| Towing safety chain [message #88091] |
Fri, 11 June 2010 16:19  |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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I tow things all the time. I towed a large covered trailer last week, a flat trailer with dirt on it on Wednesday, and a different tilt bed trailer on Thursday. None of these were mine but were part of the group "loaner pool" at the airport owned by various friends.
On my 2 axle trailer I have heavy chains with hooks that latch and can not hop off of the towing vehicle. A week ago while helping another friend re-wire a different trailer, I got into quite a discussion over the hooks used on the ends of the chains. I stated that the hooks should have latches on them so they can not hop off in case of a disconnect from the towing vehicle.
Yesterday, I pulled up to the trailer we were going to use and discovered I had the wrong size ball on the drawbar. My friend went in the hanger retrieved a different drawbar with the correct ball size, installed in on my truck, and off we went for about a 200 mile one way trip to pick up a tractor on the Iowa, Illinois border. This trailer did not have latches on the chains but the chains were installed correctly.
About 25 miles into the trip in an area of I-80 westbound where the lanes were reduced from 4 lanes to 3 for construction, I looked in the mirror and saw the trailer fish-tailing all over the place. The traffic was packed and running about 65 with me in the middle lane. I started to slow down and the trailer took off. It passed me in the left lane and was following a car. It actually looked like the car was towing it though they weren't really connected. It just stayed in that lane and went right down the road. Eventually, it slowly went to the left and ran into the temporary concrete center divider dragging it to a stop.
There were no shoulders on the road due to the construction. Just concrete barriers on both sides. I made it to the farthest left lane and backed up in all of that traffic. We reattached the trailer and went on our way.
My point of this whole posting is to say the safety chains were not broken they just hopped off of the truck because there were no latches on the hooks. The reason the trailer came loose is my friend did not install the pin in the drawbar correctly and it eventually came out. The only damage was one tail light on clearance light and we lost the license plate on the trailer. I had a spare pin in the truck so we went on our way and picked up the tractor.
I strongly suggest on any safety chain used for towing that you use hooks with latches so they will not hop off when the chains are needed most.
Ken B.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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