Polaire GRIP polyurethane front-fitting snow chains, size 80

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

Delivery charges and arrangements:

We charge a contribution towards delivery costs, depending on what you order, where you live, and how quickly you want the goods.

These are our standard charges; there are usually surcharges for all offshore destinations and some remote postcodes - for details please see our delivery information page.

Delivery of other items

Delivery times

Delivery times are calculated in working days (Monday to Friday, excluding Bank holidays).

Cut-off times for Express Delivery orders
Express Delivery orders placed before before the cut-off times shown below will usually be desptached on the date of order. Express Delivery orders placed after these cut-off times will be despatched the next working day.

Delivery FAQs

When will my order arrive?
There are no deliveries on Saturdays, Sundays or Bank Holidays, except for postable items where Royal Mail has a Saturday delivery. Express Delivery orders placed on a Friday (before 1pm) should be delivered on the Monday or Tuesday, Express Delivery orders placed on a Saturday or Sunday should be delivered on the Tuesday or Wednesday. The arrangements for Very Heavy Items are different and are shown above.

What about Next Working Day delivery?
Most Express delivery orders will arrive on the next working day, if the order is placed before the cut-off time (see above). Some will arrive on the second working day if there has been a "split-delivery". So-called “split deliveries” happen when the couriers do not have enough trailer space for everything that should be moved around the UK, so they will load what they can and leave the rest for the next trailer.

Is my delivery day guaranteed?
No retailer or courier company can ever "guarantee" a Next Working Day delivery. As well as split deliveries, all courier companies occasionally have the same transport problems as can happen to everyone else, including snow blocked roads, closed roads, traffic jams, mechanical breakdown, an inability to find the delivery address, or to gain access to it if, for example, it's in a block of flats. We work with some of the best couriers in the business, and overall they provide an outstanding service.

Do I need to be at home?
We are very flexible with our deliveries and will aim to deliver to an address which suits you – this does not need to be your home address. Goods can usually be left without signature - we prefer this with roof boxes. There's a "Special Delivery Instructions" box in the checkout area where we'll ask you to choose a typical instruction and then amend it to suit your particular requirements.

Payment options:

We take the following cards, and also PayPal. Please note that the entry on your card statement will be from "The Roof Box Company".

Secure payments

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There are two parts to our snow chains offer this year:

(1) Clearance prices on many top branded snow chains, including RUD and Thule - an amazing opportunity for those who are quick off the mark! Thule (who are the biggest brand in the car racks market) have sold their snow chains division; the same chains are now being sold under the König brand. Thule branded chains have the same specifications as the König branded versions - all that has changed is the name on the chain and the name on the box.

(2)   Multibuy discounts - significant discounts if you buy two pairs of snow chains at the same time, or one pair of chains and one pair of AutoSock: If you do either of these things, we will discount the snow chains as follows:

• König, Polaire and Spikes-Spider snow chains - at least 10% off!
• INNO, Maggi, RUD and Thule snow chains - at least 20% off! Up to 30% off where we have large overstocks.

As usual, you change the quantities in the Shopping Basket.

Many customers will, for example, use snow chains on their driving wheels for Alpine use, and use AutoSock on the non-driving wheels, especially if these are the steering wheels. Also note that AutoSock work very well in very wet snow, even on slush, where snowchains are often not suitable because they can't get any grip in the snow. So having both AutoSock and snowchains makes sense from at least two different perspectives.

Here are a few fitting tips which we hope will help you to get the best from these excellent snow chains:

First time fitting: In summary, you need to get each chain onto its wheel and then adjust the length of the Dyneema cord; once this is done, future fitting will only require you to push the chain over the top and sides, clip onto the adapter, and flip the lever.

In detail:

• Remove any plastic covers from one wheel bolt/nut on each wheel
• It's easier to use the separate Allen key provided to fit each adapter, but the Allen key on the end of the connector is always there as a backup
• Place the chain over the top of the wheel in an X shape, as in "10 minutes to 2"
• Take up some of the slack in the cord by turning the tensioning wheel - it's much easier to turn the wheel from both sides, using e.g. one thumb and one finger, than to try and do all the work with your thumb - see picture = Fitting tip (1)
• Flip the red tensioning lever, move the vehicle half a wheel revolution, and push the remaining chain over the top of the wheel. Now it's time to tension it correctly
• The correct tension is someway beyond the perpendicular, maybe about 110 degrees, as shown in picture = Fitting tip (2)

Other fitting tips:

• When you clip the connector to the adapter, the cord should be close to the centre of the wheel
• It's a lot easier to flip the tensioning lever if you use your other hand to apply some pressure to the ring, see picture = Fitting tip (3)
• Remove the adapters when you no longer need to use the chains but, if it's snowy weather, and you're expecting to be fitting them again soon, and you aren't going to be travelling at high speed, then it makes sense to leave them in place

And finally, a reminder that the maximum permitted speed with the chains fitted is 30mph (50km/h).