As we know that in the transportation industry, the most popular chains are binder chains and tire chains, and chains as products have much more than just those tie down chains, there are proof coil chains, high test chains, twisted link chains and more, of course there is towing industry, the tow chains are playing the main role, it is no secret that all these are steel chains.
In most cases tie down chains equal to grade 70 chain , aka binder chains it’s well known that we have 2 different standard organiztions for steel chains, ASTM and National Association of Chain Manufacturers. The ASTM standard requires chains to be short link, NACM usually means regular link chains. Short link and regular link chains have same strength, the only difference is flexibility, for instance the short links can wrap around the corner easily, regular link chains probably will not fit. The tie down chains are mostly used in transportation, for the purpose of cargo securement, no doubt you can use these chains for some other purposes, such as towing, etc.
Tire chains also called snow chains sometimes, then we know that snow chains are tire chains, but tire chains are not equal to snow chains, people use tire chains on the slippery road, not only when snow covered. We always see tire chains sold in pairs, since you will always need to chain up tires in pairs. Most tire chains are made from steel. People choose tire chains based on their vehicle type and tire size, if you have a passenger car you will be looking for car tire chain, if you have a truck you are going to use truck tire chains.
Talking about hardware chains, it’s a big category, you will find a lot different chains in this family. Let’s see some examples, there are machine chain , twisted or straight link, and twisted and straight link coil chains, sash chain , proof coil grade chains, hot dip or electro-galvanized, and steel decoration chains, this is a big family. These chains have their own features and special use case, grade 30 chains, aka proof coil chains, are the popular one, you can use grade 30 chains with windlass, on the fence, for example.
When it comes to tow chain, we usually only see 5/16”, it has the WLL of 4700LBS, because most of vehicles being towed will be put on flat bed, the WLL is good for at least 9400LBS load, and there are only a few varieties available, for instance we only need 6′ and 10′ long tow chains, as for hooks we only see T & J hooks and long shank J hooks, I believe that due to well built standard tow trucks, you don’t need too many different version of the tow chains, and this way a lot of problems can be avoided
