D-Shackles for safety chains - must they be rated?

This subject has been viral on a number of Forums in recent weeks following reports of fines getting issued in Qld. Here is a pretty good sumnation of it all.

http://www.caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=51323

..and discussed here on ExplorOz Forum a few weeks ago

Shackle Thread

Cheers
Greg

I don't understand the issue. With the cost of a rated coupling just the same as a couple of coffees it's a no brainer.

If u have to ask then reassess whether you should be towing at all.

It's about time that we had standard rules across the whole country.
It is a legal requirement to have rated chains in some States only!

They are a must in Victoria and VicRoads are checking them right now. They were stopping cars with trailers comming out of our local tip and booking them if they did not have rated shackles.
Lindsay

I asked a couple of stall holders at the Wodonga caravan an camping show
last week about the supposedly new regs on chains an shackles for caravans
an camper trailers an was told that if there was a change in regs they would
be the first to be notified . I also checked a few of the new vans an trailers
an nothing on the chains or the shackles
mechpete

here is the problem and the simple solution.

If you have a look arround, there is all sorts of rediculous things connecting the safety chain on trailers.....serilusly I mean rediculous.....remember this is a device that ist to stop the trailer getting away from the vehicle in a situation where the coupling fails.....this is a situation where YOUR trailer could go head on into oncomming trafic and kill people......remember YOUR caravan has a V pointed A frame and noncrumple zones out front...imagine that comming thru your windscreen.....DO YOU WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT.

The common hardware shackle has no load rating whatsoever most of them are absolute rubbish....serilusly their strength is so utterly unreliable.

While there may be no specific nationwide rule mandating lifting industry load rated shackles on light trailers.....the ADRs and standards require that both the shackles and the chains be of a known strength and be adequate for the weight of the trailer.

Non rated log link chain does come with a specified breaking strain from decent manufacturers so there may be little to argue there.

But without any published load rating of any type on hardware shackles...how can they be of a known strength and adequate for the purpose

The very simple solution is to buy load rated shackles.....they are not expensive if you buy in the right place....that right place is your decent local bolt shop....if you buy a load rated shackle in the right place it will probaly cost you less than buying a similar sized piece of rubbish from a big hardware chain.

There is no down side in using load rated shackles.

cheers

Odd that RT dollies don't even require chains, yet little box trailers do.

This is the relevant safety chain stamping and size for the use on trailers which should be Australia wide. The last numbers say 35 donate what the maximum trailer weight should be. 35 means 3500kg and so on.

Here is the nfo Link

Now that trailer safety chains have to be rated and stamped it stands to reason the shackle attaching the chain to the tow vehicle should also be stamped and rated, otherwise how does anyone know it's capability.

Now I will add, and most will know that a stamped shackle has it's WLL shown and that is it's lifting capacity and not it's breaking strength. Now seeing the minimum breaking strength of a lifting shackle is around 6 times it's WLL there will be no problem using a 2 tonne shackle on a 3500kg trailer. Add the fact that over 2 tonne trailer weight 2 chains and shackles must be used I think there is a bit of a safety margin there.

Whilst I agree rated shackles are a better idea ,who rates the chains,welds to A frame and tow bar?

The statement "you can't weld the chain to the A frame" is not totally true. This only applies if the ATM of the trailer is above 3500kg.

Weld has to cover 50% of the chain link which should not be able to hit the ground if the trailer separates from the tow vehicle.

No worries. We all do it and myself more often than I like to admit.

Using rated shackles is a no brainer in my opinion. There are lots of other issues towing a van without that one.

I took my recently acquired caravan to a trailer manufacturer/seller earlier today for some unrelated work, and the bloke there was surprised that I'd managed to get the caravan registered with the rated/stamped chain that is fitted. He said that rated chains are high tensile and are rated for lifting, and will likely shatter under a shock load (eg. a trailer/caravan falling off a towball).

He advised that it would be better to use a mild steel chain and mild steel shackle since, while these may deform under the load of a caravan falling off it's hitch, they wouldn't break as a rated shackle and/or chain probably would if shock loaded. I questioned the legality (having in mind this very thread in addition to an earlier one on this site discussing the same issue) and he reminded me that the business is authorised by NSW RTA for registration inspection/testing and defect clearing, etc. for trailers.

I'm just as confused as any of you now!