Welcome to Part III of my video series on how to securely attach a tractor to a trailer. Today we're going to show you how to attach the chains and what the finished product will look like.

I'm securing the tractor at the drawbar, I could use the rear axle, but I want to go to a part that's all metal and designed to tolerate the pull of the chains and the drawbar is easy to get to and film. I absolutely don't want to pads over any rubber components or hydraulic or fuel lines, anything that could be damaged or could compact once we're headed down the road. By law, I need four chains on my tractor, one at each corner. The proper way to do it is have each chain pulling either backwards or forwards, and from side to side. I think it'll be clear in the video. So, I run a chain around the left side of the drawbar to the right side of the trailer and cinch it up, then run the other chain around the right side of the drawbar to the left side of the trailer. Then I'm done at the rear of the tractor. The chains are pulling rearward and side-to-side.

On the front of the tractor I'm going around the axles, I'll go from the left axle to the right side of the trailer and from the right axle to the left side of the trailer. I mention in the video, I could attach at the weight carrier, but this tractor has tabs cast into the axle that prevent the chains from moving inboard and possibly getting loose in transit, plus I like having them low on the load, so I went with the axle attachment. Once I get two chains pulling forward and to opposite sides I'm done.

This all looked real easy because the tractor has no loader or rear attachments on it. If it did, then it gets complicated. By law, all attachments have to be secured to the trailer. So, if there was a loader, even though it would be attached to the tractor, it has to be secured to the trailer to be in compliance. Any rear mounted attachments would have to be secured as well. I know it seems like an awful amount of extra time to get that done, but if you want to follow the letter of the law, that's what you have to do. Sometimes when a loader or implement is in the way it makes it real difficult to get from the preferred attachment point on the tractor to the trailer. You may have to get a little creative to get it secured right. I spent a day with MODOT in studying for this series and those guys are EXPERTS and they struggled with how to attach a skid loader with a huge attachment on the front because the good tie down points were obscured. Trust me, it's not always easy to get it perfect like it was in this video.

The last video in the series will provide ten tips on how to make this process easier and safer, I strongly urge you take the time to watch that video after this one if you plan to haul a tractor down the road.

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