t..., In response to Trevor Robinson's
comment>

">Both St. Pierre and Weed made tire chains, and those nippers were
> >used to open and insert links in repairing the chains. I guess that there
> >aren't many on this list old enough to remember that nasty business"

wrote:
> I don't understand this somehow.  Tire Chains are still in use at
> least in the great white north and I would agree that putting them on
> and taking them off is a nasty business but the "old enough" some how
> misses me. Please explain.

Well, I can take that for Trevor, since his comment made perfect sense to
me.

Jim, here in southern New England tire chains became a thing of the past
when tubeless tires equipped with "snow treads" came into wide spread
use--probably in the early 1950s.  With our melt and thaw cycles making
chains not something you put on early in the winter and took off in the
spring, the chore of putting them on came only when it snowed (and usually
at night, on the road, under difficult conditions)  was a super duper pain
in the *ss.  I can't remember when I last saw a set of chains on a car (or
heard them)--but it must be at least 40 years.  So, if you live along the
eastern seaboard, you gotta be 50 or 60 years old, at least, to have mounted
a set of them.  I'm glad to hear that they are still in use somewhere,
'cause I've got some nice tools to use to alter them and mount them with.
;-)     Thanks Trevor.

    Sandy Moss