New Collar swivel I made!

Made a couple swivels for the dogs, and they seem to work great, had it on the roughest dog and they are standing up to the abuse on the chain well! I tested them by dragging 4 wood skids behind the quad, for 7 mile tour and they are good enough for my dogs!



I make them out of my 3.5'' collar/axle rings and high grade bolts!

 

Those are nice Buck wish I had a yard to where i could us them.

 

I tried to make the bottom half in a smaller ring size and it wasn't an improvement , Plus the bigger rings, swivel better I find! I found the smaller rings not as strong material wise!

 

Bump! Bump!

 

Buck how do they work on a dog that hits the end of the chain?

Looks like it would hurt there so big :confused:

 

My dog isn't on a chain but I think it was RR that was saying those clips you use to hold the chain to the ring aren't the best things to use. I guess eventually it will unscrew and that would be bad. Yet again I don't have any experience with it but I figured I would relay the info.

 

that is true they will but that is part of takeing care of your dogs and checking there chain spots all part of the day

 

Be careful to keep an eye on them. I can see a dog getting front leg in lower swivel.

Shane

 

I stick weld them shut!
I have read RR post he speaks the truth! your have to find a way to make them bomb proof or use Marty cold shut idea! or the pound shut type RR way talking about, but i have a welder so they work for me!

 

Just a prototype so far! But that is a good point but my dogs have been wearing them for a week and no problems yet, I bought my original swivels from another Bulldog supply site and they are crap! more twisted chain then pretzel, and they were bugging me!!:mad: So I decided to give it a try and make a dozen and they work for me!

I would like a smaller bottom ring also, but don't want to sacrifice the strength! and like I said no problems so far!:rolleyes:

Buck

 

I tested them by dragging 4 wood skids behind the quad, for 7 mile tour, then put the skids in between the two stumps i found and backed up to the skids and floored it!!! Still didn't break the hard wood pallets did! They are tough I used a 15' chain to to simulate my chain length also!

As for them hurting the dog haven't had a problem yet, I rub them down for sore spots before run them on the trails. and when I read your post, I went out and rub down there chests , no sore or tender spots so far

And they turn great!!

Buck

 

they will unscrew no matter how tight you tighten them down. I use some locktight thread locking adhesive on them.It works really good. I check hardware at least once a day everyday, and since I started doing this, about a year now, haven't had one back out.Use sparingly, a little goes a long way.
Never tried welding them shut, that's a good idea Buck.

 

I'm going to go get 2ft x 2'' pipe and drill a hole the same as you would measure your diameter of your pipe, then I can make 2'' rings for the bottom ring, so I can use them on the beagles to! try to eliminate the bulky look same metal and strength tho! Worth trying anyway!

 

that would be cool buck, I might have to get some of those from you.I like the functionality, just not the bulky looks.

 

In my opinion the rings on those swivels are way to big..The ring that the collar goes thru should never be more than 2.5", as any bigger than that causes unneccisary rubbing..I also think that those have to be pretty uncomfortable on a dogs throat & chest, not to mention the risk of injury (as someone has already stated) ..

Two 2" rings attached with coldshuts to a regular swivel (that you can buy at any Tractor Supply), and then the other side of the swivel attached with coldshuts to the chain has been working for years, and is as safe as you can get..
Ive noticed that even 2" rings can cause rubbing/sore spots on the throat,so I have used d-rings (doubled up) instead of o-rings on a few chain spots..I dont think d-rings are as strong as o-rings, so I always doule them up, wheres Ive had chain spots with a single o-ring attached to the swivel..

 

I'm going to take all the feedback and re-design a little. Smaller bottom ring, on swivel. I would prefer the big ring on the collar because they work great! but the bulk of the 2 rings and bolt, I can see rhe reason for concern. They are still wearing them with no problems.

 

I agree with the coldshuts and the swivels you mentioned. The cold shuts if clamped down properly will never come apart. I use 3/8" cold shuts and 5/16" swivels and that's as heavy duty as a dog needs. I think anything bigger is overkill and too heavy on a dog. I do like the bigger o-rings though for the simple fact that I like to double up my 2" collars with a 1" collar for backup and the 2" rings get kind of cramped and don't allow the rings to move as freely if that makes sense?

 

Considering they make smaller swivels for $5 bucks or so, I feel his is to large and I believe a dog could accidentally get his front foot caught in it , the loop is to low and not safe

 

I like the set up.Yes the bottom ring is to big ive seen where they use a 1/2 of a chains link welded to the bottom of the top ring.

 

you can use s hooks too. attach the swivel to the s hook then th s hook to the o ring