Extending Safety Chains

The chains should be crossed to prevent the tongue from hitting the pavement. Its the law in some states and common sense in the rest.

But ....
The chains are supposed to be of a length that keeps the tongue off the ground

Really?

I just went and looked at my 2010 factory installed/un-altered safety chains. They are 28.5 inches long to the tip of the hook and connected under the ball connection of the trailer tongue then hooked to the tow rig at a depth less than the height of the ball.

It's going to hit the ground if it comes off the ball, first it will hit the trailer jack fully raised and after that is sheared off comes the tongue frame.....

Any shorter and you couldn't corner properly or tight enough.

Nvr2loud wrote:
I hope my chains break if my trailer comes loose, I don't want to have a trailer with tongue on the ground to still be attached to my truck.

My trailer does not have break-away brakes on it, the selling dealer told me they are not required in Ontario. I have meant to install a controller and cable, but have yet to find the time. I can just picture my trailer travelling down the road beside me with my dog looking out the window as she passes by.....

But ....
The chains are supposed to be of a length that keeps the tongue off the ground, and attached so you can bring your rig to a stop, (in theory), and not have the trailer careen across the highway and kill someone.
I wouldn't want to lose a trailer like that and have investigation reveal I was hauling with too light chains. Liability insurance wouldn't be worth much for ya.
And what about if you go outside Ontario?

I hope my chains break if my trailer comes loose, I don't want to have a trailer with tongue on the ground to still be attached to my truck.

My trailer does not have break-away brakes on it, the selling dealer told me they are not required in Ontario. I have meant to install a controller and cable, but have yet to find the time. I can just picture my trailer travelling down the road beside me with my dog looking out the window as she passes by.....

you don't want to be attached to this trailer if it breaks away from the car"

So true... If it breaks away off the hitch after about a foot the emergency brake should lock up on your trailer or is supposed to.

It all breaks when you wreck both rigs because your safety chain worked. Kinda a danged if it works, most of the time.

If it had to happen to me, I wouldn't want to be connected by chain to the out of control trailer.

A camper from long ago told me that when his hitch was set up for him he asked about the light chains (what you'd tether out your dog with) and was told "you don't want to be attached to this trailer if it breaks away from the car". The good old, bad old days.

Ralph

According to the Pearless website that I will leave to you to find and read it basically says each chain must have a breaking strength equal to the GVWR of the trailer so Peeps simplistic view is not correct.

Larry that may be what is listed on a chain website but that is not what is put on TT out of the factory.

Walk around a campground or RV store and look at the chains and attachment points on the trailers. Most are an absolute joke. There is a handful that do a nice job but gross majority are a joke. I've seen chains on dogs that were better.

Just look at most of the new TT. They have S hooks from the factory. Now go look up what even the best S hook can hold. It's a joke even if they use grade 80 chain........the S hook will be the weak link.

Even if the OP puts 1/2" grade 30 with a quick link on the end it will be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the majority of the TTers I have seen on the road.

I really appreciate the responses. I definitely want to go overboard as I like things that are over-engineered. I've seen online (etrailer.com) 1/2" quick links that are good for up to 10k lbs!

PacNWChris wrote:
Hmm ... diametrically opposed opinions. lol :)

Anyhow, if I only need to add a few inches to give me the desired length, I'm still at a loss for the best/safest way to do this. If I was to go the Clevis link route, which is what is included in the ProPride extension kit, I'd likely need to add only one or two links of chain! So it would go something like this: original chain, clevis link, new link (or two) of chain, hook. Is what I'm picturing in my mind accurate?

As opposed to: original chain, quick link, hook. Like I said before, the 3/8" quick links have a 2200# safe working limit. Is that inadequate?

Much thanks!

There are specific strength requirements for safety chains so be careful about just throwing something together. According to the Pearless website that I will leave to you to find and read it basically says each chain must have a breaking strength equal to the GVWR of the trailer so Peeps simplistic view is not correct. Now this even gets more complicated IIRC because this breaking strength had time limits on it that must be met and generally chains are rated for a "working load" which is like 3 or 4X the breaking strength. However I'm not sure if this second breaking strength is the same as the one that safety chains must meet. To be safe I would recommend considering going WAY OVERBOARD on whatever you use to lengthen your safety chain so you are guaranteed 100% that you haven't weakened or comprised the safety chain rating than came OEM. I had to add a couple of inches to my system and what I did was used two oversized QDs that had a safe working load that exceeded the GVWR of my trailer. That way I assured myself that the weak link was still in the factory installed safety chain system and not from something I added to it.

I can't remember the specifics, but I think my safety chains are 3/8, my trailer GVWR is 7500 and I used two 9/16" Quick screw type links with a WL each of over 6K.

Larry

PacNWChris wrote:
Hmm ... diametrically opposed opinions. lol :)

Anyhow, if I only need to add a few inches to give me the desired length, I'm still at a loss for the best/safest way to do this. If I was to go the Clevis link route, which is what is included in the ProPride extension kit, I'd likely need to add only one or two links of chain! So it would go something like this: original chain, clevis link, new link (or two) of chain, hook. Is what I'm picturing in my mind accurate?

As opposed to: original chain, quick link, hook. Like I said before, the 3/8" quick links have a 2200# safe working limit. Is that inadequate?

Much thanks!

You can get a quality quick link like one of these.

You can even go up one or two sizes if you want and that way your chain for sure will be the weak link.

After looking at the way some of these chains are attached to the tongue it's kind of a silly debate. I have seen some that were attached with a grade 3 bolt. :E