Video Transcript for DIY 2012 Ford F-250 Super Duty Installation for the Durabilt Hammerlock Coupling Link for 3/8" Chain

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer today on our 2012 Ford F-250. We're gonna be checking out the durable hammerlock coupling link. One of the big problems that a lot of people run into with a truck like this, is the OEM hitch. They give you an itty bitty safety chain opening. I have no idea why they do that. They know people are gonna be pulling some big trailers around, and they give you the smallest opening available you can hardly get any safety chains on there.

So, you know, I have one here. This is probably on the smaller side even, and even this one has a hard time fitting around it. I mean, you can get it. There's kind of a pain, and who really wants to deal with that So, what a lot of people end up doing is using some type of link. And most people are prone to grab something like this.

Right Will it work Yeah. You know, it gives you a lot more space to get the safety chain in on there, but I mean, let's be honest, unless you're pulling around an itty bitty utility trailer or something, this isn't really gonna cut it. You know, these trucks are super heavy-duty to pull out a lot of heavy things. And I definitely wouldn't want to rely on something like that for sure. And this is where this type of link comes into play.

These things are super heavy-duty, they're meant for heavy things. This has a 12,000 pound weight capacity. And it just fits on are good. We have several different sizes of these, and this one seemed to fit the best. The heavier duty one, I believe it's a 5/8 one, that still fit on there, but it just seemed a little overkill especially for what our customers, you know, towing around and things like that.

With that said too, you know, if you're gonna be pulling something, I know these trucks are rated for a lot. If you're gonna be pulling something heavier than 12,000 pounds then obviously get the appropriate one, get the heavier-duty one. But, you know that fits on there good. It doesn't look funny, it's not overly big or anything like that. And I mean, I'll just kind of pin it together here for now. But the opening are large enough where you can get a smaller hook like this on there, no problem at all. And even ones that are a lot bigger than this, you're gonna have the space that you need to get those on there very easily. So I figured I'd just give everyone kind of just a visual reference of the different size, sling links that we have here. That's what some people call them, I kind of call them just a coupler, safety chain coupler. Other people call them, figure eight Connectors, I mean, whatever you call it they all do the same thing. So I mentioned that larger one, the 5/8 one, that's this one here. This one has a, I believe a 18,000 pounds rating. And like I said, it'll fit on there. Just to give you an idea. I mean, that's pretty large though, but if you're pulling trailers that weigh that much, this is the one that you're gonna want. I feel like these half inch ones that we're putting on, it'll kind of cover most people's scenarios. And we even have smaller ones too. You know, maybe you have an F-150, or Ranger, or smaller truck. Here's the 3/8 one too. Even these would work, on the hitch. So, definitely have quite a few different options and, you know, a bunch of different things to choose from depending on all what you're trying to do with your truck. So the reason these are called Hammerlocks is because the way you're gonna put them in, this panel go through, and then you'll have this press fit be all here, and that'll go through it once you hammerlock that in, it's staying. So this isn't something that comes off super easy. You don't have to worry about people running off with them, and you know they're not gonna fail on you. You know, as long as you stay within the limitation, you're gonna be good to go. As compared to, now here's another popular style. You know, if someone wants to, you can take them right off, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Really just depends. But honestly too, even for a lot of these trucks, you know I'm a truck fan, I think they look cool, I run these big trucks and I mean, let's just face it. This one back here compared to something like that just looks cooler too, you know in my opinion there's really no way around it. It fits. But you know, to get these things installed, really not too bad, and kind of talked about that you wire it up and beat it through but why don't we go ahead and I'll just show you how I'm going to put ours on the back of our truck now. So to actually get this put on, we're gonna take one half of it, slide it around, bear with me here, we just don't have a ton of space. But, you're gonna wind that up, take this roll pin and align that up, and take one side of your pin there, and get it through and it'll hit that roll pin and stop, and you can kind of turn it and make sure everything's centered. Then what you're going to do, hold pressure on it, take a hammer, and just beat it. And you'll feel it kinda, you'll feel the pen start to push through everything and going to place. So, with these things, once they're on, they're kind of on like you talked about. I'm not gonna lie, they're a little tricky to get on. This side that I did kind of fell right together. This side, not so much. You really have to put some effort into it. So just be careful when you're doing it, you know, don't whack your hands, get a big heavy hammer, and that'll really help speed things up. And that'll finish up our look at of the durable hammerlock coupling link on our 2012 Ford F150..