Safety chain

Steve B · 2010-10-14T04:55:03+00:00

I have a Lincoln SA 200 with safety chains on it. My receiver hitch only sticks out about 8" from the pin slot. Total weight, 1700#.The two safety chains on the trailer are 3/8" chain with large slip hooks. They are so long that even with a knot in each, they slightly drag the ground. The slip hooks just go into the round eye on either side of the receiver. They do look a little light, like 1/4" thick.The chains were welded on the welder frame with what looks like 7018, and look like they'll be there except for a direct hit with a Hellfire missile.I want to shorten them, and change from the slip hooks. Right now without a knot in them, they drag the ground for about six inches. With a knot, they barely clear the pavement.I know that I must leave them long enough so that I don't run out of chain on a tight turn, but these are just way long, even with a knot in them. I think I'll replace the bigger than needed slip hooks with shackles. The big slip hooks look like if they were to get bouncing around, they would come off. Grab hooks would be a little better, and I could mouse them on, but that would make changeout a time consuming thing. And they still have the potential to come off in a tussle.So, I think I'll just keep the bigger than necessary chains, shorten them, and put shackles on them.But how long do I cut the chains? Is there a rule of thumb about length? Height above the pavement? Measuring them so they can't be pulled totally straight and taut on a tight jackknife? They are old chains, but good ones, and I would like to keep them, but have only one chance to get it right, unless I cut them too long, then I get more than one.Any guidelines or cites?And when hooking up safety chains, do they go parallel with each other, or criss cross? Should they be short enough so that if the trailer drops off the ball, the chains support it, and the tongue doesn't drag? (I need a new tongue/ball receptacle device, too, but that's no biggie.) Should they be...

J

J. Clarke 15 years ago

Nope, BME.

I find it fascinating though that calling you people on your bullshit makes one an "ass".

Either trailer chains have to be strong enough to serve some function in an "accident", which most people would infer to mean a collision of some kind, a rollover, or some other event that would cause damage to the towing vehicle even if there were no trailer present, or they do not have to be strong enough to serve some function in such an event.

If they do have to be strong enough to serve some function in such an event then I would like to know what their function would be.

The fact that when asked about this point you people start calling me an "ass" and quibbling over the definition of "accident" and going off on asides about how the chains keeping the trailer in trail will _prevent_ an accident shows that you really did not think through your statement about their function _during_ an accident but you aren't man enough to back down gracefully and admit that you area aware of no such functional requirement.

Vote

J

J. Clarke 15 years ago

Fascinating. I take the time to take pictures to show how to shorten a chain and everybody gets angry with me.

Fuckwads.

Vote

J

J. Clarke 15 years ago

So tell me on brilliant genius. In my photo, how much load is the carabiner going to experience and why?

Vote

G

Gunner Asch 15 years ago

Twist Lock are the nut on bolt type, and the 180' turn types are Autolocks.

The one on my wifes keychain states MAX 15 Lbs. Came from the 99c store, but works nicely for locking her car keys to her purse strap when shopping.

My keychain is a Bent Gate and is rated at 1500 lbs. It was strong enough to use in pulling a Dodge pickup out of a ditch with some soft rope. Though it did bend a tiny bit....shrug and I had to bend it back in the jaws of a vise.

I used to do a little rope work, once upon a time and have kinda sorta kept up with the state of the art..though I dont rappel out of choppers anymore.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Vote

G

Gunner Asch 15 years ago

How heavy is the load..and what is the FPS of the load moving away from the support? I can figure it out for you

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Vote

C

clare 15 years ago

What do you not understand about "accidental trailer disconnect".

The trailer coming loose, unless you were foolish enough to PLAN it, is ACCIDENTAL - ie. an accident. Your understanding and definition of accident is not the only valid one.

You talk about people quibbling over words and definitions, an you are (one of ) the wort for it on the group.

Vote

S

Steve B 15 years ago

The carabineer will experience no load, except for the static weight of the chain. The chain and carabiner past the pin on the shackle are useless, unsafe, and rigged incorrectly.

What do I win?

Vote

S

Steve B 15 years ago

"J. Clarke" wrote

A link is one of those little round thingies that go together to form a chain. On the pin of the shackle, there are two of them on the pin, one coming from the tow chain, the other going to a dead section of chain that is then held from dragging from a caribiner. That short dead section carries no load and serves no purpose. If it was to be pressed into service to lengthen the chain, a shackle would be unsafe and an incorrect way to join two sections of chain unless the links of the chain were sufficiently large enough for the shackle to pass through them, and one link be located on the top of the horseshoe formation of the shackle, and the other on the pin. The proper way would be to use a link for joining chain that has two pins and two cotter keys, kind of a double horseshoe, can't think of the name of it right now.

Yes, Grasshoppah. But what purpose does that dead section of chain have except to serve as something else to catch debris on the highway? IT SHOULDN'T BE THERE AT ALL.

Steve

Vote

S

Steve B 15 years ago

"J. Clarke" wrote

So, with all your education, training, and expertise, you come here and tell us that the proper safe way to shorten a chain is with an improperly installed shackle and a fifty cent carabiner? And for that, I'm a fuckwad? If you rigged that up on my job, your name for you for the next year would be "WORM".

Have you, in all your lectures, courses, dissertations, education, practical experiences and travels EVER heard of a twin clevis link? Google it up, and see how it compares to your two links on a shackle pin setup. Google up chain repair link and see how many other industry acceptable ways there are to repair chains, but some of them unsafe for heavy shock loading. Some of them are marginally safe for 10% SWL. (That's Safe Working Load, in case you missed that in your lectures.)

JC, you can use a lot of stuff to rig chains, and the proof of the pudding is whether or not it holds during a lift, an incident, or an accident. There's right. There's wrong. There's improvised using what you got, but you wouldn't use it every day but you just can't do anything else and you hope it lasts for this use. Then there's stupid.

You can't fix stupid.

Steve

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.

formatting link

Vote

R

Rich Grise 15 years ago

In person, do you look like you're sucking on a lemon? 'Cause it kinda sounds like it.

Cheers! Rich

Vote

C

CaveLamb 15 years ago

Bottom line?

What caused it.

Was it "accidentally" not connected right?

Vote

S

Stuart Wheaton 15 years ago

Actually Steve, unless he has switched the photo, that is not the situation in the picture. There is a link hanging from the link that is in the shackle, but it is not on the pin.

The word professionals use for the "horseshoe shaped part" is the "bell" of the shackle.

But it does no harm.

Actually, if the chain needed to be lengthened, all that would be needed would be to take out the shackle and re-locate it to a more distant part of the chain, which was his whole point in the first place.

Unless you needed to lengthen the chain when switching vehicles. Or you are shortening the chain in a test before you cut it two links too short.

Vote

I

Ignoramus31115 15 years ago

This is all good and well, but many types of chain (if not most) do not have "enough hole" in the links to insert a shackle pin into the chain.

i

Vote

L

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh 15 years ago

Ignoramus31115 fired this volley in news:0K2dne7EwrZ1oV3RnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Um... Ig... Most chain has a slightly larger "hole" in the link than the diameter of the rod from which the chain was formed. Otherwise, how would the "next" link go into it? I think I've seen a few that have a "pinched" waist, so the links cannot rotate through one-another.

I own only 5/16" binder chains, which suit my tractor work. They have openings that are roughly 1/32" larger than the nominal 5/16". The links will rotate completely around in one another, including passing the weld.

LLoyd

Vote

G

Gunner Asch 15 years ago

Then you are usng the wrong chain for the task.

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Vote

I

Ignoramus31115 15 years ago

What the OP was trying to do is insert a shackle pin into a link IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHAIN.

So he tries to insert a shackle pin in addition to having two neighboring links.

Vote

J

Jim Wilkins 15 years ago

Works for me, as long as I slide the unloaded link into the middle.

jsw

Vote

L

Larry Jaques 15 years ago

"Hey, this 1/2" shackle pin won't fit my 1/8" chain!"

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Vote

W

Wild_Bill 15 years ago

Gotta respect a dumbass's choice to be stupid.

Can't even be enlightened by a clear, simple picture.

Another example of someone insisting others are wrong, when they can't even interpret a picture, since a simple explanation isn't within their grasp.

Just jump on the wagon with the other dimwits that insist the proposed solution was wrong.. even though the recommended hardware was completely logical and safe.

Amazing that misguided f*****ts will readily band together and furiously defend a faulty point.

respectfully,

Vote

G

Gunner Asch 15 years ago

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Vote