Upgrading Safety Chains

Safety chains are required by law on all tow trailers, and it’s important to conduct routine inspection of these chains to ensure they’re road ready. RV maintenance and repair expert Dave Solberg says it’s also important to make sure they’re compliant with most states’ individual regulations. What does a proper inspection of safety chains look like? And if your chains aren’t up to snuff, what do you need to do to get your vehicle outfitted with the right upgrade?

In this quick video lesson, Dave walks you through a demonstration inspection of safety chains, and discusses what the majority of states now require of these chains. To begin, Dave explains why latches with open faces are no longer legal in many regions of the country. Because the open latch can easily move around and even slip out, law dictates that latches should have a bar or spring-loaded mechanism to keep the latch from coming unattached.

Rather than replacing the entire chain, Dave simply removes the old open latch and installs a new clipped latch that is rated for roughly 10,000 pounds (far more than his demo vehicle requires). If you do need to upgrade your safety chains, make sure you get ones that are rated for the weight of your vehicle.