Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

In my role as the offical ornery cuss of this site - official ornery furrin cuss at that - I'll throw in an alternative: in most Yurpeen countries, you'll see a skimpy little wire in place of safety chains - the skimpy little wire pulls on the parking brake of the surge brakes in the event of a breakway.

Andrew

Andrew,

Most large trailers with electric brakes have the safety wire feature here also, but that requires the trailer have brakes, and in the case of electric brakes, a battery.

The safety chain law here is in addition to the break away feature.

When I started this thread, because of all the law violators I've seen, I didn't know that chains were a requirement.

Ancrew,, as official, furrin, ornery cuss and cummidgen at large, I want to compliment you on a job well done,,

put some south in ya mouth,,,GRITS for everybody

chip

I've been in the RV industry for Many years. I only saw 1 trailer come off its tow vehicle. I can't see how that can happen if not by human error. However after seeing that accident I always use them. I don't even know if Pennsylvania requires them or not, I use them. No safty chains are just the kind of thing Police look for. Now I know that we all have our trailers registered properly (yea, right). I just don't want to be pulled over for something dumb and have the Cop find something big.

Happy Trails

Len

What's scary is when I saw a semi loose it's trailer. It was a few cars in front of me going down the highway. All the sudden, everyone starts hitting their brakes. The semi driver slows down and manages to keep it behind him and pull over to the shoulder. Sparks, smoke, the whole nine yards. After I saw that, I figure it can happen to anybody.

Len said:

Now I know that we all have our trailers registered properly (yea, right).

Now Len, why on earth would you suspect anything different?

Chip wrote:Ancrew,, as official, furrin, ornery cuss and cummidgen at large, I want to compliment you on a job well done,

The ornery cuss bit I feel I've got well in hand. Being a curmudgeon is indeed my long term career plan, but I would not be so presumptious as to feel I had achieved that already....

Andrew

Follow up on safety chains........Why should you cross them???? Well if they are the correct length, and god forbid if the trailer were to either come off the ball or some other problem, crossed chains will cradle the trailer tongue closely to where it should be mounted, and minimize any radical action. I've never had to rely on it, but it seems to make sense to me, and hey, it's not that big of a deal, but can be. Doug Hodder

I have always used safty chains and all my friends do well all but one and he does now. He pulled off the freeway and his speed boat passed him up.
I wonder how fast if goes in water.

The post of Texas towing laws brings up an interesting point. I supose there may be different rules or laws for 5th wheel trailers, never even crossed my mind but I have never seen chains on a 5er. Actually I don't think I would want that 7000 pound monster attached to my truck by a chain anyway and it does have breakaway brakes. If it comes loose from my truck it is supposed to stop all of it's own hopefully taking little more than my tailgate with it.

One more thing on the safety chains.

We used the teardrop this last weekend WITH the safety chains, and by golly they worked! We had a good SAFE trip!