Took a small (500kg) unbraked trailer to that there England at the weekend to move some stuff for a friend. Never used one before so looked up some stuff before driving and all was well but there are still a couple of things I’m not sure about

Afaik the speed limit on motorways/dual carriageways is 60 but I was still passed lots of times by other trailers/caravans. Have I got the speed limit wrong or were these just folks ‘making progress’?

I thought there was a safety chain or wire that was meant to clip to the towball in case something happened to the normal mount but on my rental there was just a loop of wire that I was meant to drop over the ball but that didn’t get clipped or attached to anything. That didn’t seem particularly fail safe but is that normal practice?

Thanks all

It’s 60

The safety chain /wire is meant to just wang the trailer’s handbrake on should you fail to hitch it properly, not drag the uncoupled trailer along behind you.

Thanks on the speed limit

The trailer didn’t have a handbrake though so I was unsure what the wire achieved

Yup, the most likely mode of failure is the lock on the hitch fails so the wire does its job holding the light trailer on.

Braked ones attach to the handbrake the idea being it yanks it on beofre ot snaps.

Yes the speed limits are widely ignored, presumably because a speed camera wouldnt flash unless you were doing over the car limit. And the police probably dont know/care.

I stick to the limit because it does the mph a world of good and Im on holliday so why stress.

Yup, the most likely mode of failure is the locknon the hitch fails so the wire does its job holding the light trailer on.

that’s sort of what I assumed. I saw the thinner cable attached to the brake on bigger trailers so that makes sense as well

What surprised me was that the wire was just looped over the ball. I would assume that if the hitch popped off then the cable would also pop off?

A lot of towbars have a loop / hole on them further up the assembly that the wire is meant to clip onto. As said just looping over the ball is a bit of a wasted effort.

A lot of towbars have a loop / hole on them further up the assembly that the wire is meant to clip onto

Yep had that, just not clip on the wire. In the end just added one myself as I didn’t get why looping over the ball worked but wanted to check as not everything makes sense

Thanks all, looks like I’m not going mad (today)

A lot of towbars have a loop / hole on them further up the assembly that the wire is meant to clip onto. As said just looping over the ball is a bit of a wasted effort.

Unless you have a carabiner (rare in this country), you must loop the wire and clip it back onto itself. Ideally this is through a fixed point, around the towball will do if it is all that you have. See https://www.caravanguard.co.uk/news/essential-guide-caravan-breakaway-cables-7707/

The more common spring clips are pretty flimsy. It is called a “breakaway cable” because it is meant to break. You just don’t want it to break until after the trailer brakes have been pulled on. The break point is at the other end of the cable, but the cheap crappy clips are weak enough that if you clip them onto the car you will break the clip before activating the brakes.

On an unbraked trailer, it is a secondary coupling and not a breakaway cable. It is meant to stay attached and drag the trailer behind you.

Speed limits are widely ignored, as are mirror requirements. It probably won’t do any harm with a small trailer, but for larger trailers the faster you drive the more prone to snaking you will be. It also helps your mileage. Bear in mind that a car+trailer can be up to 7 tons so a bit of control on your speed makes life a lot safer.