Im back -and alive
 

Well, the weather has been poor lately and in the interest of experimentation, I decided to chain up the Metro and drive to work in the snow -rather then drive my fuel hogging 4x4. Also, in the spirit of experimentation I decided to test the limits of exteneded driving at high speed with chains in snow (my theory being if I could keep my car in 5th gear I would get bettter gains).
The answer I came up with is 40 mph.
At 45 mph a chain comes off and you do multiple spins before sliding backwards off an enbankment.
Long story short -I got it repaired enough to drive again. And after I get the exhaust back on this weekend I should be good to go!

ps. I think Ill stick with the recomended 25mph when using chains in the future.

Idiotically yours, Metrosexual

I strongly recommend the Laclede Alpine Sport chains. Very easy to put on (you don't have to drive on), and they grip very well. They're available at Kragen.

And keep it under 35. :-)

Thank goodness nobody got hurt. Welcome back.

I did some driving in snow chains, and they really killed my FE :( I kept the speed below the chains' 50kph (31mph) limit, mostly because of the steep hills and switchbacks, but just turning a round wheel into a polygon hurts bad. I was getting 12-13 l/100km (18-20 mpg) in circumstances where I should be getting 5-7 l/100km (33-47 mpg). Yuck!! I did over 120km in chains and got them off on the first occasion.

Metrosexual -

Whew! Very glad you're ok. You took one for the team, but don't do it again!!!!!

CarloSW2