Binding Tractor to Trailer

[bindian]

Ditto here. I always have a huge clevis or D ring on the drawbar. The chain goes through it if the backhoe is not installed. Then I route the chain over the bottom of the swing post.
hugs, Brandi

 

[PILOON]

Yep, another for using the drawbar.
On mine a shackle is permanently there for just that usage.

PS, the drawbar is one of the toughest attachment points on a tractor.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Rubber tired tractors create a different challenge. The basic precept in binding down any load is to make the load part of the platform. Tires do not compress easy. Any movement of the load compounds any applied stresses such as panic braking. That is the reason for the DOT minimum of 4 point tie down. Using the drawbar does not accomplish that. Straps are bad because no matter how hard you tighten there is still the stretch factor. That is why truckers always periodically check strapped loads as well as chains. I always use chains with ratchet binders on each separate chain. It takes a long pile on lever binders to compress tires to the minimal movement point. I had a 500 mile trip once and every checking point was still able to get at least several notches on the binders/straps. Straps are OK for solid cargo that is not compressible. Always put wood dunnage between steel items to stop sideways sliding. New ball game tying down tracked loads. They are often top heavy so the higher up you get the chains the more secure.
I learned all this when in the Navy loading trailers, aircraft, containers, and ships. a loose load can got right through the side of a ship or container in heavy seas or a roll over accident.

The life you save may be your own.

Ron

 

[Reb954]

Rubber tired tractors create a different challenge. The basic precept in binding down any load is to make the load part of the platform. Tires do not compress easy. Any movement of the load compounds any applied stresses such as panic braking. That is the reason for the DOT minimum of 4 point tie down. Using the drawbar does not accomplish that. Straps are bad because no matter how hard you tighten there is still the stretch factor. That is why truckers always periodically check strapped loads as well as chains. I always use chains with ratchet binders on each separate chain. It takes a long pile on lever binders to compress tires to the minimal movement point. I had a 500 mile trip once and every checking point was still able to get at least several notches on the binders/straps. Straps are OK for solid cargo that is not compressible. Always put wood dunnage between steel items to stop sideways sliding. New ball game tying down tracked loads. They are often top heavy so the higher up you get the chains the more secure.
I learned all this when in the Navy loading trailers, aircraft, containers, and ships. a loose load can got right through the side of a ship or container in heavy seas or a roll over accident.

The life you save may be your own.

Ron

Please explain the highlighted comment from your post. I'm guessing you mean running a single chain through the drawbar to each side of the trailer while using one binder.

In my experience, attaching one end of a chain to the drawbar and the other end to the trailer on each side of the tractor, using a binder on each side, will secure the tractor as good as it is going to get.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Please explain the highlighted comment from your post. I'm guessing you mean running a single chain through the drawbar to each side of the trailer while using one binder.

In my experience, attaching one end of a chain to the drawbar and the other end to the trailer on each side of the tractor, using a binder on each side, will secure the tractor as good as it is going to get.

OK, attaching at one point on the drawbar does not equal the two points required. You are also going from the center not the extremities.
It also doubles the force needed to compress the tires to a point that minimizes their potential vertical movement. Then the drawbar is pretty close to the trailer bed. The higher the attachment point the less overturning moment stress is created. Tractors are by design top heavy. My BX came with rear attachment points at the seat level. Put a shackle in and connect the chain to that. I made chains the specific length for each of the four points with open type hooks that go in the shackles and attach to the front brush guard then to the trailer connection points. If I don't have ratchet binders I always put keepers on the lever binders as they are known to release under movement stresses.

Like the current philosophy "follow the science", that is the real answer. The DOT requirements are based on structural engineering science.

Ron

 

[aczlan]

The higher the attachment point the less overturning moment stress is created.

You have that backwards, stability is a triangle, the higher you go the narrower the side to side range of motion before you tip over.
Low and wide is best, having your strap or chain go down, and out to the side at a 45° angle both down and forward or back is the ideal for a tie down strap/chain.

Aaron Z

 

[Tractor Seabee]

You have that backwards, stability is a triangle, the higher you go the narrower the side to side range of motion before you tip over.
Low and wide is best, having your strap or chain go down, and out to the side at a 45° angle both down and forward or back is the ideal for a tie down strap/chain.

Aaron Z

How do you gat a 45 degree angle with the drawbar 12" or less from the trailer bed? You have the 45 degree right, strongest triangle.

Ron

 

[Reb954]

Tractor Seebee, this response is not directed at you so please don't take offense.

When I read the "trust the science" comment, my mind equated it to the "trust me" saying we all hear and avoid anyone saying it. The politicians, through this pandemic, keep using "trust the science" as a way of telling the rest of us to shut up and do as we are told, kind of like "trust me". The actual scientists are saying very little due to knowing they haven't developed enough "science" to trust.

 

[aczlan]

How do you gat a 45 degree angle with the drawbar 12" or less from the trailer bed? You have the 45 degree right, strongest triangle.

Ron

With a BX you dont have much choice, anything bigger you do and should go as low as possible.

Aaron Z

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just reading a bit of this. My take on it would be that if you are working against the squish of the tires, to try and make sure that if the tie down method (whatever that is) does go slack momentarily, from a big bump or accident, that nothing can comes unhooked or undone.