ABUS 14KS High Security Loop Chain, Pre-cut Lengths, Black

The 14KS comes pre-cut in three lengths: 2 ft, 6 ft, and 10 ft, each finished with a loop on the end. Pick the length by what you are securing to: 2 ft is a ground-anchor or single-gate tether, 6 ft covers most equipment-to-anchor runs, and 10 ft is for wrapping through several items or reaching a distant anchor point. The loop end is what you thread the chain back through or drop a padlock shackle into, so allow for the wrap when you size it.

Commercial. The 14KS is built from special hardened steel and is sold as commercial-grade security chain, which is the class of chain used for gates, yard equipment, compound anchors, and fleet or site security rather than a light garden-shed chain. Hardened steel is what resists bolt cutters and hacksaw attack; ordinary mild-steel chain of the same link size does not.

The 14KS is covered in a fabric sleeve specifically to keep the links off paintwork and chrome, so it can be run around a powder-coated gate frame, a painted rail, or a machine housing without marring it. The sleeve is on the black chain as supplied, not an add-on you order separately.

ABUS supplies the 14KS chain in barrels as well as pre-cut, and custom lengths can be cut from it. If none of the 2 ft, 6 ft, or 10 ft pre-cut pieces suits your run, the barrel chain is the route to a made-to-length piece. One trade-off: a cut length from the barrel does not arrive with the finished loop end that the pre-cut versions have, so the pre-cut loop version is the simpler choice whenever one of the three lengths works.

The loop end gives you a fixed anchor point at one end of the chain, so you can pass the chain around a post or through an anchor and back through its own loop, then take a single padlock through the far link. A plain cut chain has no such point, which means you need the padlock to close the circuit at both ends or you need a separate shackle. On the 14KS, the loop is what buys you the extra fixing options, and it is standard on all three pre-cut lengths.

Yes, and that is a common way to buy it. The 14KS is one chain in one black sleeved finish, offered in 2 ft, 6 ft, and 10 ft, so a facility can put the same hardened-steel chain on every gate, cage, and anchor and vary only the length. Standardizing the chain also lets you standardize the padlock behind it, which is usually the bigger win for a property manager running keyed-alike locks across a site.