Safety chains - You gott’a love to hate 'em.

There is always the inevitable argument at the meets as to the pro and cons of safety chains. I use them all the time just because we have lots of steep grades and don’t want to find my prize car lying in a ditch somewhere. I have lost cars and not even realized it. The goal was to develop chains that were easy to hook up and did not detract from the appearance of the cars.

Finally I came up with a system that works for me. I use 1/8” chain and the little screw together connectors. Most of the time I am down on my hands and knees trying to hook these things up, not to mention finding all the chains and deciding which ones belong to each car.

To make it much more convenient I came up with the idea of hooking a few links on to each car. The chain hangs down but not far enough to catch on the track. After the cars a coupled together, I bring each end of the chain up and connect it with the screw together connector.

The other key element is making the connection to the car. In my photos you will see two different types of connections. One is just a screw together connector through the main coupler pocket plate. The other is a small bracket welded to the floor of the car. The thing I like about the bracket is that it looks like it could be part of the car. The chains can be easily disconnected when not in use and there is no big eyehook sticking out of the end of the car.

The little bracket is made from a piece of 1/2x1/2 angle iron. A little drilling, sawing and filing and you can make one. For the width spacing I used the ILS standards. Sometimes that is not possible. However, I haven’t had any trouble no matter what the actual spacing was.

Whether you like them or not, most clubs will require them to run. So you may as well have good looking ones.