Do you cross your safety cables?
I know for towing a trailer it is recommended to cross your safety cables under the tongue, but do you cross them when hooking up your toad? I don't really see the need, but what do most of you do? ...
Forum Discussion
Hikerdogs wrote:
I 'll be the first one to say No we don't cross the safety cables. The original intent of crossing safety chains was to capture the tongue of a 2 wheel trailer should it pop off the ball hitch. In the case of a trailer the coming loose the tongue would drop to the pavement. It could either gouge into the pavement and flip the trailer or cause it to swerve into oncoming traffic.
This practice may apply if you use a ball mount tow bar. However most stinger mounted tow bars don't have that problem. There would have to be a catastrophic joint failure before the tow bar became disconnected. Even then bars like the Roadmaster Sterling All Terrain have the cables contained inside built in channels.
http://roadmasterinc.com/products/towbars/sterling.html
The tow bar is contained regardless of whether or not the cables are crossed.
RoadMaster recommends that the cables be crossed under the hitch for the Sterling All Terrain tow bar.
- This helps prevent the tow bar from hitting the road and "pole vaulting" if the tow bar separates from the hitch receiver.
Admittedly, the tow bar separating from the receiver is much less likely than with a ball hitch. But if it did, the stinger is going to pivot down, unless the cables are crossed under it.
Tom
