Trailer Chains - To Cross of Not to Cross - That is the Question

I have been told that crossing your trailer safety chains is the right thing to do. Something about if the coupler comes off the ball, the trailer will be limited in its wayward travel. Sounds like something for Mythbusters to figure out. Yes or no, what say you?

And while you are at it, anyone have a great crazy "trailer came off the ball" story to share? You first.

- John

This site says that the crossed chains will "catch" the hitch. I didn't know that.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-p...ty-cables1.htm

And it might even be against the law not to cross chains in some states! Yikes! Who knew?
http://forums.iboats.com/trailers-to...ns-421062.html

And a video to watch. Always nice to while away the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsw0-q4oo_4

I was in a rush to get to the airport on a good day. Hooked the trailer up at the barn where it lives (up the hill from the airport) and drove off. First bump I hit, I heard the coupler disengage. I had in fact crossed the chains, and they worked as advertised in your link. The trailer tongue was hung up in the "basket", and it swung gently fore and aft with very little side-to-side motion. The automatic brake cable also worked. I was left with a small dent in the mini-van bumper and a slightly elevated heart rate. The guy who taught me to tow trailers was a WW2 truck driver who claimed that crossing the chains was "critical". I don't know that my outcome would have been much worse if the chains hadn't been crossed, but it sure seemed to work well when I inadvertently tested out the theory .

On 5/2/2014 6:21 PM, JohnDeRosa wrote:
And while you are at it, anyone have a great crazy "trailer came off the ball" story to share? You first.

Well yes I do, but fortunately not a "glider trailer came off the ball"
story.

I was driving a truck pulling a heavy compressor trailer down a city
street when I casually looked to the right and saw a familiar trailer
trying to pass me! There was nothing I could do but drive next to it so
my truck would at least limit it's excursions to the left. The thing
finally slowed down by itself and followed the slant in the road toward
the curb. When it finally grazed the curb, it slowed down and finally
perfectly parked itself! I hooked it up (properly this time) and drove
off as if nothing had happened. (Except for my knees knocking.) Nobody
but me saw it, and I didn't tell, so I got to keep my job.

Motto: Always "preflight" your trailer before driving off.

This was over 30 years ago. I was towing a trailer behind a school
bus. The bus had been in an accident and the catch for the trailer
hitch was not catching. This was one of those hitches that you put on
the ball and then screw down from the top to tighten to the ball. At
one point I looked up in the mirror to see the trailer flipping over
in the air. The trailer had come off the hitch, the hitch had dug
into the asphalt and the road and had flipped up and did a front back
360. It landed in the ditch. It landed uprigt.This being Minnesota
in the Winter the ditch was full of snow. It appeared OK so we went
to the nearby farmer and borrowed a set of chains to pull it out of
the ditch. The trailer was fine. We reattached to the bus and
continued on our way, stopping every 5 miles to make sure the hitch
was still attached firmly. I do not know if the chains were crossed
or if the chains were just to long and did not cradle the hitch when
it came off. I do recall the chains were broken.

On Fri, 2 May 2014 15:21:47 -0700 (PDT), JohnDeRosa
wrote:

I have been told that crossing your trailer safety chains is the right thing to do. Something about if the coupler comes off the ball, the trailer will be limited in its wayward travel. Sounds like something for Mythbusters to figure out. Yes or no, what say you?

And while you are at it, anyone have a great crazy "trailer came off the ball" story to share? You first.

- John


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On 5/2/2014 4:21 PM, JohnDeRosa wrote:
I have been told that crossing your trailer safety chains is the right
thing to do. Something about if the coupler comes off the ball, the
trailer will be limited in its wayward travel. Sounds like something for
Mythbusters to figure out. Yes or no, what say you?

And while you are at it, anyone have a great crazy "trailer came off the
ball" story to share? You first.

- John


Way back when - when I first began towing trailers - someone (my old man?)
told me to cross the chains, and why (to minimize the chances of "pole
vaulting")...it made sense to me, so - chains permitting - I've always crossed
'em. Happily, I've never tested the reasoning.

That said, once when retrieving someone - their vehicle pulling a factory
PIK-20 trailer - less than two miles from the airport & still in town, someone
pulled up beside me waving frantically and pointing behind me. I pulled over
to figure out why. When I pre-flighted the (ready to go [almost!]) trailer, I
missed catching the fact the rear door wasn't latched. It'd flopped open and
was skating raucously on the metal brackets that support the door when the
fuselage rests on it for rigging. Hadn't heard a thing in the cushy 5 Series
BMW! I'd'a 'fessed up if asked...but I wasn't asked.

That's prolly in my top 3 bozo trailer moves...for #1, it'll take more than
RAS to pull it outta me. (It wasn't a glider trailer but...kids, LISTEN to
those little voices in your heads!)

Bob - a decade later & it still gives me the shakes - W.

At 04:14 03 May 2014, BobW wrote:

That said, once when retrieving someone - their vehicle pulling a factory

PIK-20 trailer - less than two miles from the airport & still in town,
someone
pulled up beside me waving frantically and pointing behind me. I pulled
over
to figure out why. When I pre-flighted the (ready to go [almost!])
trailer,
I
missed catching the fact the rear door wasn't latched. It'd flopped open
and
was skating raucously on the metal brackets that support the door when the

fuselage rests on it for rigging.

Car and trailer pulled away from traffic lights only to have someone come
up alongside gesticulating wildly.
The trailer door was open and the Dart fuselage was lying on it's side back
at the lights....

At 08:48 03 May 2014, Z Goudie wrote:
At 04:14 03 May 2014, BobW wrote:

That said, once when retrieving someone - their vehicle pulling a
factory

PIK-20 trailer - less than two miles from the airport & still in town,
someone
pulled up beside me waving frantically and pointing behind me. I pulled
over
to figure out why. When I pre-flighted the (ready to go [almost!])
trailer,
I
missed catching the fact the rear door wasn't latched. It'd flopped open
and
was skating raucously on the metal brackets that support the door when
the

fuselage rests on it for rigging.

Car and trailer pulled away from traffic lights only to have someone come
up alongside gesticulating wildly.
The trailer door was open and the Dart fuselage was lying on it's side
back
at the lights....

Brennig James on the North Circular (London) in the late 1960's.

I sort of witnessed a similar event on my first ever arrival at Nypsfield
in 1974. I was driving up the hill from Stroud, with my K6e trailer on the
back, when, near the top of the hill, I saw a Kestrel fusilage leaning
against the grass bank by the side of the road. Comp number 29, my friend
John Glossop. I assumed he had arrived a day early for the competition and
landed out on a practice flight. A couple of minutes later I drove in the
airfield gate and saw a trailer in front of me, doors open, no fusilage
inside and John Glossop and a Nypsfield club member (who had noticed the
problem when John stopped to ask directions for parking) walking towards
the back of the trailer. John had apparently thought that the other guy
was pulling his leg, when he gopt to the back of the trailer and found it
open and no fusilage, the expression on his face was one I remeber to this
day. The only damage was a nbroken rudder and Slingsbys got a new one to
him next morning, he was only a bit late launching on the task.

Cross chains... okay. This tidbit should replace one of those un-useful questions on the written test for aspiring glider pilots.

I've added it to my list '1000 and 1 important facts that you should hope to stumble upon before you need them'.

As to premature termination of trailering, there is sure to be a guy out there who puts a 50 mm ball on his truck and then one day rents a U-haul trailer with a worn hitch. Here's hoping that he gets the word about crossing chains.

On Saturday, May 3, 2014 7:03:01 AM UTC-6, son_of_flubber wrote:
Cross chains... okay. This tidbit should replace one of those un-useful questions on the written test for aspiring glider pilots.



I've added it to my list '1000 and 1 important facts that you should hope to stumble upon before you need them'.



As to premature termination of trailering, there is sure to be a guy out there who puts a 50 mm ball on his truck and then one day rents a U-haul trailer with a worn hitch. Here's hoping that he gets the word about crossing chains.

Story (true)

A volunteer picked up a new club glider in a distant city. The trailer hitch seemed loose on the ball - but what the heck, the other club members wanted to see their new glider so haste was the order of the day.

When the glider and trailer miraculously arrived intact, it was found the tow truck had a 1 7/8" ball and the trailer had a 2" hitch which was now severely damaged. The trailer tower said he didn't know trailer balls came in different sizes and he thought the banging noises were "normal". The safety chains had made the trip neatly wrapped around the tow bar where they were "out of the way".