When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I used the 5/8 shackles also!!! No need for zip strips if tightened properly, I also added thread lock to the bolt on the shackle! Did up grade the hooks on the Utility trailers! and my boat. the Camper no need haha. Make sure when you get the shackle you don't go cheap, Check the ratings! Saw some that were only rated at 5K Not 5T so you know.
I see alot of you using shackles, but isnt anyone concerned that in a failure that the shackles would be needed to do their job the load path on the shackle is 90° to its designed load path?
It doesnt look to me that the shackle can rotate to have the load go through the bell > pin.
It looks like it would be forced to side load.
Now a 5/8 shackle probably has more headroom than might be needed, but I assume this has been discussed?
I have to agree with you. The only thing holding in a side load are the threads on the pin. I've not had any experience with
a failure in this application, but I have seen them in the fishing industry. That pin will go flying like a bullet, with deadly force.
But, as you pointed out, there may be enough headroom on the weight rating at that size to not be an issue.
Got a 2020 F350 with the 2.5" hitch and my trailer's 3/8" hooks BARELY fit. I'm thinking about going hammerlocks to make things easier unless a 1/2" hook would fit better. I'm not sure if the bigger hooks would be of benefit.
2 Pack of 1/2" G80 Black Hammerlock Coupling Link Kits for Heavy Duty Truck Safety Chain Towing Hitch. Work great and look "clean" (or as "clean" as can be).
Be sure to use plenty of never-seize on the pin and in the barrel or you'll be using a torch if you want to take them off.
Like chain (grade #80) fasteners have to be load rated, amazing how much stronger they get from #30 - #120 (expensive), and how big the cheaper grades have to be to make load rating.
Absolutely correct. I wouldn't want an excavator coming off a lowbed when he was out of control, the same as a wheeled instrument of death in my way. Here in Mass they put fences with inward facing tops on every bridge because of people injuring others with a little rock. Physics is a powerful thing @ 50 mph.
When I was around 19 the excavating company I worked for, the laborer backed the truck driver up to hook up the tow behind air compressor, hooked it, hopped into the truck with the driver, and off they went. The laborer never put the cotterpin through the pintle to keep it locked. It came off and took out a guy in a phone booth, a father and husband. It was found the truck driver was at fault as it was his responsibility to check his equipment and not rely on some morons word he did it right.
The driver had his assets seized from a civil proceeding, his dump truck and other equipment sold, and if I remember the % right 50% of his income in the future attached through garnished wages until the settlement was satisfied. After about 6 months he went off the books (not the right thing to do) and didn't show any assets or income. You could tell he was all screwed up after that and living with what happened (not to mention the fatherless family most likely lost it all). I lost touch some time later.
Moral of the story. Someones negligence, laziness, ignorance, caused a lot of pain. Your mortgage probably doesn't get paid when hubby dies, not to mention other pain.
It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye. It's not all about people saying it's to much money, or to much trouble, or I'm not going to far.
60 minutes, years ago had an episode about people from Depot and Lowes having all sorts of purchased items come off their car roof or get blown out of their truck causing accidents and casualties (you must have seen the string they have at the contractor checkout to help the sheep tie down the load). People who don't think it will happen to them, it won't, It'll happen to some other unfortunate. I think it's pretty narcistic to drive around in a multi ton vehicle and not be safe. Load ratings were not picked out of a hat.
With safety chain clevis hooks as large as these, are those extra red things (Hammerlocks) really necessary?
With the risks of side loaded shackles zipper failing the threaded engagements, it would seem to me that the hooks by themselves are the simplest and safest.
With safety chain clevis hooks as large as these, are those extra red things (Hammerlocks) really necessary?
With the risks of side loaded shackles zipper failing the threaded engagements, it would seem to me that the hooks by themselves are the simplest and safest.
As usual, Y2k's posts are loaded with next-level technical info. He definitely knows his stuff. For the simple peasants like me, the safety hook on my trailer wouldn't go into the slots on the Ford factory hitch without binding. I don't know why they are so big. The trailer is an ATC all aluminum trailer with a GVW of 3300#. Maybe that's how the Amish folks roll. That is why I got the Grade 80 5/8" Hammerlocks. A side benefit is they do look kind of sexy.
My trailer chains work exactly like Y2K's images. But, they just BARELY fit like this. I have to take care to get all the angles and such just right, or it won't fit. I think most of this thread are for the folks who fall on the other side of these tolerances ... where the chains simply will not fit as the photos show. For those people and their trailers, they require some translation device to go from hook to hitch ... and hence this thread.
The hammerlocks are interesting, but are quite a bit more expensive and look more difficult to use. For me, I'd just go with 5/8" shackles rated to 3-1/4 tons. Those can be had for as cheap as $5/ea for galvanized or you can get
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
