Dangit, forgot to hook up the safety chains.

#overRated

Is that legal? I mean the hitch, not the chains.

WTH is that contraption. I’ve never seen any like it and hope I never do.

SURE its strong enough. Can't bicycle adapters handle anything?

If it’s for real, it has got to be a Meskin.

“Ees OK?”

Texas license plate? That explains it😂

<SMH> ...

Shades of Rube Goldberg.

???

I thought perhaps, this was going to be a serious discussion on safety chains, I cross them.

Explains why I never like being behind someone towing a trailer.

I have safety chains on all of my trailers, saved my ass once.

There was a fatal accident not far from here, a mismatch ball hitch.

That’s classic!
Have seen a few around here recently
That make that one look safe👍

It can't be much worse than this monstrosity that came out in the early 70's. Rain gutters weren't designed for that kind of weight.



It also applied to big trucks. This thing didn't last very long. Truckers refused to drive them and the unions demanded that no driver could be forced to drive it.

Lol, that could be a guy I know........Maybe two guys I know.

My dad would pull a stunt like that.
And it would work out fine, for him.
I could buy high grade steel, get a certified welder to build a receiver,
And the ball would break!

Safety chains=Use them.

A couple years ago, a guy was pulling a big fiberglass boat up the hill that goes past our house. He didn't have the safety chains hooked and the boat came loose near the top of the hill. the boat rolled a couple hundred yards back down the hill, went through our yard, missed our house by about 25 feet, went through a pasture and destroyed the neighbors well house. Luckily the well house stopped the run-away boat or it would have hit the neighbors house.

Had a trailer come loose a while back, buddy helped hook it up, and I didn’t double check him. He dropped the hitch onto the ball, and I hooked up chains and lights. he didn’t lock the hitch down, and I didn’t notice, since we were talking about something. Normally don’t do that when hooking up. Anyway, here we are running down the road, all normal, until I feel a slight jerk and hear a scraping noise behind the truck. Look back to see the trailer leaving the road and taking out a fence. It ended up in some folks’ driveway.

When I stopped, the safety chains were hanging from the hitch on the back of the truck. Got to looking, found out they had been merely spot welded to the trailer, which was bought new and was only a couple of months old. Load was fine, trailer lost a taillight and I had to rewire the the lights hookup, and straighten the jack, but no real harm done except having to fix a fence. Could have been a lot worse. From now on, safety chains will always be examined before I buy a trailer. For the record, the trailer was a B/R brand, made in Iowa.

Remember earlier this summer - this pickup being held up by it's safety chains on a bridge in southern Idaho?

Being a CDL license carrier and having to follow DOT regs make you check all of this stuff 2-3x before hopping in the cab and especially check if you have a helper and they do the hooking up.

I have to stay on em all of the time to cross chains and run the hooks in from the front side of the eyes and not drop em in from the rear side.

Also as much of a PITA as the keepers are make sure they are functioning.

Last week we went to a scout camporee about 200 miles from here. One of the leaders borrowed my utility trailer to haul gear. His hitch was too low so I loaned him a 4" lift mount and put one of these anti-rattle clamps on it. During the camporee, they had to remove the ball mount for some reason and the guy who put it back on (not my friend) failed to put the pin in it. My friend towed the trailer home 200 miles and over a steep hill with only that clamp holding the ball mount in. We both got a shock when we took the mount off and found an empty hole. I HIGHLY recommend these clamps to stop the rattling...and other things.

Okay Toby, Mark and I resent that comment!!!!

I regularly haul horses with our Sundowner gooseneck. I always do a walk around and check doors, tires and hitch before jumping in and driving away. I did find the B&W turnover ball not latched one time. Fortunately, horse hauling goosenecks are naturally tongue heavy when loaded.

If you do use chain hooks instead of some kind of locking latch, be sure to run it through the hitch loops from the bottom instead of just dropping it in from the top. It's less likely to bounce out on bumps.
If you do need the chains, the loops on most receiver hitches is the weak point.

this way...


not this way...these will bounce out on bumps.

And pin the lock on the hitch, top pic not pinned/locked.

Hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like those chains might be long enough to let the hitch hit the ground. The chains are suppose to catch the hitch and keep it off the ground, thus you still have some control of the trailer, to bring everything to a stop.

Most of the time the safety chains are too long and need to be adjusted

Just twist the chain until it's the right length to keep it off the ground and work properly.

Chains are made to be cut down when installed. Many people don't.

I don't know but I think the average receiver hitch is good for around 1200 pounds of tongue weight and at least 7000 of trailer weight. Looks like at least three hitches in use there so that should add up to 3600 pounds of tongue weight and 21,000 trailer weight. He should be good to go. He should have hooked the chains to the box though. GD

Add a few more and he'd have to buy 18 wheeler tags.

Great googly-woogly!!! I see THAT on the road in front of me and I'm STOPPING until it's outta sight!


It ALL depends on the 'class' of that receiver..

Here's a site with some good info: https://hitchhousega.com/hitch-types/trailer-hitch-class-models/hitch-class/

Go to the LH side and click on the various 'trailer hitch' classes of hitches and it'll give you a good rundown on what to expect your particular truck can safely (and legally) haul...

The chains in the bottom pic. look to have an S-hook with wire safety latch the top pic. not so much.

Those chain hooks do have keepers/safety latches, or whatever you want to call them.
Still a good idea to latch them from the front though, and always cross them.

Amazing how many fires are started by dragging chains.

the upper part of this is designed to hold a bicycle rack, nothing more. Also, the length of it greatly reduces the carrying capacity. That Rube Goldberg setup is probably only good for a couple hundred lb tongue weight.

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

I've read several times that some states require chains to not be directly welded to a trailer. They can be attached to something else that is welded. Here's a couple.

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Buyers-Products/337SC38B.html

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Buyers-Products/3375471000.html

Bruce

Chain welds usually will break over time if subjected to much force

From P.23 on this document:

https://www.linklock.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Trailer-Safety-Chain-White-Paper.pdf

Lastly, the chains are not to be welded to the trailer chassis. Our testing shows almost a 50% decrease in strength of some chains when they are welded.


Bruce

My first wife was killed in an accident where a large, double axle trailer separated from the truck and struck her vehicle. No safety chains and miss match ball and hitch. He was found guilty in criminal court and he and his 2 insurance companies lost in the later civil suits. I'd give anything to have her here. If you're pulling a trailer, please use safety chains.

Some friends were helping deliver a new subcompact tractor to a buyer.
One ran the Jack, one the truck, #3 loaded the tractor.
At the customer, they swapped the tractor for a big mower tgat had been traded. Back at the dealer, they were going to load a John Deere, around 40-50hp. Jim pulled it up on the trailer, and the trailer stood up. He hit the clutch
and break, and it hovered with the deck touching the top of the bumper of a month old King Ranch dually. The gooseneck inches from the cab.
His brother chocked the wheels, and ran the Jack down quick. Only the rubber on top the bumper was scratched. Not bad.

They had driven 60+ miles unhooked. Only the weight of the equipment had kept it together.