by bobhenry » Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:54 am
I tow with more than one tow vehicle. One has the safety ears for the chains way up under the vehicle while my pick ups hitch has them right out in front of God and everybody. One length of chain just hooked on these two vehicles would either prove too short for the other of if long enough may drag on the other. I don't know a lot about safety "cables" but I do assume they must be sized for the slack so this wouldn't work for me.
Back to the chains there are two very curious things that can be done to customize their length. By twisting one chain it will knot up and shorten.
(Don't believe me try it) The two twisted lengths can now be crossed under the coupler and tongue and will catch the tongue if disconnected in transit.
The other trick is to simply wind the chains around each other and this will shorten them as well. It will not form a cradle per say to catch the disconnected trailer but if short enough it may keep it off the ground.
So why are we so worried about "catching" the trailer tongue. Lets play imagine. Imagine you are in traffic at speed, the traffic is slowing and you brake. Someone earlier got in a hurry and forgot to close the coupler, now the tongue rides up and escapes the ball at this same moment you understand the reason for the slowing, a huge crater of a pot hole is dead ahead and it is about to swallow the tongue of your trailer that is now dragging on the ground at 50 mph and looking like a forth of July sparkler. You will, in a millisecond ,be plowing concrete or coming to a very abrupt halt doing severe damage to the hitch the tow vehicle and most assuredly the trailer.
Had the chains caught the trailer tongue it is still scarey but with a controlled slow down you can keep the wagging trailer behind you until you can make a safe exit to reattach the coupler. I personally have lost two in tow and it will step up your pulse a bit but with proper application of the safety chains the risk is minimized.
Growing older but not up !