Curious if anyone has repurposed the side chains from tire chains as trap drag chains, acquired 2 sets of chains the fit full sized pickup and contemplating taking the cross chains off and repurposing the side chains.

I did it with a set years ago. It worked fine. Chain is chain after all. As long as it is strong enough for the animal, you’ll be good.

I just did this last week and it works great! Alot of slicing and dicing but worth the effort in my opinion. Throw some swivels in and hook it up. Chains a bit heavier than it needs to be but I can live with that

I've used them quite a bit for dog chains, very strong chain that is tempered hard so it doesn't wear on all but the very cheapest tire chains. I've used it for trap chain on some double longs I center swiveled and modded for coyote traps quite a few years ago. Worked good, don't think I've ever added it to drags but should work good for that also.

Yea the chain is probably heavier than need be seeing as have used same type of chain for pulling a car out of deep snow in a ditch, as the saying goes use what is available.

Heavy is good Jingles.

I've used a whole camlock chain off a log truck as a drag, but never disassembled it to use as chain. If you get the big heavy chains off a big truck they're a great drag, they're heavy and they tangle on literally everything

Sounds more like a clog than a drag.

Drags for attaching to traps can be be made from lots of different material. Metal grapples, wooden branches/logs, concrete, brick or stone, even tractor or construction equipment chain (HD by far). The original question about car chain was "has anyone". Yes,,,, done it for about 40 years or more and have used the connecting chains (kinkless or twisted) as trap chains for staking to rebar. Clyde Pintock talks about his brother fastening a mink trap to some water soaked long johns (qualifies as a drag). I once fastened a couple of traps to an old car bumper, a couple of shopping carts and even a vacuum cleaner I found in our creeks (I have witnesses too!). Don't know if any critter could have moved them but I guess they could fall into the category of a "drag" if you want them to LOL. ..... the mike

I've used them for years. I also use the ends of the cross links to connect to stakes for solid sets - they just need minor tweaking so they swivel around the stake.

Big difference between a drag and a clog in intended application.
Clogs are best for large animals like bear and wolf.Less chance to escape the trap than a big animal staked solid since as long as they can move a bit they wont work the foot.
A clog should be the same weight or near so to the target animal.It works like a shock absorber since it will move when the animal lunges.It is also meant to tire the animal out quickly and when you check the animal will be close to the trapsite.
A drag needs to be much lighter so the snimal can get a fair distance and then hang up in brush.or cover. A drag should aldo leave a trail to follow since an animal on a drag can be much further from the trapsite than an animal on a clog.
Some trappers use a grapple drag by pre hooking it when setting in the bush,for speed and ease of setting in winter.
In that case it is neither a drag nor a clog but more of a solid staking.

You're right Boco, but around here anything movable is called a "drag", a log drag or "clog" is just considered a type of a drag. Yeah they are intended to tire the animal out with weight and cause them not to move far due to that rather than hook up solid in the brush (although they sometimes do), but since they are a "movable anchor" they are usually called a "drag." Often grapples are used here the same as you describe, pre hooked either for speed or ease of setting where driving stakes isn't easy or feasible. I sometimes chain solid to trees rather than use a grapple myself, but the grapple is quicker and easier. Also if the trees or brush within reach of the set are questionable on holding a large animal like a wolf, the grapple gives peace of mind that if they do uproot or break off whatever you have pre hooked it to, they will get hooked up again and not be too hard to find. I can't actually recall anything getting loose from any of the questionable items I have pre hooked to, but I know of a couple that I would never have felt comfortable trusting to hold if I had simply chained or cabled off to them without a grapple attached.

P.S. Every time I set a trap on a grapple where I want the caught animal to travel a ways and get itself hid out of sight when caught, they seem to always tangle up on the first available thing in plain sight. I set a wolf trap a few years ago in an open meadow about ten feet off a commonly traveled dirt road. There was one little lone pine tree about two inches in diameter growing in that meadow along the road. A week or two later I had a friend call me and ask if I had wolf traps down there. A coyote had gotten caught and tangled itself around that little pine tree, the following Saturday I was checking traps and I pulled up just after daylight to a wolf... tangled around the same little pine that I would have never thought would hold a wolf all by itself out in the open. With literally not a blade of grass to hide it from any passerby. So while it is a good plan, don't depend on drags allowing a catch to get out of sight of the public.

It is funny how those things work. Down here in Texas I use a lot of grapple drags. But on private ranches where I trap it is more about preserving my set than keeping an animal hid.

I want to get the animal away from a T-bone or flat set, etc. as quickly as possible so I can reuse it right away. It is funny that sometimes a little gray fox can take a 5 pound grapple drag 100 yards in thick brush, while a huge coyote will hang up 10 feet away on a tinyMesquite tree.

It is just a fact that we are dealing with wild animals. They do things that don’t seem logical. It is part of the fun and adventure.

Putting everything together for the drags and hoping not over doing it with swivels
1 at trap base
1 midway down factory trap chain
1 at end of factory trap chain where connects to shock spring
1 at connection for shock spring to 3 ft section of drag chain
1 where 3 ft section connects to 7 ft section
1 where chain connects to drag
Thinking as long as have to make the connections might as well use swivels instead of split rings