Switched over to the Reese Goosebox a while back and was a bit unsure what the proper safety chain length should be as well as the trailer breakaway cable for the brakes. Have not really been able to find official answers on this as well as if should still cross the safety chains.
I know its going to be ugly if it ever does come off the ball while traveling. With the way the Reese latches in you have a good audible/visual confirmation so probably a lot less chance of not noticing it being latched vs. a traditional gooseneck system, but still wanted to look into this.
My initial concern was the safety chain kit I purchased seemed longer then my breakaway cable, so therefore if the trailer did disconnect the brakes would never engage unless rips out the safety chain mounts. There seems to be an argument that this is perhaps ok since have an electric brake controller that could use manually to perhaps control it better but that does not seem practical to to me. Seems best to have the brakes apply as quick as possible to try and keep it as straight as possible.
Figuring out the proper lengths is a bit harder then it seems since the safety chains usually connect a bit off to the side of the ball, are at a good angle so harder to measure, and also have some articulation on the ball which can be hard to visualize. Figured best to just do some experimenting to see what it looked like in the reality.
Shortend my breakaway cable with a couple special knots until seemed about right after a few lazy measurements I did. Hooked the chains and breakaway cable up with the gooseneck about sitting on the truck bed to verify everything.
First verified the breakaway cable was shorter than the chains. Make sure the breakaway box/pin/cable is angled properly in relationship to where the latch point is as does take a good amount of force to pull it out, so it could rotate to change the distance:
Next removed the breakaway cable to see about where the hitch would be in the bed with the chains starting to pull. Might be an argument that want it to break all the way through the tailgate and drop down to limit chance of it coming back into the cab with passengers, but this does not really seem practical to me. Figure best to take chances trying to control it resting in the bed and maybe the smashed tailgate helping a bit. Seems would be ideal to not have it go too far back in the bed for best chances of keeping the backend of truck controllable. However, if chain/breakaway cable lengths get too short becomes even harder to see if breakaway would engage first especially with some articulation. This seemed to be a good compromise to me:
If look closely at the above pic can see I have the chains crossed. I know it might seem strange to cross them as it will land vertically on the bed rather than a bumper pull trailer would land on the crossed chains, but I think it will still help. A little hard to tell from the pic as I actually had to force the chains outside the gooseneck to see this worse case/furthest back position. It will likely fall directly on top of the chains (it did in my test) which shortens their length a good amount. Realized the side benefit here is that the chains are then really bound up around the Goosebox and biting hard into the bed just like say snow chains would. The shorter length and the bite might help a lot in controlling the trailer to a stop. Even if it falls inside the chains the cross does still help it wrap around the gooseneck to hopefully help with control. Perhaps a stretch, but realized the Goosebox air bag could also be beneficial to help it bite into the bed/absorb some of the violence so that it stays in the same place better.
Final check was that did not get the breakaway cable too short with a
jackknive test. Make sure to test with the cable connected to the side that is furthest offset from the direction you are angled! This was further confirmation that with current mount point don't want to go much if any shorter as could also have some more length needed especially with some articulation, which thus means I also don't want my chains much shorter either:
Also found mention to not connect the breakaway cable to the same point as the safety chains. I have nothing else to connect it to without getting really creative. Also, I think this only makes sense if the breakaway cable is longer then the safety chains.
Hopefully this helps someone as it was more involved then seemed ...
Curious what other peoples thoughts are in relation to chain/cable lengths for goosenecks specifically as does not seem to be official guidelines for this ...
Your post drives home the fact every hookup is different even with the same hitch so people should spend some time figuring out the best solution for for their own case.
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