Tow chain/ Tug chain for assisting other drivers?

How do you store enough energy in a chain to make it whip? Maybe if you jerk on it but that's counterproductive.
A cable or strap I get.

I pulled a lot of trucks out of snow banks using chains and I always tell the drivers do NOT help me, just steer, they say OK and as soon as they start moving they want to jam her in gear and usually screw thing up. I stop and tell them to stop it or I will leave them there,

On a van [or other] if you reach up under the trailer you can usually wrap whatever you are using around the frame rail.

A couple or 4 pieces of angle iron will work wonders to get you starting to move.

And another tip that is going to ruffle feathers is start in a much higher gear and don't let the tires spin. to me that's much easier on the truck than sitting the spinning and going from front to back.

 

Chains and straps are only lethal if you let them.

I use my chains in a manner that it's double chained. I go around the hook before going back to the other side and around the hook. It's not just one long strand. It's 2 short strands with a wrap around both hooks.

My space is probably 7ish feet.
Instead of 20 feet.

And I don't know what grade they are but they're only 5/16. This is my 7th winter and that same chainS is still being used.

 

How does smooth pea rock work worth a darn? I use chicken grit on ice, it bites into the ice hard.

 

No. I was trying to warn non-cat owners and newbies to pay attention to what kind of cat litter they used since paper-based cat litter is a thing now. Cat litter is much more convenient to buy and carry than pea gravel. Cat litter is sold in every walmart.

 

I only pulled by using the tow hooks on my front bumper. As you say the DOT bumper of the trailer is not meant for pulling but the tow hooks are.

 

When pulling superB trailers in the Rockies I was taught to carry a couple 2ft long 4X4 blocks with a 4ft rope on one end and a carabiner on the other.
If I was stuck on an upgrade and needed to chain up to do it all rolling downhill and when done to put the blocks behind the most back axle with the ropes hooked to the trailer. Then roll back against the blocks and let all the slack relax.
Then as you start up the hill you start to move each unit very slightly one at a time. It is only 1 or 2 inches at most but it does help. Then at the top of the grade you stop and put away the blocks that you dragged up on the ropes behind you.
This works with single trailers too but with only one "slack" to pick up it is not as effective, but better that using the trailer brake.

 

In that particular instamce I couldnt get my front bumper close enough to hook up because of the massive drift infront of the line of trucks without getting stuck myself. But I could back my trailer into the drift close enough to hook up.

 

the best way to pull from the trailer (or pull your trailer) is to tie to the dot bumper then go around the axle and out. this distributes the stress to more of the trailer and does less damage. I was taught this in a Wreckmasters class years ago. this was taught as a way to use a passing truck/trailer as an anchor when using snatch-blocks to pull more than the towtruck can pull when chocked.

 

Good idea but how many carry at least 40 feet?

Most trailers are axle set for king pin states like California.

 

I've seen situations where the pulling out vehicle fastens the chain to their vehicle, and hands the other end to the person that's stuck, "here you go". It's almost comical when they get their plastic bumper pulled off. Not so funny now, eh? It's not a '56 Buick,