Safety chain

On Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:38:39 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:

My last trailer had chains which were too short after installing the

6" drop hitch in the receiver. I picked up a pair of safeties from HF which have screw-type quick links like these: Their current safety chain has el-cheapo spring-clip style S-hooks I wouldn't want to trust.

I've only had one trailer come off my ball in 40 years of towing, and that was a doozy. I borrowed my friend's trailer and my friend hooked it up. I installed the safeties and doublechecked that the knob was tight. I didn't know that his wife had recently lost the locking spring inside the knob. We got 100 miles up, into HelL.A. proper, when the truck suddenly lurched sideways into the next lane with only a slight shudder of a warning one second earlier, as the tires hit the slight dip on an overpass bridge. I looked into the rear view mirror and saw 6 lanes of traffic stopped dead behind us and the trailer heading up over the guard rail. I was already slowing down but immediately hit the brakes and veered over to the right safety lane and backed up to the trailer. It was teetering on the top of the rail but hadn't gone over into two lanes of traffic. My friend and I added our weight to the rear and it slid back down into the slow lane. Once we got it hooked back up, the 6 lanes of backed up traffic started slowly moving by. In a minute, it was back up to speed. I'm amazed that we didn't feel anything until it jacknifed us. Evidently, it had come loose at the bridge bump, swung enough to go crazy, and poleaxed the tailgate with the tongue as it bounced up and moved us over a lane, as it came loose. We lost one safety chain to the gods of towing and the wiring was shot, but even with a couple broken welds, it held together enough to get my cubic meter of Aussie jarrah wood home that day. My friend was kind enough, as we reattached the bent trailer, to tell me that his wife had lost that safety lock spring the week before. I coulda killed him on the spot. And you can be sure that I made 5 safety stops on the way home to ensure that the knob hadn't rattled loose again.

Like Gunner and his infamous spare tire mount, I don't want to repeat that performance ever again.

-- Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!

My newest trailer came with hooks with a spring retainer to keep the hook on the vehicle. Very nice to hook up. I used shackles on the last trailer, and took longer and was messier. Go with retainer hooks as that is required in a lot of states on. California for one. Do not know about Utah / NV. Cross the chains so the tongue will cradle if the ball fails. Personally I would rather the trailer brakes set and the safety cables disconnect from the truck. Get some retainer hooks, I have seen some with a rubber keeper and attach them to the chain with shackles. Make chain correct length with either smoke wrench or angle grinder with cutting blade.

Ok I have read enough to come out of lurk mode. I am a simple, clear thinking New Englander who has towed a few heavy trailers rented from U-Haul and the like and it always aggravates me that the chains are about 18" or more too long. Granted all of my hitches have a chain eye within 6 " of each side of the tow reviever and this may not be the case for every one. Grampa taught Dad. Dad taught me. The length of the chain should be long enough to allow for the tightest turn when the chains are crossed under the tongue of the trailer. One of the other responders mentioned this crossing as a safety measure to catch the tongue as it falls off the ball and cradle it so it doesn't hit the road surface at speed and act like a pole vaulter's pole. That is exactly how Dad explained it to me.

For safety's sake on my utility trailer which is rated at about the same weight in question (1500 lbs) I used chain with a safe working load of 2200 lbs. Combined that is 4400 lbs. At the trailer end we are not allowed to have the chain welded. It must be bolted on to pass inspection. Oddly though I have seen some 3/8 flat plate with holes cut through it for the chains to mount through. That plate was welded to the tongue of the trailer and I don't remember seeing any reinforcing bolts through it and the tongue. Maybe due to the larger weld area of the 4 inch wide plate the inspector declared it safe. If one thinks for a moment that does give 16" of weld bead if all 4 sides are welded to the tongue. Assuming a 4" square tube as the tongue that is. In my case I used 2 bolts (one for each chain) that were as large as to just pass through the chain link. That was 1/2 inch as I remember and of course they were hardened bolts with a 3/16" thick washer I had fashioned from some 1.25" flat stock. At the vehicle end I had used some 1800 lb rated snap shackles. I truly wanted heavier but these were hard to find and again figuring 2 of them certainly gave me more than the trailer is rated for.

So back to the original...if it were me I would allow 6 links more than needed to cross under the tongue to the attachment points. Then I would find a shackle with a retainer of some sort to keep it from being bounced free. So you now have added a bit more to the length of the chain. When hooked up as long as they are a few inches off the road surface when the vehicle AND trailer are FULLY loaded I would call it good enough.

Just my 2 cents...spend it wisely.

I really don't understand why people are having issues with chain length. If it's ordinary straight or twisted link chain you pick the link that gives the length you need, put a shackle through that, and let the remaining part hang if it's short, or use some safety wire or whatever you have to tie it out of the way if it's long enough to drag.

As for the shackle coming loose, use a screw-pin shackle and position it so that the screw goes in from above and gravity will be your friend. If you don't trust gravity, a little piece of lockwire through the hole in the pin and around the shackle body will be your friend. Or get a shackle that uses a cotter pin to safety the screw (McMaster has those).

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We have had a several recent instances of trailers coming unhooked from the vehicle and the trailer on our freeways in the last couple of years. All involved fatalities in the oncoming cars in the opposite lane. One was a big RV trailer that flipped over the jersey wall in the median, dropped on an oncoming car. Another was a tandom axle carhauler that came loose, slithered across a grassy median and into the oncoming lane. "If you brought it to the highway, you take it home with you"

In the same vein, we've had some 'loose load' trucks and trailers lately. One was a landscaper truck with railroad tie landscape timbers. One timber fell off and dropped into the windshield on the passenger side of an oncoming car. Scratch one high schooler on his way to school.

MY original question was on the type of chains like Krazy Old Man mentioned - obviously minimum 18" too long. You can just twist them so much. If I were to tie knots in them to get them to the right length, I believe there would be three knots in each.

Steve

IMHO the length of chain matters because every inch further away from your vehicle the trailer can get is that much more force it can apply to both the safety chain and the rear end of the towing vehicle.

Let that chain get long enough that you need wire, tape, or something to hold it up, and you've let the chain get long enough for the trailer to turn itself should the hitch uncouple. What'll happen if the trailer turns but your vehicle doesn't while doing 55 to 65 on a highway? My mind pictures the tail wagging the dog till it falls over....

Then, there's a gas tank up in there on some models, too.

Steve

Please go back up above and start with "If it's ordinary . . ." and read to the end of the paragraph, instead of reading the first sentence and ignoring the rest.

However since it's 2010 and reading two sentences in a row is a horrible burden for modern youth, here's a picture .

IMHO you are mistaken. You cannot combine/add SWL of the two safety chains in the manner you seem to suggest. In the event that the chains are loaded, it will probably be in the form of a shock load, and there is no mention of any method (such as an equalizer) ensuring that each chain will be equally and simultaneously loaded. In fact what you have is two chains with SWL of

2200 lbs each or in total.

Also, the gross weight of the trailer is not the maximum load to which the safety chains could? be subjected. In practice a simple hitch failure would probably result in a loading much less than the trailer GVW, but in an accident at highway speed, MUCH higher loads could result and they are also likely to happen in a series of shocks and not a single smooth loading.

I do not mean to suggest that your safety chains are inadequate, as I do not know the specifics of the chain or your trailer and hitch or any of the many other variables. I only wished to comment that the chain capacity of two chains is no higher than one, but only provides redundancy in the event that the first chain fails.

Good luck, YMMV

In an accident at highway speeds, what exactly do you believe that the safety chains are supposed to accomplish?

Wow. Sorry. I'd assumed that your first sentence was useful and informative. I'll not make that mistake with you again.

I had a trailer that broke loose from an oncoming vehicle run off the road into a ditch, then shoot back onto the road and just miss the side of my car by inches. If I hadn't floored my old chevy and went as far right as I could, it would have come through the grill.

I had the tongue break off of an old trailer my dad owned. Only a thin strip of torn steel kept it from digging into the roadway. I 'spliced' the broken 1.5" square tubing with a couple 18" 1/2" diameter stainless steel rods I salvaged from some wide carriage printers, and some hose clamps to get it home and unloaded.

In the first case, the chains didn't work and in the second, they did.

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Minimize risk of injury or property damage TO OTHERS.

I hope none of us ever discovers how effective they actually are. IMHO effort is better directed at hitch fit and maintenance.

Happy trails,

By doing _what_ exactly in an accident at highway speeds?

What kind of accident at highway speeds resulted in this trailer breaking loose?

What kind of accident at highway speeds resulted in this breakage?

There isn't any question that the safety chains are supposed to keep the trailer in tow if the hitch breaks in some manner, but that's not "an accident at highway speeds".

Have you ever once in your life read the second sentence of a paragraph?

The speed limit was 45 MPH.

I was driving at 55 MPH, the posted speed limit when I saw the front of the trailer drop in my rear view mirror. I pulled off the road as fast as I could, without causing more damage to the trailer or my car.

Either would have been, if I hadn't been alert and knew what to do. In the first, I could have hit that loose trailer crossing the highway and flipped my car. In the second, the car following me was tailgating and waiting to pass me as soon as he was out of the city limits. If I hadn't pulled over right away, it would had drove the front of the trailer into the road and snapped the chains. Then he would have hit it head on.

I don't care that you don't consider them "an accident at highway speeds" since either could have caused a fatality.

And this was an accident in what way?

So when did the accident occur?

The contention was that the chains had some function when an accident occurred. If there was no accident then how does your anecdote pertain to the function of chains in an accident?

Did it happen? If not then what accident _did_ happen?

Again I don't see any description of an accident.

I see. So the trailer breaking was the "accident" and the chains had no function at all in said "accident" so how is it relevant to the question of the function of chaines in an "accident"?