A lot of folks want to know what the deal is with 1/4 inch tie-down chain? (or cluster chains, as a lot of people call them).

When a major manufacturer of auto transport equipment announced that they were switching from 1/4 inch diameter chain to 5/16 inch diameter chain, we switched over to the 5/16 inch diameter chain for all our cluster chains.

Did we lose car hauler chain sales? You bet. Was the 1/4 chain safe? We always thought so, but with the size of the vehicles being transported, and at higher speeds, we figured that we ought to follow the auto transport trailer manufacturers. After all, they're the ones who have the engineers.

Does that mean that folks who sell 1/4 inch tie-down chain to the auto transport industry are bad people? Not at all. They probably don't have as many lawyers in their family (we've got three!). Litigation is a fact of life, these days, and unfortunately, a skilled litigation attorney can get a finding that the sky is yellow and the sun is blue if he or she gets the right jury. Since a major auto transport trailer manufacturer was successfully sued in lower court for putting quarter inch chain on their trailers, we've opted to go up to the 5/16" diameter chain for auto tie down chain assemblies.

If you want to read more about the whole chain litigation thing, go to Carhauler News and search the auto hauler news blog.