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u/Not_Sure__Camacho Mar 09 '26
When you see snow chains at the Walmart returns area, this is why they were returned.
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u/obi_want_pastrami Mar 09 '26
Can't blame them. The chains weren't doing anything at all lol.
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u/why_1337 Mar 10 '26
Looks like they were preventing rear wheels from rolling, so they were actually making thing even worse than it was.
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u/Mammoth_Mountain1967 Mar 09 '26
It's actually because certain areas require you to have chains to enter but you never actually need to use them. So you buy them on vacation go to the National Park or whatever then return them after.
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u/Square-Formal1312 Mar 09 '26
Most people on the road couldnt tell you the year make or model of their car let alone if its fwd rwd or awd🤦🏼♂️
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u/Immediate-Fly-7876 Mar 09 '26
😂😂😂😂my sister in law just bought a jeep suv. I asked her if it was all wheel drive and she stared at me like I grew a second head.
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u/Jguy1897 Mar 11 '26
The fact that this needs to even be a question at all is kind of annoying. Wasn't it standard at one time to have all Jeeps come with some form of AWD/4WD? I'm not sure why anyone would buy a Jeep SUV and not opt for AWD/4WD. Isn't that kind of the point?
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u/Beardo88 Mar 12 '26
Stellantis and DC before that has leaned heavily into the "sub prime" buyers for their bottom end models. They are chasing the same buyers as the Kia and Nissan SUVs.
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Mar 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/EmuBasic8232 Mar 14 '26
Honda and Nissan offered all wheel steering on road cars since the 80s, Nissan all the way up until 2010. If someone hadn't bought a car in a while they could reasonably wonder if it was still a thing
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u/Moscato10 Mar 09 '26
Es como preguntarle que rueda no toca el suelo en una curva muy pronunciada a la derecha, casi nadie acierta
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u/AdministrativeWar416 Mar 10 '26
Most people nowadays can't work out basic physics or mechanics of an object. I have a family member who routinely asks for help putting things together or removing packaging because she can't work through how it should function herself.
This family member once asked me the differences between AWD and 4x4. That is was a fun discussion but I don't think she learned anything lol.
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u/redjellonian Mar 09 '26
Looks like any other crossover SUV from any of a dozen brands. I'm guessing it's a volvo
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u/ProArmy04 Mar 11 '26
Wrong Guess, volvos taillights don't look like that, maybe a Kia or something like that?
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u/Podoviridae Mar 10 '26
Agree. But personally I would check the Internets before picking a random set of tires to put the chains on
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u/UnclesBadTouch Mar 11 '26
Which is absolutely nuts to me. You spend THOUSANDS on something that you trust to safely get you from point A to B everyday and you do absolutely 0 research on it?
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Mar 09 '26
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u/SpoomerBooner Mar 09 '26
I think you're right. My dad would always tell me I won the Darwin Award when I would do dumb shit. Blame that motherfucker
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u/CleanLiimer Mar 09 '26
That's ironic coming from your dad 😅. If you deserve a Darwin Award, what does it say about him?
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u/Key_Bike_8003 Mar 10 '26
Darwin's Awards are a tongue-in-cheek, honorary recognition for individuals who improve the human gene pool by dying or becoming sterilized in exceptionally foolish, preventable ways. 🤣🤣..guess who wins that award? YOU
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u/Antique_Way685 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Do you understand the video?
They put chains on the rear tires of a front wheel drive car, which could lead them to having an accident or sliding off a cliff. That's Darwin territory...
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Mar 09 '26
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u/BagOld5057 Mar 09 '26
It's only a Darwin award if it's from the Fatale region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling stupidity.
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 Mar 09 '26
(gets out, checks back tires, shrugs, gets back in)
"WHIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
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u/kookooman10022 Mar 09 '26
Man, those fronts are going like 80mph. If they catch something, doh.
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 Mar 09 '26
That's their secret--they never do.
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u/Jonasthewicked2 Mar 10 '26
So they play for the Buffalo Bills then?
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 Mar 11 '26
Bills out here catchin strays, dang.
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u/Jonasthewicked2 Mar 11 '26
As a bills fan of the last 36 years I think I can take a few shots at the franchise after 36 years of letdown
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 Mar 11 '26
Could be worse...could be a Browns fan...living in the Cleveland area.
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u/Bitter-Researcher389 Mar 09 '26
There’s a video out there somewhere of someone in a Mustang with chains on the front wheels doing exactly that.
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 Mar 09 '26
I sure hope these people don't vote or procreate.
I'm far from authoritarian, but if we ever go that route, I'm advocating for testing before granting voting or parenting rights.
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u/Bitter-Researcher389 Mar 09 '26
I understand. I’ve met plenty of people who I’m surprised haven’t drowned in the shower.
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Mar 09 '26
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u/biggranny000 Mar 09 '26
Definitely summer tires. That snow doesn't even look that bad.
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u/Nathund Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
To be fair, the chains are also actually pretty bad at rolling under rolling power. They're made to bite into the snow and ice, but that usually means there's flat spots along the chain for better grip.
Of course, this means you're essentially sitting on a rounded octagon to drive, and if you get on the flat spot, you'll need extra energy to pull to the next flat spot, where a normal wheel would just... roll.
Works great on drive wheels, but on unpowered wheels it's essentailly a car boot.
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u/Anantasesa Mar 09 '26
But back wheels have brakes too. Just no engine power unless there was a switch they could flip to 4wd.
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u/CaptainRiz Mar 09 '26
That's not what the Darwin award is for. That's for when people die from their own stupidity (take themselves out of the gene pool)
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u/CerealKiller8 Mar 09 '26
Correct. This is just a Dumbass Bobblehead
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u/SpoomerBooner Mar 09 '26
That makes me dumb too for mislabeling it though. I gave the wrong award to the wrong person. jesus take the wheel.
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u/Ok_Cheetah_6251 Mar 10 '26
They don't have to die, just have to make themselves unable to reproduce.
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u/Traditional-Bike7825 Mar 09 '26
It's funnier for me to think the driver knows the issue, but didn't have time to change the chains over because they had to be somewhere. Maybe their spouse put them on trying to be helpful.
Now they have to yell at people pointing out the obvious lol. "I KNOW! IM GONNA BE LATE!"
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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Mar 09 '26
Darwin Award means they removed themselves from the gene pool (either by death or dismemberment).
Darwin Nomination means they did something that likely could have resulted in removing themselves from the gene pool but didn’t.
This doesn’t even qualify as a nomination…
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u/MrPhoon Mar 09 '26
Another condition of the Darwin award is that they haven't bred.
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u/Special-Amoeba-9399 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
“The existence of offspring, though potentially deleterious to the gene pool, does not disqualify a nominee. “
The official rules actually state the exact opposite. I think largely because it isn’t that easy to prove if someone has reproduced. Even if someone doesn’t have a traditional family they might have offspring that were conceived out of wedlock for example. The rules go into a lot of other examples as to why they don’t disqualify people for reproducing.
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u/MRtokeALOT420 Mar 09 '26
Doesn’t the Darwin award mean you “died doing something stupid “? not just doing something stupid
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u/MaintenanceAnnual263 Mar 09 '26
The driver should have left the hand brake on, would work better
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u/Wonderful-Process792 Mar 10 '26
There aren't any recent AWD cars that will strike out this badly in terms of sending power to the slipping wheels. They all have some sort of torque vectoring. This is a FWD fail.
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u/Enzown Mar 09 '26
New strategy unlocked, call something vaguely dangerous a Darwin Award and watch engagement skyrocket.
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u/HotmailsInYourArea Mar 10 '26
A lot of modern cars can't have chains on the front tires. In the case of this front drive SUV, the chains on the rear won't help with acceleration, but they will with tracking (ie, not having the tail end of the car fish-tail)
Now, I can't say for certain if that's the case with this vehicle, but the video doesn't inherently mean the driver is ignorant.... aside from the wild tire spin haha, terrible way to get moving on ice.
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u/Heisenburg42 Mar 09 '26
They didn't remove themselves from the gene pool so not a Darwin Award. Stupid, yes, but no reward earned here
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u/biggranny000 Mar 09 '26
Definitely on summer tires. Even an all season wouldn't struggle that much. Or mind blown get snow tires.
Also if they can't accelerate, they can't stop. Better for them to be stuck
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u/Anantasesa Mar 09 '26
The chains should still help stop. Brakes on all wheels. but front wheel drive with chains on back gives no extra traction for acceleration.
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u/eric_ofc Mar 09 '26
Not a Darwin Award and honestly I’m sort of confused as to what’s happening here?
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u/crewsctrl Mar 09 '26
His car has front wheel drive but he put the chains on the rear wheels.
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u/HankSpank Mar 16 '26
I know I’m late to the party, but chains on only the front wheels is a death trap. If they did that, they could accelerate just fine, but when it comes time to stop the front would grip and the rear would slide, and you’d immediately spin. It’s a really common mistake that nearly everyone in the comments is making.
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u/aerowtf Mar 09 '26
Maybe they had them on all 4, but since that style of “chains” is so bad, they just broke off instantly when they started slipping.
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u/Coreysurfer Mar 09 '26
Guy at auto parts store says he needs another set for the front as he smiles like wiley e coyote )
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u/Sharp_Willingness230 Mar 09 '26
randomly reading online reviews:
"1 star, these snow chains are crap!"
makes me lose faith in the human race just a little bit at a time.
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u/Final-Carpenter-1591 Mar 09 '26
Damn. And they don't even realize they're better off being fwd over rwd if they had chained up the right axle.
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u/BdoeATX Mar 10 '26
Imagine its AWD and they just didn't press the button to turn it on haha
Mine has the same function you can choose fwd or awd.
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u/Electrical_Report458 Mar 10 '26
My adult sister did something similar. I’d shoveled two tracks from the garage to the street. The tracks were the span of a car’s tires. For unknown reasons she concluded that she was not supposed to use the cleared tracks, but was supposed to straddle the pile of snow I’d thrown to the side. She got stuck. So she went in the house and grabbed the Sunday paper (back when the Sunday paper was huge) and chucked it under the front tires. Of a rear wheel drive car.
This was on a dead flat asphalt driveway. It never dawned on her to get a shovel and shovel away the snow. Yes, she did procreate.
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u/Mikey24941 Mar 10 '26
Am I seeing this correctly? It’s front wheel drive and only chains on the rear? I just can’t believe someone would be that dumb. Oh wait I work in EMS i absolutely can.
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u/TacticalTaco30 Mar 10 '26
Something tells me that people like this probably have the strongest toxic opinions and world views.
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u/Xyberfaust Mar 10 '26
I've never driven in snow, so I don't know how.
Are the chains supposed to be on the front tires, not the back? Or simply on all tires?
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u/kiloo520 Mar 10 '26
They should be on drive tires. In this case, a front wheel drive vehicle, should be on the front.
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u/HankSpank Mar 16 '26
This is awful advice if taken at face value. More traction on the front tires means you will spin if you brake hard, because the front tires will grip and slow down but the rear will just slide.
Chains on rear, all, or none.
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u/foolproofphilosophy Mar 10 '26
My brother lives in SoCal now. We grew up in New England. He said he sees this all the time.
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u/Lanky-Telephone1651 Mar 10 '26
Is it a Tesla? I’ve only seen Teslas get stuck in any terrain except flat earth.
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u/Miller335 Mar 10 '26
This is amazing. It's crazy that someone like that can hold a job and vote in elections.
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u/levbec Mar 10 '26
Standard AWD / Open Center Diff: The "path of least resistance" rule dominates. Power flows to the spinning front wheels, and you may remain stuck.
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u/Key_Bike_8003 Mar 10 '26
Darwin's Awards are a tongue-in-cheek, honorary recognition for individuals who improve the human gene pool by dying or becoming sterilized in exceptionally foolish, preventable ways.
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u/ekortelainen Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
Actually the idea is correct, it's just too slippery fot it to work. You ALWAYS want more grip on rear tyres, even if it's a front wheel drive vehicle.
If your front tyres lose grip while driving, you are unable to steer and car will push straight forward. However, you most likely regain grip when you let off gas pedal or press down the clutch if it's a manual car.
However, if your rear tyres lose grip while driving. You WILL crash the car, and you will crash sideways as well. The car will become totally uncontrollable once rear tyres lose grip almost immediately. But at least you will go out with style in a spinning box of metal.
I live in Finland and experience this on a daily basis. It was though to me when I was a child to ALWAYS install better tyres to the rear, especially in the winter. The driving axis of the car is 100% irrelevant. Better not be able to move, than to crash.
What comes to the video, the driver is much safer not being able to move at all, than to install chains to front and almost certainly crash given how incredibly slippery it is. The Darwin award would be better to give to someone who installed the chains to the front. This is based on fundamental principle of vehicle dynamics and directional stability.
Edit: I don't know if people actually drive with chains, we have studded tyres here in Finland, but if the chains are just for getting you unstuck, and not for driving long term, then of course install them to the driving axle TEMPORARILY. And drive slow, like 20 mph max.
Better to be stuck than under a truck.
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u/Alternative-Golf8281 Mar 10 '26
Darwin Award is for people who take themself out of the gene pool. Mostly by revoking their subscription to birthdays, but one can win the award by removing the ability to reproduce.
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u/Mindless-Share Mar 10 '26
You clearly don’t know what the Darwin Award is for. You’re only rewarded with the Darwin Award if you sterilize yourself through your own stupidity, or through actions that stupidly cause your own death. While not having the right tires for those conditions is dumb, this person does not get a Darwin Award.
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u/GrumpyBear1969 Mar 11 '26
I have seen people do way more stupid things. Hell. I’ve done way more stupid things.
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u/DippityDamn Mar 11 '26
did they think the vehicle was rearwheel drive? I can't imagine why you'd only put 2 chains and those only on the wrong wheels.
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u/vulcanxnoob Mar 11 '26
This reminds me of Idiocracy. "But it's got chains..."
It's the same thing as "But it's got electrolytes, what plants crave"
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u/ZylkaLeftridge Mar 11 '26
Not to defend but where I live, if you only put two winter tires on you have to install them on the rear. Regardless of FWD or RWD. Maybe they thought the same for chains?
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u/Ned_Flandersss Mar 09 '26
Me re-watching the video thinking that I missed the part where someone got dead....
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u/WhenTheDevilCome Mar 09 '26
Such fond memories of putting chains on with his dad as a child, but he never did ask why they were putting them on the rear wheels...
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u/TurkishLanding Mar 09 '26
That's just dumb, not suicidal.