Re: trailer safety chains
Originally posted by Stillfishing:<br /> I wonder how much attention we give to the LENGTH of the safety chains?
good question stillfishing, I got to wondering about that, too, & tried to diagram it out. Here's what I discovered:<br /><br />When the attachment points on the trailer are the same distance or farther apart than those on the tow vehicle (fig. 1 below), you could theoretically have zero slack without causing any restriction while turning. It might bind or catch on something, though so a little slack is good.<br /><br />But if the hooks on the vehicle are farther apart than the hooks on the trailer (fig. 2 below), you would need a longer chain.<br /><br />
<br />Chains 1 and 2 attach to the vehicle at 1V and 2V, and to the trailer at 1T and 2T<br /><br />If you were to draw a half circle on these diagrams, with the center at the coupler, and the radius at the trailer attachment points (1T and 2T) that would show their path relative to the vehicle bumper. If you then measured the distance of the attachment points for each chain (1V to 1T and 2V to 2T) along the curve, you would find that in figure 1 they are already at their maximum distance, with the trailer straight behind the tow vehicle, but in figure 2 the trailer hook on the inside of a turn gets farther away from its corresponding vehicle hook, then closer as the turn gets sharper.<br /><br />Did I describe that well enough? You really need very little slack, and should be able to work it out with just a few minutes experimenting.
