Stopped at a gas station today to fill the truck up off the interstate and saw this at the next pump over. I'm sure the straps will do the same and many knots are being used.

 

in their defense, and I'm sure it's not legal .
Some of that type webbing has 3000lb pull strength

 

Not to rain on your hand wringing pearl clutching exercise but despite not being "right" those straps will probably do fine unless there's a particularly sharp edge for them to run over.

 

Actually the way they're set up those straps won't do anything that chains are supposed to do, except keep it attached. Chains are supposed to be CROSSED UNDER THE COUPLER to catch it if it breaks, to keep it from digging into the road surface. With them just running down both sides, all it's going to do is keep it connected, and that's a maybe.

That said, depending on the strap, some have a pull strength of over 10k, so for pulling another vehicle it's probably more than enough. Still not right, but better than the guys several years ago who passed me in city traffic on a 50mph road, running 60+ with the towed vehicle chained less than 3 feet from the back of the tow vehicle.

 

Seeing that the ones think it's just fine in this setup and not the easiest to see that its just around the bumper and not a more solid piece of steel like the hitch.

Always a head shaker at redneck ingenuity and shortcuts. If it works why not. LOL

 

It works until it doesn’t work.

Knots compromise the webbing and strap strength. More definitely isn’t better there. 🫣

 

I mean, to be fair they ALSO have a ratchet strap holding the tailgate closed, so...I don't really expect much else from the boys driving that rig.

 

If safety chains were all that vitally important ,,,then why don't fifth wheels use them? Serious question that I don't know the answer to, but have always kinda wondered about.

Yeah we non-commercial RV and boat guys tow a lot, but nothing like the trucking industry and the thousands of 18-wheelers on the roads every day. Yet not a single 18 wheeler (or fifth wheel RV for that matter) has a safety chain anywhere near it. When I bought my first fifth wheel RV in 2011, it blew my mind that there were no safety chains.
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Good question... possibly 5th wheels have locking jaws "if" hooked up properly and use a rather large pin/base

Gooseneck and ball hitches just sit on a ball.

Just guessing.

 

True. But the chains wont actually catch jack squat. Crossed, or uncrossed. Its an old wives tail.

Been there, done that.

 

Ive seen chains on goosenecks, for sure.

5'ers are a completely different thing. Truck and traiker work together, theyre pretty much locked together. If that connection fails, chains wont save you.

 

If they're set up properly they absolutely will. Been there, done that, on an old trailer when I was a kid. coupler sheared off the trailer, it dropped down onto the crossed chains as intended, kept it off the ground and kept the trailer under control until we could get it to the side of the road. They 100% DO catch the trailer tongue, if yours didn't you either didn't have properly selected chains (too light for the trailer's GVW) or your trailer was overloaded/loaded incorrectly.

Not sure why people think trailer chains aren't important...I mean if everything goes right they're not, but WHEN something goes wrong they're vital to keeping at least some control over the trailer, and they need to be sized correctly and set up correctly for the trailer in question.

As for why 5'ers don't have chains, it's got to do with the hitch setup itself - when properly coupled it is nearly impossible to decouple unless there's a severe failure of the hitch/pin assembly, and if it DOES decouple, the hitch is unlikely to dig into the road surface and cause a possible flip - rather the frame of the trailer will hit the ground and slide, and typically this can, at worst, end up with the trailer on its side. With a tongue that can dig into the road bed, the trailer could actually somersault or roll multiple times. Goosenecks, if the hitch is low enough, can act like a bumper-pull in this instance, and with it being a ball is more prone to decoupling than a 5'er hitch.

 

Not arguing, but the "to prevent trailer somersault" thing just doesn't make sense to me. If my fifth wheel came unhitched, the corner of the frame would dig into the ground just like a trailer tongue would (that corner is stout, its where the landing gear is after all) . And because of the steeper angle caused by the contact point being closer to the tires at that corner that where the hitch would be, more weight would be shifted to the front, making the somersault possibility more likely, not less.




As for goose necks (pic below of goose neck trailer courtesy of google image search), I can't imagine how that if it where to come uncoupled, that the goose neck coupler would hit the ground first. Again that front corner where the landing gear is would contact the ground way before the goose neck. Same thing with the weight transfer due to a steeper angle, the closer the ground contact point is to the tries (at the corner vice at the trailer tongue further out), the more forward tilt angle and weight transfer the trailer would have in a decoupled situation, which would make it more likely, not less likely, to somersault.



Again , not trying to argue, and perhaps this is even off-topic for the thread. The reason I brought it up is that I've been around RV travel trailers my whole life (parents had them when I was a kid, and I have them now as an adult) along with various other non-commercial trailers (boats, car haulers, equipment trailers and the like) and it was always beaten into my head to make sure the safety chains were attached properly. Then I go buy a fifth wheel RV, and ask the delivery guy at the RV lot where the safety chains are,,, and he looks at me like I've got two heads and one of them is on fire.
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I cross my chains all the time. But I don't see how they will catch and hold the trailers I use. The tongue jack will hit the ground first. I see them more as being able to keep the truck and trailer together only.

 

Chains should be set up such that they allow the trailer full range of turn, but only an inch or so below the lowest point of the hitch. If they're almost dragging the ground they're FAR too long. Our tritoon's trailer is like that - the chains are far too long, I have to cross them multiple times to get them up to the right height. My flatbed, on the other hand, are ALMOST too short, they barely clear the bottom ball for my B&W TowNStow, but the trailer still has full range of turn so I'm not too worried about it.