Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

[dccordell]

Hey guys, almost go the trailer ready! I'm just concerned about the bow eye safety chain setup. There is none. I've done a lot of searching on here and as far as I can tell, it's best to have the safety chain anchored to the frame either directly down from the bow eye or slightly behind it (and lots of folks put it slightly forward of the bow eye too) to keep the boat from launching forward onto the tow rig in case of hard emergency stopping. Anyways, the problem I'm having is how to anchor the chain to the trailer frame? I don't want to drill any holes there if possible, so I found this kit from champion trailers that looks real nice (somebody linked to it in another thread) that uses a bracket with an eye in it for the shackle and it mounts using a u-bolt. This looks good, but the price including shipping would be almost $50! And I already have the chain and the turnbuckle, so I just need the bracket. I'm wondering if anybody would have any nifty ideas of how to connect the chain to the frame? Something similar to what champion sells, but maybe something I can find locally..?

If I had a welder and knew how to weld good, I would just make it myself, but....

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[90stingray]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Can you take it somewhere to have it welded? Sure looks the best.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

I used an eyenut to replace one of the hex nuts on an existing u-bolt behind my winch tower.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#eye-nuts/=bufueh

 

[dccordell]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

I suppose I could take it to get it welded... I was just looking for something that I could rig up myself first. May end up doing that though...

I don't know why I didn't think of an eye nut... thanks for that jeeperman. I think I might actually have some in my toolbox! Might get lucky and find one to fit a u-bolt.

Gotta love mcMasterCarr... have you seen the catalog? It's huge!

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

What size is the boat and what size eyebolt are you looking at? Those eye bolts (or eye nuts) don't have much of a work load limit, especially if you are pulling on them at any kind of an angle.

 

[dccordell]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

The boat is 18', not sure of the weight yet... Probably not more than 4,000lb. I'm not real sure how to determine the required load capacity of the eye nut in this situation since the nut isn't actually lifting the entire boat's weight, just keeping it down on the trailer. Even in the event of extreme braking I'm not sure how much force would untimately be placed on the nut.

#3274T41 is a 3/8"-16 threaded eye nut with a working limit of 1,800lbs. What do you guys think? I don't want to make this complicated, but I do want it to be safe!

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Assuming that, like chain, the breaking strength is about 3x the working load limit, maybe you'd be OK with a breaking strength of 5400lb on that eye nut. On the other hand, if you look at the McMaster site about those eye nuts and bolts, they say that pulling them at an angle can reduce their working load limits by up to 75%.

Personally I want a safety margin of an extra 50-100% of the hull/motor weight on breaking weight of my bow safety chain(s), so maybe if you rigged two of those eye bolts and two chains on your 4000lb boat? Or maybe you should just get a ring welded to the frame and one very large chain.

 

[dccordell]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Yeah I certainly do understand how the load limit descreases as the load is placed at an angle from the eye, so maybe the best place to put the trailer eye is directly below the bow eye of the boat, so it is a straight down pull.

I'm still thinking on what to use, mostly because I've been busy this week and haven't had time to work on it at all.

I was thinking it could be possible to get a u-bolt and some angle iron, cut about a 6" piece of it and drill the two holes on one side for the u-bolt to pass through to hold it to the trailer. Then on the side facing up toward the boat, drill another hole (down low on the iron to leave as much meat as possible) and just put a shackle or chain coupling through that hole. Seems pretty straightforward. Does that make any sense, and if so, what do you guys think? Maybe I'll have to draw a picture because my explanation isn't so good...

 

[Ozdog]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

That's a 10 minute job for a weld shop and wouldn't cost much. You can always take it to your local vocational school's welding class, they'll weld it for you.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Welding some sort of anchor point to the trailer is do-able. You will have to disturb the galvanizing tho.

You just have to keep in mind what all your using to do the job.
If you do not like the eyenut on the ubolt due to working loads, etc....................
Is a 1/4" plate like pictured, welded on the top of your 11ga steel trailer tongue as good?
View attachment 89795

 

[Hottip]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Here's a simple solution. A length of chain to a bolt on the winch stansion and a large galvanized washer to hold the chain in place.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Have to agree with Hottip.
People get all wierded out with securing there boat to the trailer.
You have tie down straps at transom. the rope/cable at the winch.
The safety chain is there incase, the winch/strap/cable/rope fails.
SO the boat will not slip off the trailer.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

right-o. for a boat to launch forward, breaking all restraints, you are in a head-on and already dead.

What people forget is the other end is the weak end--the bow eye on the boat. Can you see how much plating, if any, is behind it? Can you see whether that cheap plating has rusted away? How strong is the fiberglass at that point and are there any voids in the glass? Can you see the washer and nut(s) and how rusty they are? I say this because I had a bow-eye pull out on the trailer once--the nuts hidden up in there had rusted away, is all we could figure.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Exactly, right on.

 

[dccordell]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

That all makes pretty good sense...

As far as the bow eye, I can say that it is reinforced pretty good because while I was doing the stringers/deck I went ahead and added a backing board and new metal plate for the bow eye to mount into. The nuts would probably have to strip for that bow eye to come out now.

Well I'm gonna get around to working on this project some more soon I hope... between busy classes and this crazy weather, I haven't had a chance yet! I will get it soon enough though...

Thanks for the good insight guys..

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Remember, a chain is only as strong as the leakest link.

 

[ssobol]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

Check out Tractor Supply. They have a lot of stuff related to trailers and attaching things to them.

Also, remember that you are not putting the entire weight of the boat on that chain. Even what seems to be hard stop (using the vehicle brakes) is a lot less G's then you might think and when towing a load your vehicle probably can't stop near as fast as when it is not. There are other things also restraining the boat on the trailer (transom straps, gravity, friction).

Hitting something that results in a multi G stop is another issue entirely. Even if the boat stays on the trailer you could still end up with it (and the trailer) on top of you.

If you think about it, an unrestrained boat will move upwards in a sudden stop because of the winch post (on most trailers). The front safety chain is mainly there to keep the bow of the boat from moving in a vertical direction and prevent the bow from climbing up the roller at the winch post. It also will prevent the boat bow from flying up if the winch strap breaks (which is more likely to happen anyway).

 

[Ray Teagarden]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

How about just wrapping the chain around the trailer frame, bolted to itself with a grade 8 bolt of a size to fit through the links of the chain?

No welding or fixtures required.

 

[dccordell]

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

**Update on this old thread!

The problem was that I wanted to find a way to connect the bow tiedown chain to the trailer. Champion sells a kit that has the bracket, chain, turnbuckle, and shackles for $35, which is a good deal. The problem is that shipping on it was $15! Too much.. It wasn't worth $50 to me.

So I decided to make my own bracket. I used some 1.5"x1.5" angle iron, with two holes drilled in one side for a u-bolt, and a single hole drilled in the other side for a shackle pin.

The u-bolt holds the bracket to the trailer, and the shackle holds the turnbuckle to the bracket. I think this is probably just as strong as the kit sold by Champion -- maybe stronger because the bracket they sell looks pretty thin, and the tab on it for the shackle is probably welded on.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Anchoring the bow safety chain to trailer

I know there are people here who advocate the tight turnbuckle or other rigid attachment, but I don't. All boats bounce some with the bumps and vibration of travel. All that contant crooked and sudden motion is now borne by a steel bolt going through plastic. This will start with leaks and eventually could fail--like when winching up the boat.

The winch strap gives a little; the safety chain is loose; the stern straps give a little, so do the bunks and rollers. But not the steel hardware.

So my suggestion is to leave a little play in the turnbuckle/shackle so the rubber bow stop and rollers are where the action is, not the next softer spot of your bow.