Chains and snow + ice

I live in MN and have tried riding the trails when there is snow and ice and it has not really been that fun because I cannot get much traction and many times I am just spinning my wheels and running the machine at much higher rpms. I have decent tires Bighorn 20s, my question is would rear chains help much? And could they hurt anything?
I hate sitting the entire winter out but I sold my snowmobile years ago because I could not use very much because of the lack of snow.
Sorry for the long post, if you have any experience please let me know!
Thx.