Smokey the Bear is spreading misinformation about safety chains!

[mkirsch]

Caught a commercial on youtube this morning, depicting a man driving backwards with a travel trailer. The area behind the trailer was on fire, and the area in front of the pickup was normal.

Eventually the truck and trailer stop. Smokey the Bear steps up to the back of the pickup truck reaches down, unhooks one safety chain and proceeds to WRAP THE SAFETY CHAINS TOGETHER!!! Doesn't he know the chains can't cradle the trailer tongue, and their strength is compromised when they're all twisted up like that??? It's an outrage, I tell you!

Then he says something to the effect of, "One spark from a dragging safety chain can cause a forest fire."

[Grit_dog]

Too much time….

[mkirsch]

You know it. The forum's dead. May as well try to have a little fun.

[bid_time]

I think you are misconstruing the U-video. The testing on chains that you alluded to that determined they were “compromised”, was done on twisted chains -as in a single length of chain twisted causing the position of each individual link to be distorted from their normal end to end position in relation to each other.
The video per your summation, showed two chains being wrapped around each other. There was no indication in your summation that the position of the individual links were distorted from their normal end to end position. If this is so, I don’t think that this “wrapping” has ever been tested and proven that it makes the chain weaker. In my mind, it could go either way; and hence Smokey the Bear may not be spreading misinformation.

[StirCrazy]

it is comon to cross the chains to cradle the tounge infact thats how it is taught in a lot of manuals.  the theory is that if your ball breaks the crossed chains will catch the tounge and prevent it from digging into the pavment.  every trailer I have ever seen has them crossed.  now as for wraping them, that just means you have them to long and  need to take a link or two off.  

[mkirsch]

Not simply crossed. As shown the chains were tightly wrapped and twisted together multiple times, possibly even tied in a knot.