Stuff happens

Egon · May 9, 2009

irwin · May 9, 2009

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 · May 9, 2009

You gotta be careful when you do stuff like that.

Thomas · May 10, 2009

Darn shame.

Slackdaddy · May 10, 2009

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

Nick

tallyho8 · May 10, 2009

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 · May 10, 2009

tallyho8 said:
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 · May 10, 2009

tallyho8 said:
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 · May 10, 2009

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 · May 10, 2009

horse7 said:
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

Greenmountain Farmer · May 10, 2009

horse7 said:
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.

Cable through a chain would make it rather unruly to store

Tom in Vermont

Bird · May 10, 2009

I've sometimes wondered why people don't run something like 1/8" aircraft cable through the 3/8" chain links.

Why? Very simple; they didn't expect the chain to break.

Bill Hoffman · May 10, 2009

for heavy pulling, put a break-away (weaker link) near the hitch, so that if the chain breaks it will snap away from the tractor. I simply make a shallow hacksaw cut 2 or 3 links away from the hitch. That way I know that I'm not going to get whacked.

Bill

KennyV · May 11, 2009

tallyho8 said:
could the driver have made a sudden jerk instead of a steady pull?

I would place my bet with that...
Using Cat track tractors I have pulled a lot of chain in two. Always destroys the complete chain by collapsing most of the links. I have never seen a chain flip unless it was yanked and failed due to a sudden shock load. A steady pull can eventually exceed the load rating but the chain will not fly wildly... cable will. KennyV

kthompson · May 11, 2009

You could also run the chain through a metal pipe to help contain it should it snap. Wonder how high up the chain was connected or how near to the gentleman's head. But when it is your time...

Archaic · Jul 14, 2009

A trick I have always used (learned it while working in an underground mine where hiding places are hard to find) is to keep something heavy and droopy (short piece of heavier chain, half full sand bag, roped together wheel chocks, etc.) on the pulling unit. When you are planning on stretching some cable, hang the weight near (about 1/3 of the total length) the tractor, if something breaks the weight will pull the cable towards the ground and away from the operator.

The Haymaker · Jul 19, 2009

There is no easy answer here, other than stay out of the way. When we were into 4-wheeling we carried an old blanket to hang on straps, chains, cables, to weight them down and slow them down. Bottom line was stay clear. Starps are no safer, we broke a 4" strap, it's force great enough to gice a guy a black eye that covered most of one side of his face AFTER partially removing his tailgate. The stored energy in these things is amazing.

The Flood Farm up here in Maine had a close call last fall during the harvest. While pulling out one large piece of equipment with a larger piece of equipment, the CHAIN they were using broke. It removed the rear window of the pulling tractor and still have force enough to leave some nasty marks around the head of the operator. Thing I don't understand is they swapped to a cable for prevention of reoccurrence.

ANY material will stretch and store energy. Bottom line if you're worried about it is not to exceed the break strength of whatever you're using and inspect it before use. Chains wear and fatigue, cables fray, and straps chafe and fray.

E

LBrown59 · Jul 19, 2009

KennyV said:
I would place my bet with that...
Using Cat track tractors I have pulled a lot of chain in two. Always destroys the complete chain by collapsing most of the links. I have never seen a chain flip unless it was yanked and failed due to a sudden shock load. A steady pull can eventually exceed the load rating but the chain will not fly wildly... cable will. KennyV

So will straps.