Hi,
small story:
i grew up in an austrian ski resort. The resort was sectioned into upper and lower town and at in the middle of the connecting street, a rather steep 1 km long completly straight road, my parents had a hotel at about 2000 meters above sea level. So everyone on the way to the upper part of the town passed the hotel and so many got stuck. The standard german tourist is a wise little fella and always tries first, after short time most notice their lack of driving skills when snow is involved and reversing on a steep icy road is not as easy as many may think it looked while watching the locals plow through the snow in their audi quattros.
So on days with heavy snowfall, especially on saturdays when most of the tourists arrived, we watched the glorious spectacle.
Many times about 50 cars, filled with people who have no idea on how to setup chains, what chains fit the tires, what good chains are or that snow tires are a necessity in the alps.
I've seen chains wrapped around drive shafts destroying breaking hoes and tire sensors, chains that ripped fist sized holes into the wheel housing, chains on the rear axle on front drive cars, chains preinstalled on another set of tires in the trunk and no, a 4x4 with summer tires won't do the job. I have no idea how many worthless crap chains i had in my hands over all the years, but it think i've pretty much seen them all.
If you need chains for virtually every winter, do yourself a favor and buy a set of good ones, not the flimsy stuff with little gimmicks and strange lock mechanisms.
I recommend the pewag austro super or forstmeister (i got mine handed on by my dad, i think they are about 30 years old now and probably will last generations) or something with a similiar old school locking mechanism suitable for the use with gloves, something so many chains fail at.
