Re: Texas state law, CROSS YOUR TRAILER SAFETY CHAINS!
I have a very firm grasp of the physics behind it, and my theory is that crossed chains will actually induce that violent action, and may be MORE dangerous than not crossing it. I've talked to a small number of people who had trailers come off, every one that I know who crosses their chains have always had that sway happen. The one guy I know that dropped a trailer without crossing had zero issues, it was dragging on the pavement and bashing into the undercarriage of his truck, but it stayed completely straight.
Think of it this way, due to road forces and drag, you will NEVER have both chains pulling equally all the time. The trailer will always have more load on one or the other. So what happens is that with inequal chain load, the trailer tongue will get pulled in one direction. This immediately causes the tension to drop, and the other chain to load up. Instant problem! And there is no damping in the system, it will build up relatively quickly until something breaks or you are wheels side up.
The IDEAL situation would be to have your safety chains not crossed, and attached as far apart as possible, both on the tow vehicle as well as the trailer. If you had an attachment point 3 feet apart on each end, you could tow that down the highway with no sway issues at all. It would be self correcting, and would automatically dampen out any sway. This would obviously be a big problem when you actually wanted to turn though, so you need a compromise. Keep your trailer mounting point narrow, but widen out the vehicle side, again, not crossed.
Anyone got an old truck, old trailer, and a big open paved area to test it out?
I use chains (crossed) because they do keep a trailer under control at slow speeds and because the law requires me to use them.
What happens, is that the trailer whips back and forth very violently.
I have a very firm grasp of the physics behind it, and my theory is that crossed chains will actually induce that violent action, and may be MORE dangerous than not crossing it. I've talked to a small number of people who had trailers come off, every one that I know who crosses their chains have always had that sway happen. The one guy I know that dropped a trailer without crossing had zero issues, it was dragging on the pavement and bashing into the undercarriage of his truck, but it stayed completely straight.
Think of it this way, due to road forces and drag, you will NEVER have both chains pulling equally all the time. The trailer will always have more load on one or the other. So what happens is that with inequal chain load, the trailer tongue will get pulled in one direction. This immediately causes the tension to drop, and the other chain to load up. Instant problem! And there is no damping in the system, it will build up relatively quickly until something breaks or you are wheels side up.
The IDEAL situation would be to have your safety chains not crossed, and attached as far apart as possible, both on the tow vehicle as well as the trailer. If you had an attachment point 3 feet apart on each end, you could tow that down the highway with no sway issues at all. It would be self correcting, and would automatically dampen out any sway. This would obviously be a big problem when you actually wanted to turn though, so you need a compromise. Keep your trailer mounting point narrow, but widen out the vehicle side, again, not crossed.
Anyone got an old truck, old trailer, and a big open paved area to test it out?