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If I were ever to "need" to use a shackle the way you have it in your photo is exactly how it should go. The bell to the truck, the hook to the pin.
That way the bell can rotate on the truck whichever way the load pulls on it, hopefully keeping the load within the bell, and the hook of the trailer is always pulling on the pin.
I would not do it the other way (pin forward). It would not allow the shackle t rotate as the broken away trailer flops around behind the truck.
Thanks for the feeback. I asked the question because many other photos in the thread showed the shackle pin going through the reciever holes, which seemed less than optimal for the reasons you mentioned.
Like they have been for decades....something any hook will fit into
That's not a fair picture (cheating). My "20" 250 has a 3" receiver. That pictures hitch has been derated substantially with a reducer bushing and the retain pin is wrong. I imagine the 3" hitch has to be beefed on the safety chain attachment too.
I have two full time trailers 10K dump trailer and a 7K enclosed work trailer I admit when I got the new truck hooking up the first time, I stumbled for about 12 seconds, the chains go on and off like butter.
The guys putting fittings on the attachment I'm guessing their hooks really don't fit (hence the frustration). My 7K was derated with a 2" receiver coupling and my 10K has a 2 5/16" receiver. To make it easier I replaced the 2" receiver with a 2 5/16" receiver on the 7K trailer. Now I don't have to flip the attachment around. The 2 5/16" ball doesn't get touched. Point being, I'm willing to put in some work so I don't have to do "big picture work", life's more pleasant. But truth be told I'm like an "old bi??h" when it comes to my equipment, don't lean on it, put your coffee on it, or touch it.
Any of you guys using shackles should really take a look at Crosby or McKinnon, not all shackles are created equal. Most of the cheap shackles are just garbage steel with a stamped load rating on them. They haven't undergone any QC to prove that they can actually withstand those loads and there are often inconsistencies with the fabrication (meaning you may get lucky and they'll hold the rated load or they could fail well short of it). Shackles are not something I would go cheap on, especially for the intended use. I work in the construction industry and we won't even allow the non-US made shackles onto our projects. Too many failures.
Break away line needs to hook to truck, not hitch.
If that receiver framework pulls off of the truck frame I think I have more serious issues to worry about than if the trailer brakes lock up from breakaway engagement or not.
If that receiver framework pulls off of the truck frame I think I have more serious issues to worry about than if the trailer brakes lock up from breakaway engagement or not.
It could be argued that the Ford factory receiver hitch actually excels in engineering, intelligently offering enhanced strength and resistance to deformation... incongruously combined with reduced weight, increased capacity, decreased material, and reductions in manufacturing time. These are seemingly mutually exclusive feats, and to the extent that the new designed Ford hitch managed to accomplish them, it is an engineering marvel.
Let's look at the designs from previous decades... such as the ones @ATC Crazy posted above. The safety chain loops are little more than a flat plate with holes, serving dual duty as a lateral gusset for the receiver itself.
So what can happen with the Single Plane, Single Sheet, simple hole in a relatively thin flat plate design?
Can sheet steel plate in a hitch yield past the point of plastic deformation to sudden tensile failure? Looks like it can.
So to get more 3 dimensional structure at the unsupported business end of the receiver hitch chain loop that is floating in free space for ease of user access to click a hook into, the sheet steel either needs to be thicker, which adds weight, material cost, fabrication cost, and reduces tow capacity of the vehicle... or add some cleverness to the problem instead of just throwing more metal at it.
The Ford factory hitch incorporates a dual plane fully boxed approach to reinforcing the safety chain loops. The steel sheet is thinner in material crosssection, but more intelligently and efficiently shaped to maximize strength and purpose through shape, spacing, and multiplanar positioning of the material. Other interesting engineering observations are the slot welds along the neutral axis of the cross tube, and the vertical weld stopping at the neutral axis, and not continuing down into the part of the tube that bears the higher tension load. It looks to me like an awful lot of thought went into the design of the Ford hitch, from robot arm access for welding automation, to making the most use out of the least amount of material, to beating the competition's offerings for the highest weight ratings, to keeping the weight as low as possible. It seems highly unlikely that the same level of thought was not also put into the manner in which tow chains hook into the multi plane reinforced provision made for them.
Perhaps Ford could produce a short video showing consumers how to hook chains into these reinforced loops... much like the video that Javier Alcosta put on YouTube (linked up thread). But then, Ford lawyers might have nixed that idea, as that would open up liability from ambulance chasing lawyers looking for deep pockets to line their own with. I don't understand how the world works... but I can clearly see that the Ford factory receiver hitch chain loops are vastly more resistant to deformation, pull through, and sudden tensile failure than some of the traditional hole in a flat plate designs from yesteryear.
Here's another way to skin the cat:
And finally, on the subject of breakaway trailer brake cable attachment locations...
Things to think about.
Threads like this help. Better that it be 100 posts, or 1,000 posts even, if the discussion leads to individuals giving more thought to towing safely, and their lives are saved as a result.
It could be argued that the Ford factory receiver hitch actually excels in engineering, intelligently offering enhanced strength and resistance to deformation... incongruously combined with reduced weight, increased capacity, decreased material, and reductions in manufacturing time. These are seemingly mutually exclusive feats, and to the extent that the new designed Ford hitch managed to accomplish them, it is an engineering marvel.
Let's look at the designs from previous decades... such as the ones @ATC Crazy posted above. The safety chain loops are little more than a flat plate with holes, serving dual duty as a lateral gusset for the receiver itself.
So what can happen with the Single Plane, Single Sheet, simple hole in a relatively thin flat plate design?
Can sheet steel plate in a hitch yield past the point of plastic deformation to sudden tensile failure? Looks like it can.
So to get more 3 dimensional structure at the unsupported business end of the receiver hitch chain loop that is floating in free space for ease of user access to click a hook into, the sheet steel either needs to be thicker, which adds weight, material cost, fabrication cost, and reduces tow capacity of the vehicle... or add some cleverness to the problem instead of just throwing more metal at it.
The Ford factory hitch incorporates a dual plane fully boxed approach to reinforcing the safety chain loops. The steel sheet is thinner in material crosssection, but more intelligently and efficiently shaped to maximize strength and purpose through shape, spacing, and multiplanar positioning of the material. Other interesting engineering observations are the slot welds along the neutral axis of the cross tube, and the vertical weld stopping at the neutral axis, and not continuing down into the part of the tube that bears the higher tension load. It looks to me like an awful lot of thought went into the design of the Ford hitch, from robot arm access for welding automation, to making the most use out of the least amount of material, to beating the competition's offerings for the highest weight ratings, to keeping the weight as low as possible. It seems highly unlikely that the same level of thought was not also put into the manner in which tow chains hook into the multi plane reinforced provision made for them.
Perhaps Ford could produce a short video showing consumers how to hook chains into these reinforced loops... much like the video that Javier Alcosta put on YouTube (linked up thread). But then, Ford lawyers might have nixed that idea, as that would open up liability from ambulance chasing lawyers looking for deep pockets to line their own with. I don't understand how the world works... but I can clearly see that the Ford factory receiver hitch chain loops are vastly more resistant to deformation, pull through, and sudden tensile failure than some of the traditional hole in a flat plate designs from yesteryear.
Here's another way to skin the cat:
And finally, on the subject of breakaway trailer brake cable attachment locations...
Things to think about.
Threads like this help. Better that it be 100 posts, or 1,000 posts even, if the discussion leads to individuals giving more thought to towing safely, and their lives are saved as a result.
Thanks Y2K. I appreciate the effort you put in to educate, using pictures and such. I know it takes time to do this. I appreciate how you handle yourself.
It could be argued that the Ford factory receiver hitch actually excels in engineering, intelligently offering enhanced strength and resistance to deformation... incongruously combined with reduced weight, increased capacity, decreased material, and reductions in manufacturing time. These are seemingly mutually exclusive feats, and to the extent that the new designed Ford hitch managed to accomplish them, it is an engineering marvel.
Let's look at the designs from previous decades... such as the ones @ATC Crazy posted above. The safety chain loops are little more than a flat plate with holes, serving dual duty as a lateral gusset for the receiver itself.
----- Edited down for brevity ----
And finally, on the subject of breakaway trailer brake cable attachment locations...
Things to think about.
Threads like this help. Better that it be 100 posts, or 1,000 posts even, if the discussion leads to individuals giving more thought to towing safely, and their lives are saved as a result.
Great post.
Nothing wrong with the factory attachment points at all just like the Javier video explains..
It could be argued that the Ford factory receiver hitch actually excels in engineering, intelligently offering enhanced strength and resistance to deformation... incongruously combined with reduced weight, increased capacity, decreased material, and reductions in manufacturing time. These are seemingly mutually exclusive feats, and to the extent that the new designed Ford hitch managed to accomplish them, it is an engineering marvel.
Let's look at the designs from previous decades... such as the ones @ATC Crazy posted above. The safety chain loops are little more than a flat plate with holes, serving dual duty as a lateral gusset for the receiver itself.
So what can happen with the Single Plane, Single Sheet, simple hole in a relatively thin flat plate design?
Can sheet steel plate in a hitch yield past the point of plastic deformation to sudden tensile failure? Looks like it can.
So to get more 3 dimensional structure at the unsupported business end of the receiver hitch chain loop that is floating in free space for ease of user access to click a hook into, the sheet steel either needs to be thicker, which adds weight, material cost, fabrication cost, and reduces tow capacity of the vehicle... or add some cleverness to the problem instead of just throwing more metal at it.
I grabbed those hitch pictures as examples...obviously the safety chain loops would be more substantial for a hitch capable of 15k+. It would be nothing to increase the thickness of these plates to 3/8" or so. Weight is negligent...maybe a few ounces. Same goes for material cost per unit. It's not much, per hitch, to go from 3/16 to 3/8. Fab costs? Turn up the welder a little bit. I would argue that the Ford hitch far surpasses these other hitches in manufacturing cost and complexity. And reducing tow capacity? Huh?
At some point, the truck becomes the "towed vehicle" as trailer weight increases. In the event of an "un-coupling", once you overcome the initial shock load, the 8k truck is controlled by the 15k trailer. So I could argue that the capacities could be matched to the weigh of the truck, and not the max of the hitch.
Well I can vouch for 3/4" shackles working... Long story short: ordered 3/8" safety clips, still too small. Needed a fix for day of tow...3/4" shackles on the shelf at fastenal.
For anyone alleging that the safety chain attachment on the 17+ Ford Super Duty hitch is "ill engineered"... what, in your opinion, does a well engineered safety chain attachment look like?
Post photos if you like.
This is clearly a poor choice of words.
It's safe to say that this thread would not exist if people were not driving off the lot with $50000-$80000 trucks that are designed to tow, yet many trailers end up with safety chain hooks that cannot be used without modification to the hitch loop or safety chains.
I realize that this problem/issue may be on the safety hook/attachment end and not on the hitch or hitch loop.
It would be really nice if all safety chains and loops worked as easily as 2" *****. Attach and go. Bigger trailer, 2 5/8" ball/coupler and go. And, even this is not that simple since you can attach a trailer rated for 10,000 lbs to a 2" ball/hitch/receiver rated for 5,000-6,000 lbs. It works until it doesn't.
At any rate, we are left to figure out an adequate or safe way to make the given chains/loops work. Thus ……. this thread and others. A lot of great information here.
There is a lot of good information in this thread, and I’ve been following it closely, because eventually I’ll be able to hook up the trailer (28’ ATC enclosed, which typically goes down the road at about 6900) and use the damn truck for what it was purchased to do. (SVRA at Road America was supposed to be happening this coming week, but it’s not going to be.) Learning that the hitch design mount not play nicely with my hooks was an eye opener, and because I didn’t want to be scrambling to come up with a last minute unsatisfactory solution I purchased the G80 Hammerlocks.
What a total PIA they are to install on the truck. I thought that a C-clamp would press the pins in easily. Not quite. It took an interesting combination of a HF ball joint press and power tools to get the things hung. I suspect it will take a Sawzall and nuclear devices to remove it. If there is a next owner of this truck they’ll be getting them with it - no charge!
There is a lot of good information in this thread, and I’ve been following it closely, because eventually I’ll be able to hook up the trailer (28’ ATC enclosed, which typically goes down the road at about 6900) and use the damn truck for what it was purchased to do. (SVRA at Road America was supposed to be happening this coming week, but it’s not going to be.) Learning that the hitch design mount not play nicely with my hooks was an eye opener, and because I didn’t want to be scrambling to come up with a last minute unsatisfactory solution I purchased the G80 Hammerlocks.
What a total PIA they are to install on the truck. I thought that a C-clamp would press the pins in easily. Not quite. It took an interesting combination of a HF ball joint press and power tools to get the things hung. I suspect it will take a Sawzall and nuclear devices to remove it. If there is a next owner of this truck they’ll be getting them with it - no charge!
Well look at it this way, you dont have to worry about your hammerlocks being stolen...just your tailgate and tail lights. 😁
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