Safety chain for winch

[saxrulez]

Can someone give me a link(and/or picture) with how their safety chain attaches to the bow eye. Do people just use regular carabiners rated for a lot of weight or some other type of hook?

 

[roscoe]

Re: Safety chain for winch




Many trailers use thin chains with an s hook.

I use a hook and a couple links of chain from a trailer hitch safety chain, 2000# rated.

I run the safety chain down to the tongue with a turnbuckle, as suggested here on iboats. I believe JB was the first member I heard mention doing this.

I also have added an extra eye to 2 of my boats now.
This frees up the main bow eye for the winch strap, and the launch line.
Makes thing much easier.
The turnbuckle takes about 10 seconds to tighten by hand, and absolutely prevents the boat from moving or bouncing.

 

[tanuki]

Re: Safety chain for winch

I use an S hook, I was going to use a turnbuckle but could not find one that had the higher load capacity of a S hook. Pics attached..

 

[hungupthespikes]

Re: Safety chain for winch

Someone posted this before.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Safety chain for winch

Someone posted this before.


View attachment 160725

I run the same setup

 

[roscoe]

Re: Safety chain for winch

2000-3000 turnbuckles are available at many farm supply stores, rural hardware stores, and online.
THey are relatively cheap too.

 

[04fxdwgi]

Re: Safety chain for winch

View attachment 160426


Many trailers use thin chains with an s hook.

I use a hook and a couple links of chain from a trailer hitch safety chain, 2000# rated.

I run the safety chain down to the tongue with a turnbuckle, as suggested here on iboats. I believe JB was the first member I heard mention doing this.

I also have added an extra eye to 2 of my boats now.
This frees up the main bow eye for the winch strap, and the launch line.
Makes thing much easier.
The turnbuckle takes about 10 seconds to tighten by hand, and absolutely prevents the boat from moving or bouncing.

I too use 2 chains, one running forward and one running aft a little, to keep her from going much in either direction. But I don't pull them up with zero play, as the boat needs a little "wiggle room" for bumps and such. If pulled in tight, on a heavy boat, there would be a tremendous amount of strain on the bow eye when going over bumpy roads. I do use ratchet tie downs next to each chain which will give a little flex and stretch when needed, but holding her tight. The chains are there for when / if the "unthinkable" incident happens and causes the ratchet straps fail.

So to sum it up, I have 5 actual tiedowns on the front, 2 chains, 2 straps and the winch cable. A little over kill? Yes.... But I feel comfortable about it.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: Safety chain for winch

Run your safety chain down to the trailer tongue. I actually had my winch stand forward brace break this summer and since the safety chain was attached to that I was lucky to get home with the boat still on the trailer. I use a small chain binder instead of a turnbuckle just cause I had one.