Index
- What does it mean when a chain is compatible with a given vehicle?
- The wheel arch and snow chains
- Vehicle compatibility of König snow chains
What does it mean when a chain is compatible with a given vehicle?
The compatibility of a specific snow chain (e.g. König K-Summit K23) with a given tyre size (225/45 R17) and a given vehicle (e.g. Audi A3 2012) is ensured if the two conditions are met:
- The chain must be compatible with the tyre size.
- The dynamic behaviour of the chain must be compatible with the shape of the vehicle's wheel arch.
In short, before your chain can be compatible with your vehicle, it must first be compatible with the tyre size your vehicle is fitted with. In other words, your vehicle's tyre size must be on the list of tyres compatible with the snow chain.
Secondly, in order to guarantee the application with the vehicle, in addition to ensuring that the chain is compatible with the tyre size, the wheel arch of the vehicle itself must allow it.
The wheel arch of the vehicle and snow chains
As you can imagine, the wheel arch of the vehicle is the part around the wheel itself and depending on the technical requirements of the manufacturer (suspension system, wheel-rolling sensors, braking system) can be designed differently.
Once you have introduced this concept, you can imagine that the free space within a given wheel arch can increase or decrease depending on the size of the wheel itself. A smaller wheel will take up less physical space and leave more free space in the wheel arch than a larger wheel.
As you can guess, less free space in the wheel arch means less space available for chains.
To summarise: it is the combination of wheel size (rim + tyre combination) and wheel arch clearance that determines whether a snow chain can be fitted to a particular vehicle.
The evaluation of the application of a particular chain model must take into account the dynamic behaviour of the snow chain and not only the static chain size.
In fact, a snow chain that is installed on the wheel is subject to the centrifugal force generated by the rotational movement of the wheel. This centrifugal force is subject to factors such as: chain design, correspondence in terms of actual size (correct fit), tyre size (tyres with different cross-sections generate different centrifugal forces, the same applies to tyres with different cross-sections and also different diameters). So, as you can imagine, there are a number of factors that are taken into account to confirm the applicability of a snow chain.
We take care of all that.
Vehicle compatibility of König snow chains
König makes available an up-to-date database that includes all available application information for vehicles and tyres.
This database can be accessed by clicking directly on the following link:
https://www.konigchain.com/configurator/configurator-consumer/
Why do I find my tyre size compatible with a König snow chain but not my vehicle?
As explained above, if your König snow chain is compatible with your tyre size but not with the vehicle, it means that the technical characteristics of the vehicle do not allow it.
If your König snow chain is not compatible with your tyre size, it cannot be installed on your vehicle even if the technical characteristics of the vehicle would allow the installation of a chain with similar dynamic behaviour.
If you have any doubts, please do not hesitate to contact us at Customer Service.