1969 GM liquid tire chain - photo and video

[Frank S]

Interesting idea. I can't wrap my head around how it's supposed to work though. It's a spray polymer. Does it thicken up the snow and make it sticky? I don't get it.

It amounted to about the same thing as pouring bleach on your tires to gain just enough traction on ice to get moving.
Another idea from the after market folks was to install nozzles in front of the tires and spray sand or a sand and salt mixture to create a traction media.
Continental Trailways installed a device which had short lengths of chains on a disk that pneumatically lowered to near the bottom of the drive tires then make contact with the sidewalls the chains would spin and fling out by centrifugal force under the tires. Even some trucking fleets installed them but most soon learned that the spinning chains did not follow the clear path around their orbit and would destroy the air lines to the brake canisters. Or the driver would use them when they really weren't required the chains would wear out then the driver was left stuck or sliding on ice and snow because he didn't have standard chains to wrap on his tires.
My bud carries his tire chains on his truck year round and has never needed them in snow but has used them frequently in spring and summer as mud chains

[basil3w]

Back in the mid to late 60's I worked for an auto parts store north of Detroit. I remember we received a few cases of 'AC Delco Liquid Traction Improver' in September. My boss said that he had been to a trade show and this product would change winter driving as much as studded snow tires, but I just laughed and laughed. Fast forward to a really nasty October freezing rain storm. I walked out of the door after work and immediately fell on my butt. I went back inside and picked up a couple cans of the stuff, sprayed it on the soles of my shoes, let it dry, and walked right out to my car! The car was pointed uphill in the parking lot, so, loaded with confidence while the car was defrosting, I sprayed a bunch on the rear tires. It worked very well! The only problem was that you couldn't spray the bottom of the tire, resulting in a slight 'skip' in a small portion of each rotation. It worked very well on ice, but quickly lost effectiveness in wet or thawing roadways, it always got you moving, the question was, for how long? That year most of my relatives got a can of that stuff along with a note warning them to be careful if they used it on the soles of their boots - it really destroyed the car's foot pedals and carpet!

[Frank S]

Back in the mid to late 60's I worked for an auto parts store north of Detroit. I remember we received a few cases of 'AC Delco Liquid Traction Improver' in September. My boss said that he had been to a trade show and this product would change winter driving as much as studded snow tires, but I just laughed and laughed. Fast forward to a really nasty October freezing rain storm. I walked out of the door after work and immediately fell on my butt. I went back inside and picked up a couple cans of the stuff, sprayed it on the soles of my shoes, let it dry, and walked right out to my car! The car was pointed uphill in the parking lot, so, loaded with confidence while the car was defrosting, I sprayed a bunch on the rear tires. It worked very well! The only problem was that you couldn't spray the bottom of the tire, resulting in a slight 'skip' in a small portion of each rotation. It worked very well on ice, but quickly lost effectiveness in wet or thawing roadways, it always got you moving, the question was, for how long? That year most of my relatives got a can of that stuff along with a note warning them to be careful if they used it on the soles of their boots - it really destroyed the car's foot pedals and carpet!

was this what you had? It looks like it may have been something like undercoating tar
I was thinking it may have been like bleach that we used to pour over our tires to assist traction in racing, bleach also seemed to help some on ice

Edit just found what it was
Liquid Tire Chain was invented/developed by the Dow Chemical Company and sold by them as an aftermarket aerosol spray can. It was a major event when Chevrolet agreed to add it as an accessory.

Chemically it is a polymer (Styrene butadiene latex) dissolved in a solvent (primarily methanol). Instructions are to apply while rotating the tires (best if tires were a little warm from spinning or driving), let stand a few minutes (to evaporate the solvent and adhere the polymer) and then slowly drive away. Worked fairly well if conditions were right, best on ice. Was not as good as studded snow tires (which were introduced about the same time).
http://www.2040-parts.com/liquid-tir...c400-i1135456/
https://www.mcpolymers.com/library/s...utadiene-latex