I hook the chains and attach the emergency brake cable to a seperate anchor point in the truck bed.

http://www.towingworld.com/articles/TowingLaws.htm

Same here, since mine is a hauler bed I added another ring by where I hook my chains up to hook the brake wire too.  Not sure if its right or not, but I have my brake wire just a little shorter than my chains so if the trailer does come off the ball or ball breaks the brake wire will pull out and lock up before I get to the end of the chains.

I hook both chains and the breakaway cable to the hooks in the bed,and I also have cable slightly shorter than chain.I questioned the cable placement but could find nothing better.

                                Jerry

In our state chains are mandatory and expensive if you're caught without them. The safety wire should not be attached to the hitch. If it fails, you will have no "E" brakes.

Here's some previous discussions:

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=11962&start=1

 I read the other threads but I am confused about one thing.  On a gooseneck you attach the chains to the designated places on each side of the ball.  Do you not attach the emergency break away brake cable to one of those places?  Are you saying that you need a third anchor in the bed to attach that little cable to?

There is a lot of good information in those threads!

It may not be right,but,my husband does the hooking up and he has always put the cable loop over the ball hitch.I don't know where else we'd hook it because we're not going to install a separate place just for that cable.Some wind it around through one of the chains but it still has to be hooked in a manner that it would be activated if pulled,and just winding it through one of the chains doesn't seem as if it would do that.

It's the law in this state, if you're pulling a trailer of a certain weight, to have an emergency breakaway kit on it.It's the law if you're pulling any type of trailer behind a truck,no matter what it is,there must be safety chains.

I know why they are crossed on a BP,but,has anybody ever had one come off the ball hitch loaded and had those crossed chains to hold it? I had one come off when I pulled up into our driveway which was on a small hill,but there was nothing in it.I think we all know those chains wouldn't do squat on a steel 3H trailer that was loaded.But,it's the law.That's why I've always had breakaway kits installed on my BP trailers if they did not come with one.

Thanks jackbrat.

That's what I do and just wanted to make sure it was ok.  There are two rings sticking up through the truck bed, one on each side of the ball.  These are where I attach the chains and I attach the breakaway emergency brake cable to one of those and NOT to the chain itself. 

Thanks for clearing that up for me. 

sorry, didn't use spell-check!

Carabiner clip

Grade 70 3/8" chain has a breaking strength of 26,400 lbs.  Two chains = 52,800 lbs of breaking strength, I would think that will hold anything that gets loose behind a pickup.

Attaching the BREAK AWAY cable to the same point as the safety chains is wrong, and usually illegal.  If the trailer has 'broken away' from the pickup, it's a fair assumption some or all of the hitch went with it meaning the pin will not be pulled...... 

To answer the question;  Yes I use the chains, yes they will hold.  No the break away cable does not go around the ball, or anywhere near the chains, it goes to a seperate anchor point.

We use the chains on the eyebolts mounted on either side of the gn ball. We hook the breakaway up over to the side of the bed making sure it is shorter than the chains so the brakes are activated before the chains can grap hold.

To answer the question;  Yes I use the chains, yes they will hold.  No the break away cable does not go around the ball, or anywhere near the chains, it goes to a seperate anchor point.

Mine didn't.

The EB brake wire should be SHORTER than the chains. You want the brakes to engage before the trailer is hanging on the chains. Having the chains attached to your truck will enable you to guide it safely to a stop. Otherwise it is an unguided missile and can head in any direction. Do you want to see your horses head over the edge of the road, or slam head on into an oncoming vehicle filled with a family?

As previous posters have related, with the chains installed, they brought their trailers to a safe stop when they became unattached. Little damage occurred and no one was hurt. It would be a quite different scenario if the trailer were on its own at highway speeds.

OK then, I'll check into other options for anchoring the be cable for the gn.   I have a B & W Turnover Ball hitch.  It's not obvious where that would be and it is odd that there isn't a separate anchor point provided.   I'm interested to hear the ideas on the relative length of the be cable as well.  Is it illegal in some states, then, to connect the be cable to the chain anchor point on a B & W Tunronever Ball hitch?

Thanks!

It's easy on a bumper pull to fasten the be cable to a third anchor point so it is never an issue there. 

I wanted to add a question.  Is there a place to find this kind of law about pulling trailers in various states?  I've seen the sites that have the list of general trailer pulling laws, but this is a bit more specific than anything I've seen.  Thanks.

Sorry for the multiple posts, but I can't edit to include the questions in a single post.

OK, what about this as a third anchor point for  the be cable?  Run a separte cable from under the bed, through  one of he holes made for the chain anchor points so that there is a separte anchor point at the same location as one of the chain anchor points?

 It keeps the be cable near the hitch so that it doesn't get pulled accidentally, and doesn't require a separte anchor point to be installed.

Check with your state's local DMV/DOT, until then use this.  http://www.towingworld.com/articles/TowingLaws.htm

 I hook my emergency brake clip to the center, side stake pocket hole... It's got nothing to do with the goosenck hitch.

I use my safety chains each time, but have always hooked my emergency brake to the same hook as one of the chains. I'm not sure if I understand the rational of why it needs to be someplace else. Is the theory that if something causes the ball to come unhooked, that same "something" could cause the chain hooks to also come loose? That doesn't seem likely - my understanding is that most times when a trailer comes unhooked its because 1) someone didn't fasten the trailer onto the ball properly 2) Damage to the ball itself.

As for the chains holding, I can votch that they can and will, even with a loaded trailer and at speed. Here's my story. Years ago I went on a big Cancer Trail ride 45 minutes away. When my husband hooked up our stock trailer to the one ton truck, the ball wouldn't snap into position properly. It just needed to be drove ahead a foot or so, and the change of position would have allowed it to snap into place. (It was getting to be an older trailer, and the sleeve on the ball was stiff if you weren't quite straight) But at the same time he noticed I had a tire that was a bit low. He thought that he'd drive the trailer up to the shop where he could fill the tire, and at the same time snap the sleeve onto the ball properly. Well, you can guess the story. The tire was more work than he'd expected, and he forgot to go back and snap the trailer onto the ball properly. Half hour later I'm driving down the road, going about 60 miles/hour. I'd drove about 20 minutes, hit some heaves in the road, and in my rear view mirror saw my trailer rise up a bit and then a cloud of sparks behind me! The trailer had come off the ball and was being pulled behind me, now with the nose riding on the pavement (that was the sparks)

I managed to stop without problems (thankfully it was a crew cab long box truck, so it had alot of weight and size to control things) and my horse was looked upset but was totally unhurt. Neighbors came along, and using a jack we were able to lift the trailer back onto the ball, fasten it properly and I made it to the Cancer ride without further problems.

I'm sure my horse would have been killed without the chains. It was a stupid thing to happen, totally our fault, but mistakes happen, especially when you get busy and don't finish one job before starting another.

It's not odd there is no anchor point on the B&W hitch, as the cable is NOT supposed to be attached to the hitch.  On my GMC I have it hooked to the factory tie down at the driver side rear of the bed.  The length of the break away cable will cause debate, personally my break away cables are longer than the chains, as is my electrical cord.  The last thing you want to do in any unstable situation; blown tire, too fast into curve, loss of traction in rain or snow, trailer hooked to truck only by chains.....is slam on the brakes.  Pretty much everyone I know who has had a trailer come off the ball had little problem maintaining control.  The slack was taken up in the chains as the trailer slowed on it's own (lack of power and wind drag I would assume) and other than needing a fresh pair of shorts, they more or less coasted to a stop.  Probably even less of an issue with a GN as the chains, or tailgate could contain the trailer and it won't drag on the road like a BP can.

Thanks for the informative thread.

So, if the gn were to come off the ball and is loose in the bed of the truck: 1) you want the chains to hold it while you stop with the controller, 2) you want the brakes to remain connected so you can operate the trailer brakes through you contoller.  3) Only after you lose that connection do you actually have to have the be brake acitvate.

This has been a great thread (along with the links to older threads) and has really clarified certain things for me relating to the gooseneck connections. 

I am thinking that my be cable is a bit too short, but will connect it today and see if it is.  It's a new-to-me trailer and I need to do some work on the be brake system anyway. My current plan is to connect it to the truck bed connector that is in the back corner of the bottom of the bed.  I initially thought that would put it too far back, but my wiring should still be connected at that time since the plug in cable is quite long.  Otherwise, connecting it over to the center sidewall hole on the top of the bed wall (that pre-made hole into which you put sidewall posts) - but I still need for it to be long enough to not activate until I've had a chance to stop it with the controller. 

Sound right?

Any opinions on connecting the trailer's electrical by going over the tailgate and connecting to the bumper as opposed to having a plug in in the bed?  Old truck has a plug-in place in the bed.  Newer truck does not.  The electrical cable is plenty long enough to easily reach bumper by going over the tailgate.

Thanks!

BTW, whoever said that backing a gn was as easy as backing a bp is wrong lol.  The precision isn't there for me yet anyway. 

All of this reminded me of a strange looking accident that we saw Sunday near where we live.I don't think there was a fatality,the driver must have been wearing the seat belt.

There is a 4 lane divided highway around  the city of Jonesboro,AR.On approach to an overpass,of which there are several on this highway,it looked as if the driver of a 1/2T truck pulling a NICE outboard boat/motor crossed over and struck the very end of the guardrail.In turn,it appeared as if the truck then went into the NARROW (no room for error there) median and overturned on its' top.The boat was still sitting upright on the trailer.There was no sign of damage to the boat as I would think there would have been had the entire rig overturned,boat,trailer,and truck.Had to wonder if the hitch pin came out of the BP hitch collar,or what happened to allow the truck to twist and overturn in that manner while leaving that boat and trailer upright and still all intact.It was a strange looking sight.Thankfully,the vehicle DID overturn right in that narrow grass median and did not cross over into the oncoming traffic lanes or things would have been much worse.