My neighbor used chains on the front of his L for snow, and he has R1s. He uses bucket and a small rear blade. It seemed to work well for him, so I bought front chains. I have R4s. That was ok, but not nearly as good as chains on front and rear. Fwiw, he's got an older L. I think if you don't drive crazy and take them off when you don't need them, you will be fine. YMMV.
If you are talking about doing lots and lots of snow work, it might be a different story. I think it's like 4x4 on any vehicle. Too much traction under high power, is hard on the front end components.
I haven't tried putting chains on only the rear. I live on pretty steep terrain, so it's worth it to me to have steering on all four if it's really bad or I"m moving a lot of snow. My neighbor, and I've only used ladder style chains.
That being said, I usually plow with my Polaris Ranger. I can push snow a lot faster although it is pretty much impossible to move big piles. Our roads are gravel, so I can't scrape too hard.
