well i think there is a lot of feelings and thoughts runnin around on this thread, BUT, i agree with BBD and HID. sit back and think about a GN and a 5er, Where is a lot of the wieght, on the ball. SO if that ball or hitch decides to break, where does the weight that the ball or hitch was holding go? TO THE GROUND, diggin a trench as it goes, which would be better than ANY tires trying to stop the same amount of weight. But if it had chains, that kept it in the bed,it is going to start freakin out, and cause the truck to roll or hit someone else or both. where as if the trailer would of just hit the pavement, and started stopping RIGHT NOW, the only way someone would hit it, is if they were following to close or werent paying attention to their driving, and shouldnt be on the road anyways.
So if it were me doin what BBD and HID do, i wouldnt hook up the chains either, cause it would be safer without the chains. look at the facts!! we have a GN stock trailer, that has NEVER had the chains hooked up, have bounced up and down the rough dirt mountain roads, and NEVER came off or had close calls to comin off, just look at the setup and see where the weight is on a GN, on the other hand, we have a bumper pull stock trailer, that has come off the ball, it had chains, but they decided not to hold onto what they were sposed to, but the trailer went off into the pucker weeds and stopped, hitch dug into the dirt and stopped it, so i guess everyone has their own opinion to this, but just sit back and look at the facts, and see that BBD, HID, and others that agree with them, arent in the wrong as you guys make them out to be. Flame me if you want but, whatever.

 

I think the point that BBD is trying to make here is that GN trailers are extremely unlikely to detatch. I too have seen wrecked trucks with GN's still attached. A few years back, a fellow pulling an empty 20 foot stock trailer fell asleep and drove off the road, causing him to do 3/4 roll. The trailer never came off. No one yet has chimed in with an incident that involved a GN detaching on a highway anywhere. We can all assume the consiquences if one did detatch, I doubt that anyone has actually seen it happen on the road.

 

I wasn't trying to explain the brake system to you, I was merely explaining to the other gentleman why I felt tractor trailers were not similar in the scope of this thread. No reference was made to you at anytime in that post.

I noted earlier you stated you kept your battery in top condition, many people take them for granted and do not. AGAIN No reference was made toward you in that post

I never said they were required, I said if your trailer came with them, hook em up. By doing so you don't leave your self open to litigation because of negligence.

See! at least we don't disagree on everything.

Thats good, if something should happen, you wont have to worry about being found negligent in a law suit by not using the supplied chains.

Again no reference to you was made in that post what so ever. I merely expressed my opinion just as freely as you expressed yours. If that upset you it is because you chose to take it in that manner.

 

Chains everytime here. Gooseneck's my responsibility.

 

I tried to lay-off this thread but I gotta add my .02. Tagalongs don't always fall to the ground when they come off the ball with no chains attached. If the weight is biased behind the axle on the TT with a single axle, the TT stands tongue-up and often heads into oncoming traffic. My brother's Caprice was impaled in the rear door by a wayward TT coming from the other lane.
I think we all agree, it's the responsibility of the driver to check and recheck their trailer connections at each stop along the way.

 

I don't know about TT's but with goosenecks, you should NEVER have the weight biased behind the axles. That's alot more dangerous than not hooking up the chains.

 

10% tag along hitch weight, 25% gn or fifth hitch weight. Any less is unsafe and will not handle properly.

 

I don't think it can be done to a GN 'cause the axles are already too close to the butt-end.

 

It'd be hard to do with the newer trailers, but I've seen a few old ones that the axles were just a few feet past the middle of the trailer. I hope it was a home-made job. Also, it's possible if you haul something longer than the trailer. I helped a guy load 80 joints of used 2 3/8 x 31ft. oil field pipe in a 20+5 GN. I told him it probably wasn't safe, but he was only going 5 miles on a county road, so he hauled it. Ended up bending the latch plate on the hitch because it was rear-baised. Didn't ever come off the ball though.