Are Safety Chains Pointless?

DougH

We hit some serious potholes on the most recent trip and had our class III hitch bar rotate a little, lowering the ball a little... 



So I need to replace the hitch bar and maybe beef it up a bit before assembly.  But that got me thinking.  Most manufacturers tend to put the safety chain loops on the receiver, which in turn is attached or welded to the tow bar, which in turn is attached to the tow vehicle frame.

So if the receiver portion gets metal fatigue and fails, the receiver and safety chains and trailer go careening down the side of the road.  Or if the whole tow bar is pulled off the frame (e.g. sheared attachment bolts), then same result.

There are some setups where the ball assembly goes into the hitch receiver, but the chains hook onto a completely different TV attachment point.  No single point failure.

But there's as many factory towing setups where the two loops for the safety chains are just welded onto the rear end of the receiver.  As if the trailer ball socket, or the receiver ball have the highest probabilities of failure. 

Not sure if that's really true. I've seen plenty of stories with pics of hitch bar failures (like mine), and even TV rear subframe failures.

jkjenn

If the receiver and frame fail, perhaps, but I think their primary purpose is for safety in the event that the coupler pops off of the ball, in transit.

GatorEgg

Safety chains are in case coupler detaches from ball.

JohnDanielsCPA

When I bought my T@B, the dealer didn’t attach the trailer appropriately to my truck.  Less than a mile down the road, the trailer popped off my receiver.  Had I not had chains, my trailer would have scurried down the road and ended up who knows where.  I was crossing a bridge.  Instead, the front end wagged a bit as I gradually slowed the whole rig down.  In short, there was no damage other than a minor scuff in my truck bumper.  Chains have a purpose!

N7SHG_Ham

I have seen very few if ANY safety chain mounts that are NOT integral to the whole receiver hitch. Of course if that falls off, bad things are going to happen.

It looks to me like the thing that needs improvement is your hitch AND/OR the bolts needed tightened. I am unclear how hitting a pothole would bend the safety chain hook point?

A regular point of inspection pre-during-post trip should be your hitch setup including the hidden under TV bits.

DougH

@N7SHG_Ham ; The sudden increase in load torqued the whole tow bar down... bending the brackets on far left and right sides of TV where tow bar attached to frame.  No damage to TV...  only tow bar brackets.  And yup my safety chains are there just in case of human error or malfunction on the coupler, but it got me thinking that there ought to be a backup mechanism in case of tow bar or receiver malfunction.

I WILL be checking it more frequently now.  It could have been low for the 1500 miles before I got home... I'd been parking on mud, snow, and uneven surfaces and assumed that was why the jack seemed lower.  Lesson learned. 

Marceline

I had a coupler failure on a very busy freeway. Chains are absolutely not “pointless.” 

Luckyj

Your set-up does not give a lot of idea on how.  But that much force does not happen a lot with a proper trailer hitch weight and a standard lenght draw bar.  The longer and the more loaded the draw bar, like some use here with a bike rack on an extendd lenght draw bar hitch can provoque something like that.  

But hey, anything can happen on a regular set-up if the force is great enough.  

and for sure, rust is not involved, metal is clean as can be.

and about safety chains, yep, they are more to secure tha attachement in case of couple failure.  The hicth attachement, should start to wiggle before gving, but again if it give, at least one side should remain attached and created something weird that a driver should see and feel before complet rupture.

yours need serious repair and now reinforcement or replacement.

hope you fnd a solution.  Be safe outhere.