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Re: safety chains and the laws
Yes class 8 requires chains or cables
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Re: safety chains and the laws
ca vehicle code only requires a safety chain( )
except vehicle tow dolly requires safety chain(s) although most do have two chains anyway |
Re: safety chains and the laws
I learned about crossing the chains here. I didn't get any info about that when I bought my travel trailer. They do drag on sharp turns, but there has been maybe a hundred yards of that, cumulative. I haven't towed it very much.
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Re: safety chains and the laws
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I just learned recently why there is the 3 red lights at the top of my travel trailer at the rear .I was going to just delete the one light in the middle and make it my camera spot to use along with the hot and ground wire already there.. Well.. I was told that the 3 lights signify that this trailer is 8 foot wide to any one coming up behind me ..it is a law for any truck or trailer 8 foot wide to have all these 3 red lights on the rear I did use the power form the center red light for my camera ,,but I installed the camera on top of my travel trailer therefore both can work off the same power .. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
Interesting topic and good reads posted. My trailer has safety chains and I was taught from a young age to cross them under the tongue so I always have. I also have a pin or long hasp lock through the catch as well because I have seen some bounce loose on a rough road.
I've never been faced with an oncoming, loose trailer but it has happened to my wife twice on hwy 167 here in Arkansas. First time the trailer stopped in the median and didn't cross all the way over the second time it thankfully happened where there was a retaining wall between lanes. If you look at a typical ball/hitch setup there just isn't a lot there holding it all together and I tend to try to think about what will happen not during "normal" use but if I should hit a rough patch or possibly even have to swerve off the hard road for a second. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
Yup, under the right conditions they can pop off. One street has since been smoothed, but it used to be a real washboard. 45 MPH speed limit, but everyone (almost) slowed to 30, max. Many years ago a trailer came off the hitch and struck a power pole in front of the local Chevy dealer, and caught fire. Fortunately the FD was on it pretty quickly and only the pole was scorched.
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Re: safety chains and the laws
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Re: safety chains and the laws
Were trailers that jumped off the ball latched properly, lock pin, and proper sized ball? I can't imagine a trailer coming uncoupled that is properly coupled. It sure hasn't happened to me and I have put that situation to some extreme tests. I take my utility trailer back trails into the woods and even across creeks, loaded with firewood, twisting and turning all the extreme angles. Trailer just follows along. I always check when I get on the flat road. Always good.
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Re: safety chains and the laws
As far as a properly latched ball and socket coupler goes even they can come loose. There is an adjustment on at least some of the couplers, maybe all, to tighten them up. There is a nut on the bottom side of the socket to close or open up the jaws on some of them. We all know using the wrong ball and coupler can lead to separation such as a 1 7/8" ball in a 2" coupler. It will hold for a while but can pop off at any time. The same can happen using the correct size ball in a loose coupler. Matt's events look like worn or loose couplers. The first one I saw he had a side by side hanging off the rear of his trailer as he moved his Jeep to get a better angle then with the weight being mostly on the rear of the trailer it just easily lifted off the ball and that was in the sand. The second one Matt was pulling the empty trailer up the rocks when the trailer just popped loose and rolled down hill and slammed into a rock. Working his rigs in all that sand I imagine he has wear on the ball and or socket and just needs to tighten it up some. As mentioned being a towing company operator he should know the dangers of NOT using safety chains and I cannot think of any good reason not to. Anyone?
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Re: safety chains and the laws
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Once a coupler is pulled off the ball then it's going to be more likely to happen again. Fun videos and he has a knack for pulling vehicles out of the sand, snow, and mud, but I'm getting more perplexed about some of the things that he does. The last one he dragged Lizzie and Randy ten miles across the desert in a junk car with no tires, windshield, or doors! A "carnival ride" that could have ended very badly. I don't know why he doesn't rig up some sort of contraption off the hitch receiver that he could use to hold up one end of a side by side or small car like a wrecker ??? When our VW bug steering broke one night a couple miles from home, I went back the next morning with my log truck (without the trailer) and a hi lift jack and jacked up the car and just chained it to my pintle hitch. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
It's easy to see the weight of the Jeep hanging by that ball making it pop out but the point of this thread is actually safety chains which he doesn't use and would have prevented that trailer from rolling off down hill possibly hurting that kid or the adult that was back there in the area when it came crashing down. ;)
And yes, that deal he showed today was real dangerous. I hate to see some of the things he has Lizzy do. Those car doors hitting rocks and slamming shut while they were buzzing along could have hurt Lizzy or Randy and all the sand and that amount of dust in their faces makes it near impossible to see. She couldn't do much steering but I could just see that little turd box rolling hard around one of those turns. "howdy howdy, we got rowdy tday" she says. Then there was the Excursion precariously parked at a severe angle and he put her in there while they pulled on it. I think they said it was about a 400' drop? Sure she is the smallest, lightest body there but ... and sweet Lizzy is willing to do whatever Matt tells her to do. Ol Dad shakin my head. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
I was taught to cross chains when I learned to hitch a trailer. But it was much later I was shown to hook the chains facing backwards. In other words, don't just drop the hook into the hole. You go under the hole and hook up into the hole with the open part of the hook facing rearward. Way less likely for the chain to hop out of the hole. Rare chance, but everything that reduces odds helps
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Like tying something down on a flatbed: I always drop the end of the chain through a stake pocket and then to the outside and put the hook over the top edge so gravity holds it down. I'm sure someone showed that to me but it was a very long time ago. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
I noticed truckers did that and picked up on it
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Re: safety chains and the laws
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But I never got used to these ratchet straps that everybody uses now because all I ever used was boomers and chains (well, the "wrappers" were made of wire rope with a chain tail for booming down). I do remember now that on the real log trucks of the guys I worked for sometimes, that the log trailer safety chains had these T-shaped toggles on the ends of the chains, that fit up through eyes on the truck and then turned sideways so they didn't fall through. My log trailer was a repurposed military trailer and just had standard chains and hooks. I had some particular way of hooking them to the truck frame/hitch but now I don't quite remember how I did it, but it was secure and they would never jiggle loose. The hitch was a weird contraption made from a pickup ball drop hitch and a chunk of ~10" channel welded to the frame crossmember with a hole cut in it for the pintle hitch shank bolt. I welded it all up myself and it never broke even hauling logs, and a mobile home on the ball. |
Re: safety chains and the laws
I ran a Uhaul center back in the late 80s and what you guys describe is true. 2" ball to be exact;) Assuming they're still using same couplers. Memory serves me the couplers screw down tight and lock, that's the lever you push down to unhook. I also remember never use the end links on a chain if you can help it.
Something to think about is the strength of the quick links, they're not all the same and some inadequate. Was reminded of that recently when I tried pulling a BA bush out with my C20, stretched the link straight:metal: |
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Fortunately, I never dropped anything on anyone's head ;) |
Re: safety chains and the laws
So this guy with the off road recoveries jeep now has changed his trailer from coupler to pintle hitch and has installed safety chains. I saw it in his most recent video of the burning sxs recovery.
I guess he heard us. Good move brother. :metal: |
Re: safety chains and the laws
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Per my firefighter training we wouldn't go near that thing without full PPE including SCBA. They should have left it and come back the next day when it was cold. |
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