For the first time in more than a decade, the price of having tire chains installed by a licensed chain installer along Interstate 80 has gone up.
This winter, chain installers will now charge $40, according to Caltrans. Caltrans works with installers to keep prices uniform no matter which highway motorists use in District 3, which includes I-80.
Ok wait a minute here. People pay someone to put the chains on and off? AND they have to be licensed by the state?????
ReplyDeleteWTF
Licensing (permitting) is as much about accountability as it is anything else. Each installer wears a bib with his permit number on it. If he does a poor job, the customer has the ability to hold him accountable. If the installer receives too many complaints, he loses his permit.
Deletere: Paying to have it done- $40 is nothing to a guy from Silicon Valley, driving his fancy rig over the hill to go skiing with his Trophy Wife who doesn't want to get his Gucci loafers wet.
Then there's the fact that installers earn their money, spending hours laying in slush in the freezing cold dealing with the whining public. If you don't believe me, you should try it sometime. The only thing fun about it is counting your money when you get home.
Elmo, I've seen wildcat chain monkeys tighten up chains before using zip ties. I'm not kidding.
DeleteI've put on chains in cold wet snow before freezing my hands off and soaking my clothes, and I'd have gladly paid somebody to put them on for me while I sat in my warm truck. It's a job that I can do myself, but given a choice I'll have somebody else do it for a few bucks.
When they fit properly and you have some experience, installing chains on a pickup is a 5-minute job. The real key is to not let the cross links get twisted up. That's why when I'd take mine off I'd always lay them out and button them up so that the cross links couldn't get twisted before putting them away.
DeleteNow that I'm retired, for entertainment in the winter I enjoy watching the CalTrans web cams in a chain control area. I've seen people take up to an hour and a half putting a pair of chains on. Then there are the folks that try it wearing sneakers or flip flops on their feet. Good luck to them.
WITAF? Being Canadian, I have never even DREAMED of paying someone else to install my tire chains when I needed to. Any trucker up here who can't install chains on his own usually doesn't get any work.
ReplyDeleteYou learn how to size them, put them on, inspect them, repair and hang them correctly.
Wow. Just wow.
Southerners: I was today years old when I learned a thing called "licensed chain installer" exists. Is there a "licensed chain sharpener" too?
ReplyDeleteIn the Northeast I haven't seen a car with a pair of chains in many years, snow tire have gotten that good.
ReplyDeletePlow trucks are another matter.
Haven't had to put chains on the plow in years. Most areas in the northeast have made the switch from applying sand to straight salt.
Delete6 decades ago hen I was living up north I was perfectly capable of removing the 2 rear tires on my rear drive 1962 Ford and replacing them with studded tires every November. I think the local garage wanted $5 to do it.
ReplyDeleteTimes and prices change. If a egg mcmuffin cost almost ten today and "Minimum Wage" laws have pushed the costs of everything up, it's about $150 (last time) I mounted the set of four radial snows. Partly due to the stupid TPI sensors that HAVE to be in rim. And since the sensors cost more than the rims do, to mount your snows on a separate set of rims is ridiculously expensive. That includes the dealer gear that registers and pairs the TPI to the car.
DeleteStuds are illegal in Cal.
DeleteHasn't been a stud in California since Reagan left.
DeleteStudded tires are NOT illegal in California. From the CalTrans website-
Delete"Studded snow tires are permitted in California from November 1 until April 30 each year. During this time, studded tires are permitted in any location within the state. Studded snow tires are not considered tire traction devices and may not be used in lieu of chains."
When I lived further up the mountain than I do now I always had two sets of mounted tires for my pickup, one studded, the other regular Mud and Snows.
BTW, California Highway Patrol rigs always run studs in the winter.
Ain't got no use for tire chains down here on the Gulf.
ReplyDeleteNot even in the mud pits?
DeleteThat's the truth
DeleteJD
Nope, we have gumbo mudders for serious mud holes
DeleteJD
If you live or drive somewhere you need chains and aren’t capable of putting them on yourself, you really need to rethink your residency.
ReplyDeleteLived in the Mohave and worked in the San Bernadino's back in '89-'90. Worked at a ski resort over the winter. On days it would snow, my buddy and I would head up the mountain in the morning before my shift and sit at a turn out at the snow line. We charged $20 to put chains on cars. $40 if we had to "make chain" which was having to do any fucking around with their chains that didn't fit right because they weren't for their size tires or something.
ReplyDeleteI loved those days. Made more money in a couple hours before work than I did all week.
If it's anything like it was when I was a teen in the San Bernardino Mountains, there is local's law and flatlander's law. Locals, particularly if they are known by the police, can dispense with things like chain rules as they travel back and forth. Flatlanders whose only relationship to mountain snow is under a ski will be rigidly forced to adhere to the written rule. The police know where the trouble lies. California stores often have a no return policy on tire chains to forestall those who "buy" them for their one trip yearly. Those people don't only not know how to mount chains but likely have never opened the package. Installers are a godsend for them.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Went up to work one day, CHP had the highway closed. I'm like, dude, I gotta go to work. He's says nope. I said, I got 4wd. He says nope. I said - I got Oregon plates and this isn't even a real snowstorm. He looks, and says - alright, drive safe.
DeleteIf I never install another set of chains again , I'll die happy. The 10 years I ran a grader I would have to chain up several times a season. They were damn heavy but since the machine could lift the tires off the ground it was easy. Pushing through a couple of feet of 'Sierra Cement" meant chains on all 6.
ReplyDeletePutting on chains is as basic a skill as changing a flat if you live in snow country. I don't like doing either but it doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to do it. Lived 3 miles up a mountain and worked on the flats. Chains off, chains on. Every day.
ReplyDeleteYes, in perfect weather in my driveway I can put chains on my back wheels in under 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteNot having to put on gloves/jacket/whatever else on, grab the chains, get out of my warm vehicle and put the chains on in the rain/snow/cold, then get back in and shed the extra clothing? Absolutely worth $40. Here, take cash and don’t report the income.