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Re: Safety Chains Was: Build it yourself Car Trailer

To: <epetrevich@relavis.com>
Subject: Re: Safety Chains Was: Build it yourself Car Trailer
From: "Tim Mullen" <Tim.Mullen@trw.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:32:20 -0800
<epetrevich@relavis.com> wrote:
>
> I always cross the chains as well.  I learned this while in the 
> Army 

Hmmm...   It was a retired Colonel that taught me the trick...

> and it has saved me once when a hitch came off the ball.

Thank God I've never had that happen.  Worst thing was a 
blowout on the trailer tire...  Wasn't much of a problem at all. 
Except finding a replacement tire on a Sunday morning...

> Also note, make sure that you kept the ball well lubricated 
> and clean of debris.

I got in a bit of a discussion about this with a guy at U-Haul 
once.  He claimed that you should never grease the ball (as 
he wiped mine clean), and that it was "company policy".  I 
tried to explain to him that it was because U-Haul uses the 
hitch/ball as the ground path for the lights (ever see those 
tail light bulbs that they use with the pig tails hanging out?).  
He had no idea what I was talking about.  So I regreased it 
when I got home and ran a ground wire from my trailer plug 
(I didn't use the bulbs) to a bolt on the trailer...

Tim Mullen

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