Proper connection method for trailer safety chains

I was towing an empty dual axleflat bed trailer once on a bumpy stretch of road and the s hooks did jump out. The thing unhitched and kept on rolling. It jumped a curb and a small berm at about 30 mph and slammed into the front door of an Ambulance service building. We grabbed it and got the hell outta there. Never heard a thing about it.

My problem was that the load always exceeded the gross weight of the tow vehicle by at least twice. I've never towed that big a ratio with ball or

Even with the correct load on the hitch, the ring would tend to "climb" the hook any time a slight ac/de-celeration occurred. On wavy US-92's westbound lanes, that's every thirty feet. The problem wasn't noticable under strong braking or acceleration, only during the little nasties that camel-hop road dishes out.

LLoyd

On every trailer I own I use chain links like this. A threaded closeable link, not an S hook.

Roger Paskell

I usually pass the chain through the hole and fasten it back on itself with the "S" hook. This method puts less stress on the "S" hook, and is much less likely to bounce loose. Also, there are normally two chains. I have had trailers hitches come loose, and there is no particular reason for it to cause violent stresses. After all, the trailer starts out with the same velocity vectors as the towing vehicle. Just don't do anything sudden, and your safety chains will do their job without undue drama.

I also did have a trailer come loose from my truck once! I allowed one of my co-workers to attach the trailer and did not check it myself before I drove off (Translation: It was ALL my fault). Turned out to be no big deal. I felt something funny and looked to my right to see my heavy compressor trailer passing me! I kept the truck next to it so I could herd it over to the side of the road if necessary. It wasn't; the trailer slid along the curb and came to a stop...perfectly parked! I was lucky, could have bent metal, could have hurt someone, could have gotten my ass fired. It was the perfect "teachable moment", and I learned.

Vaughn

Yep, on all of my larger trailers - travel trailer, race trailer etc use the threaded closeable hooks. My lighter trailers - utility trailer, boat trailer, open bed car trailer use hooks that have a spring clasp thingy that you have to depress to get the S-hook on.

As far as the safety chains "cradling" the tongue in the event of a disconnect, I've always been highly skeptical of this. Yes, I've read all the guidelines, talked to the professional "hitch" people, and every new trailer I've purchased that has been set by the dealer they give me the same "cradle" spiel.

BUT, if you examine the hitch set-up closely, and think through the likely dynamics of an unhitching event you may find that if you have the chains adjusted to such a length that allows reasonable use (tow/turn angles) they will not cradle the tongue at that length. I've looked at a ton of hitch set-ups and have only found a handful that looked like they would realistically cradle the tongue in the event of a disconnect.

You can test this in your driveway. Hook your rig up the way you normally do, disconnect the hitch coupler from the ball and lower it to the ground. Check to see if your chains will cradle the tongue. One of mine doesn't even come close to cradling the tongue, two others cradle the tongue under the static (no movement) driveway test, but the cradle is right down almost on the pavement. Add in the momentum and weight of that hitch falling toward the ground it will push right through those chains to the pavement.

I've only had one trailer disconnect experience. When I was a teenager my dad and I were hauling our dirtbikes in a utility trailer (converted pickup bed). He had forgot to tighten the hitch coupler and it became disconnected at about 40 mph. The tongue drove the chains into the pavement and dug into the pavement flipping the trailer end over end into the ditch. Both dirtbikes stayed in the trailer and suffered surprisingly little damage.

Well, the better ones do have load ratings, and in any event I don't recall stories where the chain broke. Accidental unhooking seems to be the issue in practice, so I'd use the biggest quick link that can be fit through the chain. I think one can actually match the strength of the chain, but even if the quick link is the weak link, I would still replace the S-hook.

I think that if one uses a name-brand quick link with a real load rating (which excludes the junk found in many local hardware stories), one would be legally safe. I don't know what would be better. These quick links are used by riggers, for instance. This is where I would get my confidence, not from the general public.

Don't forget to buy and keep a wrench and a short steel bar in the car, with which to tighten and loosen the quick links. And an extra quick link or two.

Right. I think I buy the argument for crossing the chains in an X, which allows the chains to be shorter than if not crossed, and will trap the trailer tongue should it come loose.

Nor do I think that using quick links instead of S-hooks is "cobbling", as quick links are intended for exactly this kind of purpose.

Quite welcome. And I'm glad you were suspicious enough to even ask the question. I had to give one of my relatives a hair-curling lecture on the consequences of something coming loose (trailer from SUV, or big go-cart from trailer) at highway speed to get him to take the issue seriously. The worst case is if the go-cart comes partially off the trailer and pulls the SUV's tail sideways; this can cause the SUV to become uncontrollable, leading to a crash. With fatalities.

Joe Gwinn

Odd that this topic comes up. Ive pulled a trailer for hundreds of thousands of miles, using S hooks on the safety chains, over all manner of terrain..never having had one come unhooked

Wed, I drove to San Diego, and when I got back , I noticed one of the safety chain hooks had been dragging. I checked it before I returned home..so it came loose somewhere on the return trip.

So maybe Ill check into quick links

Gunner

"If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around."

"Democrat. In the dictionary it's right after demobilize and right before demode` (out of fashion).

-Buddy Jordan 2001

I'm pretty sure you're wrong as the safety chains are indeed permanently attached i.e. welded to the trailer. The hook or link that is used to connect the safety chain to the tow vehicle is a separate thing.

Pete C.

Can't remember where I got them, but I bought a couple of little 2" long rubber "keepers" that fit around the "S" hook open end (after attaching to hitch) in order to keep the hooks on thru road vibrations. They worked well and gave a little extra peace of mind over rough roads. (Innertube and a ty-wrap would probably work just as well...) Whatever you use, and however you hook 'em up, remember that the actions of the trailer are still your responsibility even if it's not still attached to your truck.

For my lighter boat trailer, I bought the pre-coiled steel cable affair that not only has clips on the hooks, but coils up so there's no slack dragging the ground. They're mounted so that the tongue doesn't hit the ground when disoconnected from the hitch.

"Chip"

They meet the requirement in Ontario and are definitely preferred over "s" hooks. A lot easier than bolting the chain at both ends. One chain, crossed under the hitch and passed through both loops, with the ends bolted to the tongue works too, but you need to remove the bot(or pin) to unhook the trailer. If the tongue were bushed, and a clevise pin of sufficient size passed through the end links, and through the bushed hole, with a positive snap type retainer clip, it would also pass.

The drag of the trailer holding it back will tend to stretch the chain back, making it cradle. If the tongue touches the ground, it again stretches the chain back, making the tightened "cradle" lift the tongue, disengaging it from the ground. Your automatic brake disconnect will also apply the brake, pulling the chains, lifting the tongue

With crossed chains I dropped a tent trailer - stayed right behind with no damage at 60MPH. Also dropped a corn harvester one day at about 45 on crossed chains. A handle came though the back window of the pickup cab, not quite hitting me as the tongue went in under the truck when I hit the brakes.Stopped straight and true with no other damage.(standard implement type hitch, the pin jumped out (boss had hooked it up, not me, and I didn't check the pin)

The crossed chain MIGHT not work 100%, but it's a LOT better than non crossed.

I always throw away the stupid S-hooks and cheap chain they ship with the trailer, and go get rated chain and forged ring-end Snap Hooks with safety retainers on them - like on a crane. Put it together with good rated quick-links.

Something like this is the size I use on small utility trailers, but I believe OSH stocks Baron also:

Oh, and when you connect the chain, you always leave extra slack after the quick-links to the trailer tongue fittings - If you loan the trailer out to someone with non-standard hitch that needs more chain, you get out a wrench and lengthen them. I use one long piece of chain, and leave a loop at this spot.

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I was always shown that the hook never goes into a hole of the chain. The hook has a slot like mouth - and the chain link is put in sideways while the two links on either side is wedging against the hook. Any tension and it is set.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Bruce L. Bergman wrote:

Okay, so I'm late and catching up, but Gunner wrote on Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:46:57 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking :

When my truck got towed, the driver used a bungie cord to hold the chain "up" and sort of taut, or at least not dragging. I think he also used chain hooks to hook back onto the chain. (Don't quote me on that.) But the bungie cord "snubber" might also work to keep tension on a S hook, to keep it from bouncing loose.

"Your mileage will vary."

pyotr

You are talking about something totally different here, sir.

If the hook in question is hooking to a chain, like the hook at the end of a chain binder you have two choices: A 'slip hook' or a 'grab hook'.

A 'grab hook' has a small oblong opening intended to slide over both halves of one chain link (not through the hole in the center of the link), and lock the next link against the side of the hook, and the hook stays exactly where you put it. Even if you wanted to, the hook point of a proper sized 'grab hook' physically won't go through the center of the chain link.

A 'slip hook' has a large rounded open hook body and when the open end of the hook is connected to a chain it goes totally around the chain - but it does not lock between links and can slide to the end of the chain. Good for 'choker sling' pickup of items where you want the clamping effect.

I'm using a 'slip hook' style hook with a spring loaded retainer, but in trailer safety chain service it is not hooking onto another chain - it is hooking through a steel plate with punched holes, tie-down hoops or other solid anchor points as normally provided on the tow vehicle hitch receiver body. If you only had the hitch steel tubing itself to use as an anchor point, and you have enough slack chain length to make the loop, you could wrap it around and secure the hook to it's own chain in a choke.

The opposite end of the 'slip hook' in safety chain service has either an eye (used with a quick link of some sort) or a clevis and pin (with locking cotter pin) to connect to the safety chains on the trailer tongue.

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Bruce,

I went with something very similar to the snap hook you show in the link you posted only I opted for a clevis connection instead of ring end connection you suggest. That way I can clevis the chain directly to the hook leaving out a quick link connection between the two. Two of these snap (slip) hooks will clip into 1-1/16 x 1-1/2 inch oval milled into a pair of 3 inch x 9 inch x 3/16 steel tangs bent (down) 45 degrees mid length and drilled with half inch holes to pick up the ball receiver to bumper mounting holes-bolts.

This is for a stout bumper I fabbed for a friend and I wanted to go as close to "official requirments" as I could since I wasn't using it myself. My consternation arose when I discovered that there really wasn't much of an official requirment when it came to the actual attachment hardware.

On my own small 900 pound trailer that I've been yanking around for the last few years I used stamped but stout (read strength eyeballed) snap hook hardware that was designed to attach heavy webbing left over from a job I worked. Just as you did, I quick linked the stamped snap hooks (with "ring ends" for webbing) to the safety chain. On an eyeball basis I felt confident putting this together from supplies I had access to without ever knowing what the officially accepted procedure was. (I'd have to go look up the numbers but I still feel like the quick link is the weak link in this setup).

As I say, I didn't want to go this unofficial "homemade" route for a connection that wasn't going to be used by me. Ironic that what I cobbled up for me a few years back turns out to be the best approach I've heard of since (albeit my stamped hooks are not as strong as the forged hardware you describe, which is what I'm going to use on my buddys setup.)

Thanks very much for the reply and your insight on the subject.

Thanks also to Pete C for the Sherline link, I down loaded the towing tips PDF at that site. Very informative.

Thanks to everybody else who replied and who posted links and for an informative discussion. I had a pretty good idea this was the place to ask.

Dennis van Dam