Stuff happens

[Egon]

Snapped chain kills 68-year-old farmer

 

[irwin]

Chain, cable, strap.. if any of them breaks under stress they can become lethal. I do more than my share of pulling/towing, at home and at work. I'm extra careful, but if something fails at the wrong time.....

My condolences to his family..

 

[Johndeere3720]

You gotta be careful when you do stuff like that.

 

[Thomas]

Darn shame.

 

[Slackdaddy]

Slowly replacing all my chains (for towing, pulling) with 2-4" nyloy crain straps.

Nick

 

[tallyho8]

This puzzles me because I have always heard that it was much safer to tow with chains than straps or ropes because they don't stretch and store up kinetic energy. I heard if a chain breaks it should more or less just drop to the ground instead of whipping back like a stretched rope does.

Could it be that the chain was attached to something else that streched and whipped it back? Or could the driver have made a sudden jerk instead of a steady pull? I go very slow and easy when pulling with chains and I sure hope I am not exposing myself to more danger than expected.

 

[Greenmountain Farmer]

This puzzles me because I have always heard that it was much safer to tow with chains than straps or ropes because they don't stretch and store up kinetic energy. I heard if a chain breaks it should more or less just drop to the ground instead of whipping back like a stretched rope does.

Could it be that the chain was attached to something else that streched and whipped it back? Or could the driver have made a sudden jerk instead of a steady pull? I go very slow and easy when pulling with chains and I sure hope I am not exposing myself to more danger than expected.

Op1 to op2 "just give it a good yank"

Tom in Vermont

 

[Bird]

This puzzles me because I have always heard that it was much safer to tow with chains than straps or ropes because they don't stretch and store up kinetic energy. I heard if a chain breaks it should more or less just drop to the ground instead of whipping back like a stretched rope does.

Could it be that the chain was attached to something else that streched and whipped it back? Or could the driver have made a sudden jerk instead of a steady pull? I go very slow and easy when pulling with chains and I sure hope I am not exposing myself to more danger than expected.

With chains, you don't really see the visible stretching but there is some. And of course what ever is pulling on it, will also move forward a tiny bit when the chain breaks. As a volunteer firefighter, one of the grass fires we fought was the result of a loaded dump truck trying to pull a stuck mobile home mover truck with a chain. When the chain broke, it knocked sparks off some rocks and started the fire. Or at least that's what the truck drivers told us, and I think they were telling the truth.

 

[horse7]

I've sometimes wondered why people don't run something like 1/8" aircraft cable through the 3/8" chain links. If the chain breaks the cable will contain it most likely, and anything with enough force to break 3/8" chain will shrug off 1/8" (the 1/8" in turn will be contained by the now sagging weight of the 3/8" chain links once the 1/8" cable slack is taken up).

This is the same sort of idea as running 1/8" through the linear springs of garage doors to stop the broken spring pieces from flying around when the springs inevitably break under tension.

 

[NewToy]

I've sometimes wondered why people don't run something like 1/8" aircraft cable through the 3/8" chain links. If the chain breaks the cable will contain it most likely, and anything with enough force to break 3/8" chain will shrug off 1/8" (the 1/8" in turn will be contained by the now sagging weight of the 3/8" chain links once the 1/8" cable slack is taken up).

This is the same sort of idea as running 1/8" through the linear springs of garage doors to stop the broken spring pieces from flying around when the springs inevitably break under tension.

Reminds me of that gag pic of the "OSHA" approved horse.

John