Safety chains for towing

[Neal]

These are the blue ox safety cables mine came with and probably would work for @ARD:

Amazon.com

Here is the one @ARD has:

Amazon.com

 

[Neemer]

I need new cables and am looking at the straight vs coiled versions. Question for youse guys who have the straight ones: Do you attach those to the tow bar in some way to prevent them from dragging? It seems they would tend to do that.

 

[FLSteve]

I need new cables and am looking at the straight vs coiled versions. Question for youse guys who have the straight ones: Do you attach those to the tow bar in some way to prevent them from dragging? It seems they would tend to do that.

I have the same question. My current ones are coiled, and I need to replace them.

FLSteve

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I copied this from e-Tralier.

The Fulton Safety Chain Quick Link, 1/2" 10K # 49135 have the 10,000 lbs break strength and 3,300 lbs working load limit but are not available in stainless steel. They are zinc coated to prevent corrosion.

The Quick Link I recommend is the Blue Ox 1/2" Quick Link for Safety Chains # BX229-0512 which is also zinc plated to prevent corrosion and have that 10,000 lb capacity. Blue Ox is well known for safety cables and links as they specialize in the flat towing market

 

[Joe Hogan]

This may be obvious to others but I have always been concerned when buying "Rated" parts on line from "unknown" Amazon, Ebay, etc. suppliers. Consequently I tend to gravitate towards manufacturers of said parts or known manufacturer approved distributors of these type of parts.

For trailer parts there are a number of national RV and or truck/trailer parts distributor as well as manufacturer online stores.

For instance a carabiner for climbing is rated for a certain weight. High quality "Rated" carabiners are expensive to very expensive. Online there are knock offs galore. For the lay person trying to determine which are which is very difficult, if not impossible.

Tow chains or cables are the same. Metal is metal until you get in the and test them. Durability and tensile strength vary considerable among alloys.

In the marine products world, anchor chain and rigging quality is always widely discussed. Failure of these parts can range from an inconvenience to deadly.
There are suppliers that provide questionable products.

My point, ...finally, is to be very careful when buying parts that need to perform under load. There are rating agencies testing and certifying certain brands. Look for this certificates when buying these parts.

From the CURT website

Safety Chains - Learn More

Learn more about the use of safety chains while towing

www.curtmfg.com

 

[jbh]

Neal, those are what I was writing about.

 

[jbh]

Also, I needed to remove some of those quick links (Roadmaster) that had been installed for five years and had the devil of a time; they were locked by corrosion. Had to saw one off. I replaced them with larger stainless steel d-shackles.

 

[Joe Hogan]

For those folks that have the time and interest

https://www.linklock.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Trailer-Safety-Chain-White-Paper.pdf

 

[J&JD]

I need new cables and am looking at the straight vs coiled versions. Question for youse guys who have the straight ones: Do you attach those to the tow bar in some way to prevent them from dragging? It seems they would tend to do that.

I have a Roadmaster tow bar that has channels on each side where straight cables run through the channels. Very clean, easy to store the cables and no chance of dragging.

 

[ARD]

The Quick Link I recommend is the Blue Ox 1/2" Quick Link for Safety Chains # BX229-0512 which is also zinc plated to prevent corrosion and have that 10,000 lb capacity.

I was looking for those all day yesterday and couldn’t find them anywhere. E trailer didn’t have them, blue ox didn’t…. If you have a link where they can be found, please let me know.