If you haven't already, You'd be far better at looking at a set of winter tyres before you go to the extreme of chains, you'll get far more benefit from them compared to the limited time you'll need to fit chains.

Winter & Snow..never really bothered me before. My (now sold) Defender ran A/T tyres and in normal cars, I just took it easy in the winter/snow.

With the imminent arrival of the L322, I find myself unexpectedly undecided…just keep calm and cary on with the currently fitted road biased tyres, buy wheels and winter tyres, change to winter tyres on the existing wheels or buy snow socks…..

Wish I knew or could explain why its an issue now that I am buying a FFRR.

I was the same - first time I drove to a ski resort in the FFRR I bought a set of winter tyres - I think it was the likelihood of ridicule if I got stuck in a FFRR with GB plates.

Anyway - confusion reigns - here's another photo of a manual that says rear wheels

And these say front wheels

I'm glad I've never had to actually fit my chains

Looks like it's rears only for the L405 - LR official site

Alistair wrote:

I think it was the likelihood of ridicule if I got stuck in a FFRR

Think you've hit the nail on the head there; possibility of being stuck and embarrassed with it is sending my decision making abilities haywire. How daft is that?

Alistair wrote:

I was the same - first time I drove to a ski resort in the FFRR I bought a set of winter tyres - I think it was the likelihood of ridicule if I got stuck in a FFRR with GB plates.

Anyway - confusion reigns - here's another photo of a manual that says rear wheels

And these say front wheels

I'm glad I've never had to actually fit my chains

Why not go for the snow socks instead of chains? Cheaper, no chance of damage due to chains on the wheels/arches etc.

Since they are cheap you can buy a set of 4 and put them on all the wheels  MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Hello,

I am new to this forum, having been on the Defender forum for a while. I have been reading with interest the posts on snow tyres and snow chains as I have been struggling to figure out how it works for the L322 and as I am taking it to ski in Austria in March. To add to the confusion, mine is a 61 plate Vogue SE and as illustrated by the manual I can apparently put spider spikes in the front and snow chains in the back but only on 19' wheels. So same car as yours but different rules again ...

personally I can't see why you can't fit standard chains to the rears when there is 20" wheels fitted. It may be that the chains rub on the wheel rim slightly, but there is plenty of clearance round the wheel and tyre. I have a set of standard el cheapo chains off of the tinterweb (snowchains.com), which do the job of making me legal in the french alps. but tbh i have never had any trouble in the UK with standard road tyres on either the disco or FF. The wheels have the same rolling radius so clearance and space around the wheel won't be an issue.

I was checking sizes yesterday as the set I have is for the old FF with 255 55 19 on the back, after some digging around and checking on different sites the chains are the same for 255 50 20s too so will work on the new FF too.

The reason, as said, that the normal chains won't work on the front is that there is not enough clearance between the tyre and the strut, the K summit chains clamp on the front of the wheel with nothing behind, they are a great system tbh nice and easy to fit. But don't get them from LR, you can get them off the website above for much less, though personally for the amount of snow needed to flummox a FF (which we rarely see in the UK) a set of El Cheapo ones would suffice.

FYI: Spider spikes are available from amazon too according to the fitting guide the right size for the FFRR is Alpine Pro size 4.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spikes-Spider-Alpi...amp;sr=1-3 There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Thanks! El Chepo is what I will go for, as I don't believe I will actually ever use them. I assume 16mm or 12 mm make no difference given clearance?

mine are 16mm ones. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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I would have thought 16mm would be the minimum for a 4x4 - I'd be surprised if they did 12mm chains big enough.

It looks like the guidance varies by year - but as NMJ says - full chains won't physically fit on the front - so have to go on the rear.

I think front is better as it gives you steering - so with a traction system that has nothing around the back of the tyre - they recommended that for the front wheels.

All I can think of for the L405 is that on full lock, the traction system may catch on something, so once again it's back to the rear wheels