Proper Hitching

[T and C]

As I have already posted on this board, the church I attend rents its facilities from a local school. We keep the various things we need in a two axle trailer and one of the men with a suitable tow vehicle delivers it to the school on Sunday.

One Sunday a few weeks ago we asked a young man who has a 2010 Nissan Titan with a 5.7 V8 to bring it over. He works in construction, and anyone with a nice truck like that knows how to tow a trailer, right? Well, perhaps not.

Apparently he did not get the locking lever on the coupler all the way down when he put it on the ball. So, he did not insert the locking pin. In addition, he did not know to cross the safety chains under the coupler, or where to attach them.

As he headed for the school, the coupler popped off the ball. I'm not sure where he had put the safety chain hooks. He either put them on the bumper supports or just hooked them on the bumper itself.

Anyhow, when the coupler popped off the ball the jack foot hit the street and the trailer stopped. The safety chains withstood the shock. They jerked off the rear bumper off the truck.

Actually, he might have really caused some damage to the truck if he had hooked the chains onto the receiver as he should have. Imagine if all that force had suddenly been applied to the hitch. He probably would have had to get his frame straightened and his hitch reinstalled by drilling new holes.

Tom

[scrubjaysnest]

Good reminder, especially since the purpose of the safety chains is to protect the road, that could be an even bigger repair bill.

It is amazing how many times at the boat ramp you see improperly attached safety chains.

As for the young man he may have never been taught the correct way since so many businesses (trades) have done away with apprenticeship training programs.

[rvcycleguy]

Reminds me of a story about our speed boat back in the early 70's. 19ft fiberglass over wood drag boat, prop driven with a 427 Corvette motor that could run 95mph in 1/4 mile. As he and mother were coming home from the lake outside San Antonio, he went over a set of railroad tracks and the hitch came off the ball. He saw the boat and trailer in his left side mirror almost parallel to the truck going towards the left curb lane. It struck the curb, trailer stopped and boat propelled forward off the trailer and landed on a parking lot surface where it sheared all components off the bottom of the boat down to the wood subfloor. He was lucky it did not kill someone.

The factory installed safety cables on my TM are so long that even if crossed it will not prevent the TM tongue from dragging on the ground.

My son watched me connect my ATV trailer, with safety chains, and I did what I had always done when the chains were too long. Just twist them until they are shorter. He says that is a bad idea and then gave me a rather technical explanation as to why. I really don't understand his explanation, but I agree with him. It cost me $50,000 for him to know that. He has a degree in mechanical engineering.

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

The factory installed safety cables on my TM are so long that even if crossed it will not prevent the TM tongue from dragging on the ground.

My son watched me connect my ATV trailer, with safety chains, and I did what I had always done when the chains were too long. Just twist them until they are shorter. He says that is a bad idea and then gave me a rather technical explanation as to why. I really don't understand his explanation, but I agree with him. It cost me $50,000 for him to know that. He has a degree in mechanical engineering.

The reason we need tow chains is to keep the trailer attached to the vehicle when the trailer comes loose from the hitch mechanism (usually due to failing to put the tongue on the hitch ball and making sure it's latched). Google "trailer accident" and you'll see hundreds of stories, many involving fatalities.

The reason you cross the chains is so that they don't bind or drag when you turn. My education was probably expensive enough, but I don't remember anybody ever telling me not to twist tow chains. Possibly, it could make them kink under load or something like that which could hypothetically make them weaker. Much more likely to make them weaker, IMO, is allowing them drag on the pavement. I DO know that the point of failure for tow chains is very likely to be the last link, the one they welded to the frame (my son taught me this one time when he borrowed my utility trailer).

Originally Posted by Mr. Adventure

...
Google "trailer accident" and you'll see hundreds of stories, many involving fatalities.

The reason you cross the chains is so that they don't bind or drag when you turn.
...

When you google "trailer safety chains", pretty much all the references say that you cross the chains under the tongue so that it doesn't fall to the ground when uncoupled.

When the tongue is off the ball and the attached chains tighten, they should lift the tongue up off the ground. I think they can be quite long and still do that.

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by brulaz

When you google "trailer safety chains", pretty much all the references say that you cross the chains under the tongue so that it doesn't fall to the ground when uncoupled.

When the tongue is off the ball and the attached chains tighten, they should lift the tongue up off the ground. I think they can be quite long and still do that.

When I google "trailer safety chains" I get lots of people wanting to sell them. When I google "trailer accidents" I get lots of accidents, most involving towing without safety chains. In those stories, the world would have been a safer place with good safety chains, and it would have been ultimately more important that they had at least one one well secured to the tow vehicle than whether they were twisted or crossed.

My TM came with safety cables versus chains (probably most other TMs in it's era, too). They have tight, springy loops that keep tension on the hooks and keep the cables up off the ground. But I don't see how to ever make them tight enough to keep the tongue from being on the pavement in a 500# heartbeat if it ever came off the ball. And if it did, the jack would quickly remanufacture itself into a skid and I wouldn't expect further disastrous non-cosmetic damage.

Most states and provinces, if not all, require safety chains on trailers. Virginia requires that they be crossed.

[rvcycleguy]

I guess there is one way to find out. Raise the coupler, cross the cables, remove your receiver and ball. With the jack post above the ball height, jack the coupler down onto the cables.