Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Safety chains on trailers

I don't hitch up anyone's trailer and I don't let anyone hitch mine up anymore. It's just a simple safety issue. if I'm pulling it I need tp be responsible for it. I did lose a 6 x 10 trailer with my bike in it once, I let someone help me hook up. The trailer ended up in a grass median. It just veered left and the median acted like a runaway truck lane. If I was on a section with a k-rail it would have been ugly. I take responsibility for that one.

That pic makes my [bleep] tighten up every time I see it.

another hint: If you use this type of connector, be sure to use it so the turn nut is on top and it moves down when you fasten it, not up. I've seen the nuts vibrate down when driving leaving it open.
Oh, also be sure to carry a wrench to fit the nut. If it jambs and you can't turn it by hand, you might not be able to unhook.

Easy pass for me personally.

Twisting the chains can be unsafe because it weakens them and possibly illegal, depending on the creeper cop that pulls you over.

Is that a Renault?

I’ve seen the VW vid before.

Laclede Chain co. says to never twist them as it weakens them. OTOH, they suggest using zip ties if they're too long. Obviously, that won't hold to keep the tongue off the ground. It only keeps them from dragging.

In 1989 i was driving piles in N.Y.C.,Friday before Memorial Day Weekend,my partner and i were in the hole spliceing pile,stick welding two piles together.The New York state inspector asked us to weld something for him on his car,so we drag the leads up and over,and he has some 1/4" steel plate strips,like 4" x 10" and a traliler hitch ball and wants us to weld up a trailer hitch to the car frame so he can tow his tent camper that weekend.We looked at each other like he was nuts.We thought it was a joke.We refused and told him to go to U-Haul and rent a hitch.Some people are just morons.

Not me, Lee. I’d want that wreck-in-waiting to be way BEHIND me!


Good link too. Tks.

I use Metollius steel locking carabiners for safety chain hookups. They are $12.00 each and are rated at 40kn breaking strength. Chains that drag cause wildfires, bungees cords are cheap and work fine.


mike r

I do not like to admit that I screw up. I do not think that most of us do.
That Said
I have a Goose Neck trailer with a 20 foot IMT Crane mounted just behind the Neck.
I did a job up in the mountains about an hour to hour and a half from my place.
I had to disconnect the trailer from my truck and off load the components of a Equipment shelter I fab'ed up for installation down from the job site on the highway.
We could not get the Goose Neck up the hill to off load it.
At the end of the day I was spent and just wanted to get home. My Brain had shut down from the hard several days of work.
I had one of the helpers back me under my trailer and then I got out and hooked it up.
I drove that trailer down a very steep curvy road mountain road with no bumps thank God for that.
The next day when I went to disconnect the Goose Neck I seen where I hooked up the safety chains but i did not latch and lock the hitch. I floated on the truck all the way home.

I guess the 2000#s of tongue wt from that crane held it down on the ball in the back of the truck but any bouncy bounce could have been a real disaster for me and everyone on the road.

"When a Texan thinks he'll take his chances,
Chances they will be taken."

Jerry Jeff Walker

I was in a hurry, hooked my safety chains, but for got to latch the ball down. (crs). 10 foot trailer so no biggie but going down a hill to a stop sign, it bounced loose. Glad I didn't forget the chains!

If my conversion is right, that's about 8800lb. Each chain has to equal the trailer's weight so that's not enough for many large TT's.

What could go wrong????

We were going hunting pulling a bumper pull 4 horse trailer. Some AH pulled the pin, safety chain saved our 4 mules, it was scary as hell with the load shifting left and right as the mules in the back tried to keep their balance with a shifting trailer.

anyone want to play rock, paper, science scissors for who has to sit bit ch or backseat bit ch?

Good math, mine was just a 5'x8' utility trailer, never carried more than 4k gross.


mike r

I padlock the latch and always safety chain.

Unlike most people who haul lawnmowers/zero turns around here I have 2 tie downs on the mower, most just drive them on and raise the gate!!

I weld my own chains on, or at least make another pass on my trailers. I’ve seen a couple of safety chain welds break at work. We have a lot of jugheads at my place of employment