Patent ID: 6971661

Claim:
A safety cable cartridge for connection between a towing vehicle having a hitch ball and a trailer including a coupler housing mounted to a tubular trailer draw bar of the trailer and extending forwardly from the trailer and defining an elongated opening therein sized and shaped for mounting therein a ball receptacle, said cartridge comprising: an elongated support tray for positioning in the elongated opening of the coupler housing, a safety cable assembly positioned in said support tray comprising: a safety cable having a proximal end and a distal end, a coil compression spring surrounding said cable, said spring having a proximal end and a distal end, said proximal end of said cable operatively connected to said proximal end of said spring and movable in unison with said proximal end of said spring along the length of said cartridge housing, a spring anchor positioned at the distal end of said spring for retaining the distal end of said spring in said cartridge housing, said support tray defining an elongated groove therein and said cable and spring are received in and movable along said groove, such that as the distal end of the cable is moved out of the cartridge for connection to a hitch of a towing vehicle, the proximal end of said cable compresses the spring and the spring biases the distal end of the cable back toward the coupler housing.