Tow hitch disaster

[Vollmer]

This legitimately is my mindset every single time I pull someone out. x10 if it is with a chain.

 

[Allen]

I have literally broken a lot of nylon ropes and steel chains over the years.

I am not sure why people are more afraid of chains breaking than a rope. A 2" diameter nylon rope stretched to 1.5" in diameter is a killer when it breaks, and even worse if the end clevis or chain breaks and is a 10-20 lb chunk of metal being snapped towards a person by a rubber band on steroids. Chains on the other hand, just fall limp to the ground unless the person doing the pulling is a complete tool and hits the end of the chain at some very unreasonable speed.

Think about it, steel is fairly inelastic when compared to nylon ropes/straps.

Because of this, whenever I've had to put together a new tow rope, I've ALWAYS made sure the metal components (end chain or clevis) are at least twice the rated strength of the damn nylon rope. A nylon rope coming at you is a serious problem, but a 10-20 lb chunk of iron attached to that rubber band on steroids is going to eff something up!

 

[Allen]

BTW, one of the problems with this particular example is the amount of drop on that drop hitch. That SOB is a lever if the tower was wrapping it around the ball. It should have been hooked up to be more of an inline tow with respect to the 2" receiver rather than creating a lever by wrapping it around the ball which had to help cause the metal to fail.

 

[FlatTopPete]

You think this is sketchy, you should try pulling out a stuck tractor

 

[Allen]

You think this is sketchy, you should try pulling out a stuck tractor

Yep, that's why I have broken many a rope and chain. Back in the 1980s there were 3 large Versatile tractors daisy chained together and all stuck in a field/wetland south of Stanley. I was in my late teens and cringed at how they all got buried with a VERY taught nylon rope in-between them. Not sure how it all worked out in the end, but I wasn't going anywhere near it. My experiences came from much smaller tractors.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Had a friend where the ball snapped off and became a giant slingshot. Went right through the back window and out the front window with no slowing down. Missed his head by about 15 inches. His son was sitting in the middle and would have been smoked if he didn't get out while it was being pulled out.

 

[wslayer]

Wow, that is ugly. But yes, this you don't do with a drop hitch especially. I have seen other videos where it isn't even safe to pull someone out with standard 2" ball receiver hitch, but we all do. Should use dedicated shackle hook.

 

[guywhofishes]

makes the synthetic soft rope shackles look like a wise investment

 

[guywhofishes]

 

[Vollmer]

You think this is sketchy, you should try pulling out a stuck tractor

Stuck scrapers, dozers, and excavators is most of what I’ve dealt with. I have yet to see a strap break, but I have seen a couple of chain links go through a window. The best option for us, in my opinion, was cable.

 

[wslayer]

When working railroad had our snowplow stuck. Using 6" - 75' nylon rope ( Mac's) attached to 2 1/2" solid draw pins and 2 - 75k lb rated chains attached to draw pins pulling with locomotive. We put rope between 2 tires to knock down if something happened. It did, chain broke and just about cut the tire in half but it did knock it down. No one even close to the event except engineer in opposite end of locomotive.I

 

[BrokenBackJack]

We always threw a heavy jacket on the tow rope so it would go down if something broke.
We had special made nylon/cotton? ropes made for pulling 1 million pounds of rail cars when I worked at Busch Elevator in West Fargo. Of course we never pulled a million pounds with them but they were rated for that.
Kept the ropes so long until we thought we need to replace. I would then take them and give them to farmers to pull out their tractors and combines. They couldn't break them even though they were used when they got them.
We used to buy that rope on a big spool and always wondered what a spool of the rope cost.

 

[johnr]

wow,
Guy in Beach had a portion of his hand whacked off when a tow rope gave and the hitch came through his tractor windshield, missed his head by half an inch

 

[espringers]

plus 10 on the drop hitch. we had one break on us once. just a 10 foot strap. so, not much stretch. but, it still caved in my end gate. learnt a couple of things that day. the one thing i was extremely surprised about though was... just like the one in the picture, my buddies hitch was a hollow tube. cheap piece of shit. i've never owned a hollow tube tow hitch.

i've heard of chains by themselves slingshotting before though. never seen it. and always questioned how or whether a rope was also involved as well and was told at least twice that there was no rope. not sure if true or not. but, i was told the stuck tractor accident this spring west of devils lake involved no rope and just a chain. anyone? its tough to know the working load limit on any random chain as well unless you purchased it yourself or the links happen to be labeled.

anyway, we use a very heavy strap at each end (if necessary) to connect to each truck and a big nylon rope betwixt them.

 

[Mort]

Had a friend where the ball snapped off and became a giant slingshot. Went right through the back window and out the front window with no slowing down. Missed his head by about 15 inches. His son was sitting in the middle and would have been smoked if he didn't get out while it was being pulled out.

Exactly what happened to friend of mine, except he got hit, almost didn't make it...yes he survived but got a fractured skull out of it.

 

[Jiffy]

I know a guy who can make you tow cables to get just about anything "unstucked".



Chain has to be marked with the grade every few feet. Deciphering said grade can sometimes be tough unless you know what you're looking for. IMO even if you're using a chain for a "tow chain" don't use anything under gr 80 and you CAN'T jerk them like an actual tow rope. That's how they break.