I think the gympie cops are following on from the transport Dept inspections down at the Fraser island ferry over Easter where they were inspecting trailer, Caravan and ute weights and and chains and shackels. There has been a lot on the Caravan forums about it. Be just one lazy traffic branch copper up there, sitting on his ar-se on the side of the road and making easy ticket numbers, just stop every caravan and trailer sure to get a ticket. No shortage this time of year.
I had had to have my chains replaced when I bought my van from Victoria a few years ago, the Road worthy place at Tingalpa just replaced the chains automatically and billed me for them because they had to be load rated chains. funny thing is they then supplied un rated 10mm shackles, cheeky buggars.
I never though anything of it till a couple of weeks ago when the forums started up and I went and checked, so off the bolt shop in Capalabaaaar and got a couple of Wll ( Working Load Limit) 1.5 ton l rated bow shackles for the caravan it has an ATM of 2050 kgs so 1.5 T is all I needed. They were really cheap about $4-$7 each or something like that. Lot cheaper than $235.00
Nic92GQ above stated 1.5 times the trailer ATM, That's nor really correct;
what it really says is "and have a break load limit of the shackle is rated at least 1.5 times greater than the ATM of the trailer."
This is explained further as ;"• Rated bolts, chain shackles or other suitable fittings (i.e. hammerlocks) may be used as devices for connection on safety chains providing the break load limit of the device is at least 1.5 times greater than the ATM of the trailer
• Generally, the break load limit of a rated shackle will be six times greater than its work load limit.
Taking as an example my new 11mm Bow shackles, they have a WLL of 1.5 Tonnes, that means the Break Load Limit of these shackles is 1.5 X 6 = 9 tonnes, my Caravan at 2050 ATM really requires only a Break Load Limit shackle rated to 3.75Tonnes or a WLL of 0.625 Kgs, which is a 10mm Grade S or 6 shackle.
I have gone up one shackle size X 2 ( two chains and shackles) which gives me a margin of nearly 250% in the interests of towing safety.
I feel fairly confident that it will blow the chain welds to the drawbar apart if it all really goes to chit, who really wants 2, out of control, Tonnes chasing them down the road.
Another important thing if you have two chains and shackles, you can't split the load between the shackles' and chains, each MUST be of the required standard... and you cant have the two chains coupled to a single shackle even if its of the right load rating, you must have 2 correctly rated shackles. Go figure that one out????