Age old question

[Navajo350]

A question that has been asked a thousand times, what’s the proper way to chain down my unstyled JD A narrow front? It has a hole in the drawbar for one clevis. I have those flat straps with grade 8 “eyelets” on each end that use chains also.

So, a chain in each corner in the front of trailer with a strap wrapped around the front pedestal for each chain and a clevis in back of drawbar with two chains going through the clevis and attached to each rear corner of the trailer? Four chains total.

 

[showcrop]

You need to define proper. I will offer some help: to some it is "what I was always taught". To others it is "how I did it and I drove by five cops and none of them chased me". Another one is "I was talking to a DOT inspector and this is what he told me". Or there is also "This is how they wanted it done where I used to work". The one that I prefer is the "Load securement" chapter of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act. "FMCSA" for short. You can google it and get the "official gov't. specification". It is actually easy reading and not all that involved. One warning however: around ten years ago they revised it to make it as they describe it, "to be more performance oriented". In other words it is now less specific and gives the driver a lot more latitude to use his own judgement. For instance, it is allowed to use straps to secure anything except large blocks of rock, where chains must be used. If your strap goes over a sharp chafe point, they tell you that you should have a protection sleeve over the strap. But they won't gig you for not having it. What they will do is look at your straps and if they find chafing they will tell you to replace the strap before moving. I think that it is best to do it the way the law says that you should, rather than getting three differing opinions.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Personal preference, I would go to the frame rails up front, not the pedestal. The vertical shaft is a single point of failure there, and while there's only a small chance of that snapping off, or the nut coming off, there's ZERO chance of it failing if you secure to the frame rails instead.

On the back I also don't like the idea of going through a clevis. Again, it's a single point of failure. I've gone around the axle housings, but I prefer to grab the drawbar bracket on each side if I can.

"Proper" is what lets you sleep at night. Legally you only need two 5/16" G70 chains to tie that tractor down, one across the front, and one across the back. It's under 10,000lbs so you don't need four separate chains, the WLL of each 5/16" chain is 4700lbs when attached to the trailer at both ends, and two chains is well over 1/2 the weight of the machine. My only problem with the idea is, again, the single points of failure to attach the chains front and back.

 

[Scott 730]

A question that has been asked a thousand times, what’s the proper way to chain down my unstyled JD A narrow front? It has a hole in the drawbar for one clevis. I have those flat straps with grade 8 “eyelets” on each end that use chains also.

So, a chain in each corner in the front of trailer with a strap wrapped around the front pedestal for each chain and a clevis in back of drawbar with two chains going through the clevis and attached to each rear corner of the trailer? Four chains total.

It does you no good to run 2 separate chains through a single clevis. That would not equate to 2 tie downs on the rear. Actually a clevis is a poor choice for a tie down point. Shackles, which have a threaded pin are preferred.

 

[flying belgian]

A question that has been asked a thousand times, what’s the proper way to chain down my unstyled JD A narrow front? It has a hole in the drawbar for one clevis. I have those flat straps with grade 8 “eyelets” on each end that use chains also.

So, a chain in each corner in the front of trailer with a strap wrapped around the front pedestal for each chain and a clevis in back of drawbar with two chains going through the clevis and attached to each rear corner of the trailer? Four chains total.

From the heading I thought this was going to be,,,, what's better? Ford or Chevy.

 

[john in la]

Personal preference, I would go to the frame rails up front, not the pedestal. The vertical shaft is a single point of failure there, and while there's only a small chance of that snapping off, or the nut coming off, there's ZERO chance of it failing if you secure to the frame rails instead.

On the back I also don't like the idea of going through a clevis. Again, it's a single point of failure. I've gone around the axle housings, but I prefer to grab the drawbar bracket on each side if I can.

"Proper" is what lets you sleep at night. Legally you only need two 5/16" G70 chains to tie that tractor down, one across the front, and one across the back. It's under 10,000lbs so you don't need four separate chains, the WLL of each 5/16" chain is 4700lbs when attached to the trailer at both ends, and two chains is well over 1/2 the weight of the machine. My only problem with the idea is, again, the single points of failure to attach the chains front and back.

I have no idea what this tractor weighs.
But you can not use half the weight of the tractor to figure chain size.
You have to use 80 percent of the weight.

Lets say the tractor weighs 6000 lbs.
Using two 4700 lb chains gives you 9600 lbs so two chains should be enough.

But in reality your chain will hold a 9600 lb tractor when hooked on the front but will only hold a 5875 lb tractor when hooked on the rear.
So for a 6000 lb tractor you need 5/16 chain on the front and 3/8 chain on the back.
Changing from 2 to 4 chains does nothing to this equation.

 

[john in la]

You need to define proper. I will offer some help: to some it is "what I was always taught". To others it is "how I did it and I drove by five cops and none of them chased me". Another one is "I was talking to a DOT inspector and this is what he told me". Or there is also "This is how they wanted it done where I used to work". The one that I prefer is the "Load securement" chapter of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act. "FMCSA" for short. You can google it and get the "official gov't. specification". It is actually easy reading and not all that involved. One warning however: around ten years ago they revised it to make it as they describe it, "to be more performance oriented". In other words it is now less specific and gives the driver a lot more latitude to use his own judgement. For instance, it is allowed to use straps to secure anything except large blocks of rock, where chains must be used. If your strap goes over a sharp chafe point, they tell you that you should have a protection sleeve over the strap. But they won't gig you for not having it. What they will do is look at your straps and if they find chafing they will tell you to replace the strap before moving. I think that it is best to do it the way the law says that you should, rather than getting three differing opinions.

If your strap goes over a sharp chafe point, they tell you that you should have a protection sleeve over the strap. But they won't gig you for not having it. What they will do is look at your straps and if they find chafing they will tell you to replace the strap before moving.

I don’t agree with that statement. See screenshot from FMCSA website.

 

[Navajo350]

It does you no good to run 2 separate chains through a single clevis. That would not equate to 2 tie downs on the rear. Actually a clevis is a poor choice for a tie down point. Shackles, which have a threaded pin are preferred.

Good point, thanks.

 

[Navajo350]

It does you no good to run 2 separate chains through a single clevis. That would not equate to 2 tie downs on the rear. Actually a clevis is a poor choice for a tie down point. Shackles, which have a threaded pin are preferred.

one eye bolt in each side of the frame up front, and one eye bolt in each circle in photo for the back?

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I have no idea what this tractor weighs.
But you can not use half the weight of the tractor to figure chain size.
You have to use 80 percent of the weight.

Lets say the tractor weighs 6000 lbs.
Using two 4700 lb chains gives you 9600 lbs so two chains should be enough.

But in reality your chain will hold a 9600 lb tractor when hooked on the front but will only hold a 5875 lb tractor when hooked on the rear.
So for a 6000 lb tractor you need 5/16 chain on the front and 3/8 chain on the back.
Changing from 2 to 4 chains does nothing to this equation.

From https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/cargo-securement/cargo-securement-rules

"Minimum Working Load Limit for Cargo Securement Devices and Systems

The aggregate working load limit of any securement system used to secure an article or group of articles against movement must be at least one-half the weight of the article or group of articles. The aggregate working load limit is the sum of: One-half the working load limit of each tiedown that goes from an anchor point on the vehicle to an attachment point on an article of cargo; and The working load limit for each tiedown that goes from an anchor point on the vehicle, through, over or around the cargo and then attaches to another anchor point on the vehicle."

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

one eye bolt in each side of the frame up front, and one eye bolt in each circle in photo for the back?

Why waste time with eye bolts? Wrap the chain around and hook.

From the looks of it, the tractor is far from a trailer queen. The chains won't hurt the old hard paint that is there.

 

[Jim.ME]

one eye bolt in each side of the frame up front, and one eye bolt in each circle in photo for the back?

Common eye bolt capacity is greatly reduced when load is put on them in any direction other than straight in line with the mounting shank. To pull on an angle as would occur during tie down, one would need something along the lines of swivel hoisting rings.

 

[showcrop]

It does you no good to run 2 separate chains through a single clevis. That would not equate to 2 tie downs on the rear. Actually a clevis is a poor choice for a tie down point. Shackles, which have a threaded pin are preferred.

A JD A would have to be pretty heavily ballasted to scale over 10,000 lbs.

 

[john in la]

From https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/cargo-securement/cargo-securement-rules

"Minimum Working Load Limit for Cargo Securement Devices and Systems

The aggregate working load limit of any securement system used to secure an article or group of articles against movement must be at least one-half the weight of the article or group of articles. The aggregate working load limit is the sum of: One-half the working load limit of each tiedown that goes from an anchor point on the vehicle to an attachment point on an article of cargo; and The working load limit for each tiedown that goes from an anchor point on the vehicle, through, over or around the cargo and then attaches to another anchor point on the vehicle."

I guess you skipped over this part.

FMCSA requires that cargo securement systems be capable of withstanding the forces associated with following three deceleration/accelerations, applied separately:

1. 0.8 g deceleration in the forward direction;
2. 0.5 g acceleration in the rearward direction; and
3. 0.5 g acceleration in a lateral direction

 

[caterpillar guy]

Well if you use a chain and hook to the drawbar then go to the trailer and tighten with a binder then us another chain on the other side. It is considered at only half ratting of tie down since it does not go from one side of the trailer to the other and so your 4700 LBS 5/16 chain would only count for half of that 4700 or another words it is only good for 2350 according to FMSCA rule if used in that fashion. Now for years I used 1 chain connected to each side of the trailer then looped through the drawbar and a binder to each leg reaching the trailer side so 4 corners with 2 chains and 4 binders the loose chain hung in the middle of the trailer or laid on the deck and was not long enough to reach the side of the trailer so no need for tying it up so it could not get into trouble. This method gave 4 points of tie down and still was only a half rated per line so you still only had the 4700 on the rear and 4700 on the front. The place I was told about the half rating deal was through OOIDA (owner operator independent drivers association) and they could be wrong though I doubt it since those issues are what they specialize in is the legal side of transportation and have been in court over many issues for drivers over the last decades. I've been a member for 30 years. with filings for Authority and other things that they do for us like collections if need be.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

A JD A would have to be pretty heavily ballasted to scale over 10,000 lbs.

True. Tractordata lists the unstyled A at about 3800lbs dry.

 

[john in la]

Lets try to clear this up a bit.
A 5/16" G70 chain is rated at 4700 lbs.
If the chain goes from the trailer to the load (tractor) and back to the trailer you are allowed to use the full 4700 lbs.
But if the chain only goes from the trailer to the load you have to reduce the chain capacity in half to 2350 lbs.
So no matter if you use 2 chains (one front and one rear) or 4 chains (2 front and 2 rear) your chain can only hold 4700 lbs on each end.

Now that we have that figured we can see what the chain will hold.
So does the load exceed the capacity of the chains.
For this calculation we take 50 percent the weight of the load in the rearward and lateral direction.
But in the forward direction we need to use 80 percent of the weight of the load.
For a 6000 lb load this would be 3000 lbs and 4800 lbs
So your 5/16" G70 chain rated at 4700 lbs will NOT work because load 80 percent weight of 4800 lbs exceeds the 4700 lb rating of the chain.
So you will need at least 3/8 chain on the rear.

To bring this more inline with this thread.
Tractordata says a JD A weighs 3783 lbs
80 percent of 3783 is 3026 lbs
1/4 G70 chain is rated at 3150 lbs
So you could use (barely) 1/4 inch chain to tie down this tractor.
If you added a brush cutter on the back of the tractor the weight would then exceed the rating of the chain and you would have to move up to 5/16 chain and also add another chain to put across the brush cutter.

The original poster said something about straps.
Straps need to be protected where ever they touch the load that could cause an abrasion.
This usually means anywhere the strap makes a bend.
Straps are rated 1000 lbs per inch of width.
So you would need at least a 2 inch strap on the front (50 percent of 3783 lbs)
And a 4 inch strap on the rear because a 3 inch strap (3000 lb rating) is not big enough to cover 3026 lbs (80 percent of 3783 lns)

Now all we need to figure is if the shear strength of those bolts holding that draw bar slide on are enough to hold 80 percent of the weight of the tractor (3026 lbs) or should the chains go up and wrap around the rear axle housing.

 

[MikeinKy]

I hauled machinery for over 20 years. I think John in La needs to go back to trucking school. He has things over complicated and part of his theory is dead wrong.

 

[john in la]

I hauled machinery for over 20 years. I think John in La needs to go back to trucking school. He has things over complicated and part of his theory is dead wrong.

Educate us Mike.

 

[showcrop]

I hauled machinery for over 20 years. I think John in La needs to go back to trucking school. He has things over complicated and part of his theory is dead wrong.

The "This is how they wanted it done where I used to work". definition chimes in.