Patent ID: 8113252

Claim:
A tire traction device, comprising: a central hub comprising: arm guides disposed between an outer ring and a backing plate to define tensioning arm openings at fixed angular positions about the central hub; and a rotatable tensioner rotatable relative to the outer ring, the rotatable tensioner comprising curved guide vanes defining curved vane channels; at least three radial tensioning arms extending outward from the central hub and passing through the tensioning arm openings, the radial tensioning arms coupled to radially compressible portions that are contained within the central hub and movably affixed into the curved vane channels; and a traction pad coupled to each of the radial tensioning arms at an outer end opposite the radially compressible portion, wherein the radial tensioning arms further comprise rigid bodies spanning a radial distance from an outer diameter of the central hub to the traction pad, the rigid bodies being movable in a radial direction relative to the central hub with a rotation of the rotatable tensioner to provide a tensioning of the traction pads against a tire.