My lovely wife emailed me on Friday with link to a story of someone who had been fined $340 for not using a ‘legal’ D-shackle on their horse float.

She asked in a panic if we have legal shackles on her float. I chucked and said of course we did!

You see for a long time I’ve had this thing about shackles – a real pet peeve. I shook my head every time I saw a 4 tonne boat, or caravan or horse float with a nice sold heavy duty safely chain attached by these two little non-rated d-shackles that wouldn’t hold 10% of the stress it was going to be asked to take in an emergency.

Kinda stupid when you think about it…

Let’s explore what they are designed to do. D-shackles when used on a trailer at the attachement for the saftey chain on your trailer and your car. That safely chain exists as a backup in the event that your trailer decouples from your tow ball due to technical failure or user failure.

Even with chains attached (and crossed over if you have two), it’s still a pretty wild ride when your trailer becomes loose. But it’s nothing on the risks associated with a trailer that’s completely set free in the event of a decoupling. Sure on a flat road with no traffic around it’s going to keep well clear of everything, but if you’re travelling at 100km/h on a busy highway how are you going to feel when that trailer turns into oncomming traffic?

While I do to get on my high horse about it, I don’t actually blame poeple for it. When you hire a trailer you get given these peice of crap d-shackles. They’re are 10 them of them for every 1 decent shackle at your local automotive store, towbar manfactures give you these tiny holes to fit your shackle too.

If I didn’t need to learn the difference between a good shackle and bad one through my 4×4 recoveries, I’d never know the difference either.

What I didn’t realise it there is actually a law for it!

As 4X4 enthuasits I can’t say I agree with a lot of the legal decisions that get made. Modification limits and track closures all seem to make our hobby a lot harder to enjoy these days. There’s even dedicated bull bar legislation.

But with this one it’s actually regulation I agree with. It seems that the local men and women in blue have also started to take notice with a recent spike in the number of fines being issued. That’s sure to get some attention.

The laws themselves are kinda hard to find. And of course there’s differences state to state with lot’s of different opinions and interpretations.

From what I could gleam:

  • Your shackles need to be rated (we’ll explain that in a minute)
  • Your shackles need to be 1.5 or 2.5 times greater than the ATM (aggregate trailer mass), depending on what you read.

So let’s explore what makes a shit shackle and a rated one

A rated shackle with have a marking M or 4, S or 6. The S or 6 are the higher rated shackles.

For example

  • a 6mm M rated shackle has a limit of 250KG
  • a 6mm S rated shackle has a limit of 500KG (double!)

The shackle will likely have the brand, thickness and rating stamped on them too. The rating is called working load limit.

There are tow basic shapes – Dee and Bow.

shackles

 

Dee shackles have a straight side where your bow shackle is more rounded. Dee shackles are your perfect fit for trailers, where box shackles work well with multiple connectors and on angles. Thus better for winching and recovery.

They have two pin types – Screw and Bolt.

dshackletypes

Screw shackles are what you see most often as they are used for temporary connections. Bold shackles have a nut at the end of the bold with a split pin an are more used as permement lifting shackles.

So you’ll need to pick.

  • A rating that’s 2.5 times (to be safe) the total trailer mass.
  • A bow shackle or dee shackle
  • Screw or Pin

That’s of course stamped and certified

For example: I have a 750KG loaded camper trailer. 2.5 times 750 KG is 1.875 tonnes. I can pick up a 2 tonne rated shackle for $6.

It’s that easy.

Beware of fakes

With the sudden wave of fines being issues it’s going to increase demand for proper shackles. With this demand will come the fakes. They will be all over the internet, all over $2 shops and all over 4X4 shows and markets. Be warned, fakes might keep the cops at bay, but they won’t keep your trailer attached.

Your only going to be only as strong as your weakest link

Remembering that it’s the weakest part of the link that will break first. You’ve got your shackles right. It might be time to think about your chains and perhaps even the quality of weld they have on the trailer. But that’s a rant for another time!

Even if it’s just to save youself a fine go grab some proper shakles for all your trailers. They’re a few bucks and I do hope you never have to see them in action, but I’ll sleep better at night knowing they are there if you do.

Note: Images thanks to http://theriggingshop.com.au