Trailer Safety Chains, Crossed OR Uncrossed

Musical interlude while you consider your personal chain and shackles situation . . .

Makes a change from the oft repeated Beatles version. :huh: :huh:

Just to stir the pot again on chains and shackles
In all of this the load rating I believe is for a constant load not a shock load
Painting colour of shackle read some where is to denote the service / inspection period for these colours
Personally if it comes of the tow ball my preference would be that it completely detach instead of flopping around on a chain
These are just my thoughts and have no influence on what others do

Here are some Hitch Fails



And some other beaut towing fails

cobbadog wrote:

On the caravan Forum I visit from time to time this topic of crossing chains and rated chains and shackles has been bought up a few times. One of the Admin boys posts the rules up and it clearly stated that the chains shall be crossed and no rating on the chain until it is over 750kg trailer and yes the shackles are to be rated. All my shackles have the rating moulded into them. I can only guess that the Chinesium ones do not.

Thank goodness I'm not a part of caravan forums
I would be moderated out of there pretty smartly

Bring back rams horns

Paul

As geofbb has stated, I too believe the rating is for lifting (static load), bit useless for a breakaway. Wouldn’t be the first dumb law that some brain dead bureaucrat from the government thought up.

Personally if it comes of the tow ball my preference would be that it completely detach instead of flopping around on a chain
These are just my thoughts and have no influence on what others do[/quote].

The idea of having the chains catch the drawbar and staying attached to the tow bar is to stop the trailer/caravan becoming an unguided missile and ending up in the path of oncoming traffic.

The thought of a breakaway trailer or van killing an oncoming family does not rest easy with me. I believe the crossed chains are the way to go but don't think the tow bar dropping on to the ground while still being pulled by the chains would be terminal (except maybe for your wires).

I have had two go at highway speed. One in a jeep when the pintle locking lever detached and it opened but the non-crossed chains were too short to allow ground contact. Steering and control was hardly affected.

The second was towing 12 postie bikes on a tandem behind a Canter when the Chinese tow-ball snapped. Crossed chains, no road contact, only indication was the noise.

Whatever system you use make sure you put them on every time!

Lang

In my experience, the major advantage of crossed chains is that you can turn tight, and you are are not stretching the outside chains, when crossed, they stay about the same tension as you turn. It is really the length that determines whether the trailer will touch the ground.
Paul

overnite wrote:

As geofbb has stated, I too believe the rating is for lifting (static load), bit useless for a breakaway. Wouldn’t be the first dumb law that some brain dead bureaucrat from the government thought up.

The First Link that Vic Rhodes put up clearly says as Much..!!

www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/...on/files/0-1-3-1.pdf

Just my observation, another factor is the total length of some drawbar fittings, some with added ‘levelling’ devices.
Chains shackled to the tow bar frame quite a distance forward of the ball - makes chains too long to keep the trailer a - frame up in the event of coming adrift.
IMO the tow ball should be as close to the rear of the towing vehicle as possible. Keeps the chains short and improves towing stability.