Are those yellow hooks legal?

Dude, I don’t even live in Australia and I watched the whole video. Your commitment to evidence-based reasoning and rational thinking is both highly admirable and highly appreciated. It’s what makes your channel worth watching.

Hi Robert. This is the first time I have seen your site and appreciate the time and effort as well as knowledge you have put into it. I have been caravanning for 40 years and am pedantic on compliance with towing regulations. The days of hooking up a 22ft Viscount Supreme behind an EH Holden station wagon loaded with kids, pets and pushbikes heading for the beach are unfortunately long gone but rightly so. We currently have a 20ft van and 3 ltr Mazda BT50, it is a good combination set up correctly and travels extremely well. The caravan builder is responsible for the safety compliance of tow chains and tow hitch. the vehicle supplier is responsible for safety and compliance of the tow bar and ball. Providing I comply with load regulations and weight distribution all is sweet. Where I am totally responsible it the safety chain connection of caravan to tow vehicle. Why would I go to all the effort to ensure I am totally safe and legal then shortcut on an undersize shackle or similar connection. I have been watching the gradual increase in usage of yellow hooks. You still require two hands to disconnect and while it is each to his own I am yet to find a benefit. With all the ambiguous documents you outlined at the end of the day if there is an unfortunate incident it will be the Insurance company that will be looking for an out and then the transport department looking for someone to hang. With that I use the largest possible tested shackle I can fit after all they are cheap as chips compared to the other towing aids required and the day I can't bend over and do up a shackle that's the day I sell the van or get my wife to do it. Apart from that thanks for an exceptional presentation and I have now that I have subscribed look forward to viewing more.

Totally professional analysis, Robert, and in complete contrast to the slack formulation of 80% of the regulations surrounding this important safety topic. Those regulations are SUPPOSED to guide safe practice! Instead, they make it extremely difficult for anyone to understand what they need to do, both for safety AND compliance. Your work here helps. Thank you!

Well done Robert you have now learnt that you don’t live in a single country but a commonwealth of states who can’t get the act together over lots of different regulations. Keep up the good work.

A really clear and factual video Robert. Thank you. I would like to add the following points for you to consider and comment on, even maybe do an update to this video, if you see fit. 1. As I understand it, safety chains are REQUIRED to serve (at least) two purposes. a. Maintain an "Independent Secure Positive Connection" between the Towing Vehicle and the Towed "Load" (eg Caravan, Trailer etc); in the event of a Failure of any part of the Towing Coupling Connection. b. Restrict the Drawbar of the "Towed Load" from coming in contact with the Road Surface in event of a Failure of any Part of the Towing Coupling Connection. About 50 years back, a VicRoads Inspector told me :- a. to "Keep my safety chains as short as possible b. CROSS my safety chains. eg right hand chain on towed vehicle neck is to connect to left hand connection point on Towing Vehicle; and vice versa. c. He would NOT approve a "Towed vehicle" for Registration where the AS RATED SAFETY Chains had simply been welded to the Towing Neck, as at that time there was concerns raised of the effect of all aspects (welding temperature, rod choice etc) had on steel of rated chain. He recommended using Hammer Locks to secure the safety chain to suitable steel (or Aluminium as requires) welded per an AS std to the towed vehicle drawbar. d. He also stated that he felt, with vehicle that had removable tow couplings, secured by a Cross Pin ( eg HR) and with very "average quality thin steel plate, with hole for shackle: that this safety chain connection point was not in keeping with point 1a. above. He was recommending that at the least, for removable tow necks that a SEPARATE pair of short chains be required to go from separate adequate fixed LUGS on the Main part of the Tow Bar to their Respective "chain eyes holes" on the Removable Tow bar. And it is to either a rated shackle or hammerlock coupling used in a way that the continuity of the safety chains goes from "Fixed Tow bar assembly" all the way to Towed vehicle drawbar. [In simple words the chain connection points on the removable coupling are ONLY used as chain support, and not as a safety anchor point.] Thus one maintains a Safety Connectivity per the meaning of the relevant Australian Standards that cannot be questioned in any Coronal Hearing. As a final note, over last 40years when I connected any trailer using shackles, I always use a shifter to just nip them slightly tighter than finger tight. Also generally if I am going long distances I use a bit of tie wire though shackle pin eye to shackle.

Nice work Robert! I deal with this in our large fleet and we say it's a rated shackle only. The reasons we don't allow hooks are; 1, because they aren't recommended by any authority. 2, because the spring mechanisms aren't reliable or durable in the dirty off road environment we operate in. I will hang my hat ( and my professional reputation) on the standards and advice from the feds.

Well done Robert this is the best video covering this topic. Another issue with the spring loaded gate hooks is you can get a situation known as chain roll out causing the chain to become separated from the hook. Great work

Nice well researched video, very informative. One thing a lot of people don’t consider is the wear caused between the tow hitch and attachments when just left swinging in the breeze when not in use.

great video, can i add that years ago during my apprentiship as a fitter, the instructor demonstrated a twisted chain climb out past a safety catch on a hook when load was applied, so to this day I still remember that from 40 years ago and wont use hooks on a trailer for that reason

Another great video Robert. Appreciate the effort you put in to enable the facts to be conveyed in an easily understandable format. I’ll be sticking to a a pair of WLL1 shackles, the cost differential is a no brainer

what a breath of fresh air !!! A pity our statutory authorities don't hire this guy to clean up their files /good work mate / appreciate it !

Very thorough review of the matter and gives a good guidance for people to make an informed decision. I'll keep to my 1.5t D or Bow Shackles as it's overkill but less likely to give me grief on interstate trips.

Thanks for this video! I really like your evidence based approach. I recently replaced the worn chains on my 4T van and struggled with the regulations, particularly for the G80 chain. I now understand the various standards better and while I’m pretty sure I fitted the correct components I can now make sure they are correctly marked so I can justify their suitability , if I need to. I didn’t know about they safety factor of 4 for chains and hammerlocks, I had thought it was 6 for chains, shackles and hammerlocks. I see many people who just put the shackle in the end link and let the chains touch the ground. This was the case with my van, even though it had passed a road worth inspection just before I bought it some links were worn through by more than 50%.

Thankyou Robert, you have cleared up some mud I went out and immediately checked my "Hooks" they are rated at 2000kg and 8000Kg breaking strength ! They are clearly stamped - so if I get pulled over -- it will be up to the cop to prove otherwise !

Robert thank you for doing what no one (for some bizarre reason) has done before and put an end to the arguments! I do like the Mawbe hooks design and that they are much smaller, but I can buy a dozen sets of appropriately rated D shackles for that price! Thank you again, very well researched and presented.

Quite simply,…..bloody well done Robert! You are always such a reliable source of information. Thank you.

Damn fine presentation ! Once again each state in Australia has different requirements and standards , not unlike traffic regulations, crazy! I totally agree what you are saying. It is imperative that there should be one standard for towing equipment for the whole nation in this regard. Keep it right, keep it simple. Thanks for your informative video.

Hi Robert, I sell this equipment and it is a great explanation of what I try and tell consumers when they enquire. I have had "technical experts" explain to me Australian Standards and in short there is a great deal of misinformation as you have detailed in the video. My only additions to your video (in relation to AS3776) is to consider G100 in place of G80 connectors (hammerloks) and hooks. 6mm G80 hooks will fit 13mm trailer safety chain (AS4177) and as you pointed out 1.12t WLL (and in fact many are sold as 1.1t). And many towbars actually require an 8mm G80 connector (hammerlok) in order to fit. The G80 8mm connector would be compliant with ATM 3500kg, but the 6mm G80 eye safety sling hook / self locking hook would not. A G100 6mm hook (AS3776) (either safety sling or self locking) would have a WLL of 1.4T (with a 4:1 safety factor) so MBS of 5.6T, therefore being compliant with ATM of 3500kg x 1.5 = 5,250kg. The other aspect not mentioned is in relation to hook orientation. Many use these hooks with the latch opening being towards the rear. This is not how these hooks are designed to be used. I won't go into too much detail on here, but the hooks are tested and designed in an axial load. Any qualified rigger can explain hook design and application of strength. The complexities of the hook orientating itself correctly in a decoupling scenario is the grey area that correct hammerlok selection/tow bar design do not really address. You also hinted at variation in trailer safety chain dimensions that are being sold. I can tell you first hand that this is true, and in fact some chains even copy the required chain markings! But may not have the correct dimensions, nor even correct test certification. I won't go into CTA's (Component Type Approvals) in relation to upcoming ADR compliance, but very few manufacturers have CTA approval. In fact from all importers only one that I know currently has a CTA approval number, and another is still waiting for theirs to be allocated. The others import chain with 4177 markings, but cannot provide CTA numbers. I say import as to my knowledge trailer safety chain under AS4177 has not been made in Australia since KitoPWB ceased Australian production. Thank you for your video which cleared up many aspects of information circulating, and backed up by credible references. And of course anything works, until something goes wrong....

I love how you are tearing these docs apart at the same time. Good job 😆

Great research & presentation. There are still a couple of aspects that amaze me about this subject. Having a look at a few brand new trailers before I built my own, the standard of welding the chains to the drawbar varied (visually) from average to shithouse. There doesn’t seem to be much checking of compliance on that point. I went the other way & used hammerlocks through holes in the the 10mm drawbar plate, no welding. At the vehicle end of the chains I’m running the yellow hooks with hammerlocks to the chain. I pointed all this out at the VicRoads inspection for the initial registration & it passed without question.