Chain boat navigation on the Neckar was a special type of tugboat navigation in which chain steamers with several towed barges pulled along a chain laid in the river. It was used from 1878 between Mannheim and Heilbronn and from 1884 as far as Lauffen. Chain shipping considerably reduced the transport costs for skippers compared to the hitherto customary towage by horse, and made ship transport competitive with the railway once again. The progressive canalisation of the Neckar and the barrages required for this made chain towing more difficult and uneconomical. It was increasingly replaced by tugs with propellers, and was discontinued in 1935 with the complete expansion of the Neckar.

The flow conditions of the Neckar varied considerably along its course. On the approximately 113 km long stretch of river from the harbour in Heilbronn to its mouth in the Rhine, sections of the river with a steep gradient of 1:350 alternated with shallow sections with a gradient of only 1:10,000. If sections with a gradient of more than 1:700 are described as rapids, then this applied to around 7 % of the stretch, i.e. around 7840 m. In addition to the difficulties caused by the variation in gradient, there were also strong bends in the course of the river.

The river bed consisted mostly of shell limestone and coloured sandstone; however, there were rock sills in some places along the course of the river. The water levels of the Neckar varied greatly depending on the season and the amount of precipitation. The highest water levels were between 6.6 and 14.6 metres, depending on the section of the river, while the Neckar fell to less than 0.56 metres at low water in summer. In the very dry year of 1865, water levels below 0.56 metres were measured on 210 days, whereas this low level was only reached on one day in 1869. The low water levels significantly hindered ship traffic. In winter, frost also hindered navigation for an average of three weeks.

The flow rate of the water was between one and three metres per second, depending on the gradient and water level in the rapids area. The river conditions were therefore not particularly favourable for the circumstances at the time, but not overly obstructive either.

Until the 18th century, boat transport on the Neckar was traditionally carried out by people pulling their boats uphill from the land on towpaths. The boatmen let their boats drift downstream with the current. With the expansion of transport capacities, ships became larger and larger and shipping was reliant on horse-drawn towage. A typical ship's train consisted of a main ship with a mast, an anchor yacht [de] and an oar yacht. The cargo distributed between the three boats was typically around 120-150 tonnes. The crew consisted of the ship's owner, two sailors and a deckhand. In addition, there were six to ten draught horses harnessed one behind the other, which were ridden by four to five linesmen.

It was possible to cover about 20 kilometres a day in 5 hours, so it took about 5.5 days to cover the distance from Mannheim to Heilbronn. The horses had to be transferred from one bank to the other at five points, and additional horses were needed at certain points. The riders' wages were negotiated individually with the shipowner and varied according to water levels and demand. Operating costs were therefore almost impossible to plan. It was not until 1863 that annual contracts were signed. However, this did not prevent costs from rising steadily. In most cases, the income from the freight barely covered the transport costs. In some cases, the uphill journey was loss-making, and the downhill journey was only marginally profitable.

The main goods transported upstream were coal and colonial goods, while downstream were mainly table and rock salt from the Friedrichshall [de] and Wimpfen saltworks, timber and lumber, stone from the Odenwald quarries and grain. The total volume of goods transported on the Neckar at Heilbronn increased significantly from 25,600 tonnes (1836) to 79,600 tonnes (1854) and around 115,000 tonnes (1872). At the same time, competition from the railways became increasingly fierce. Railway lines were built mainly on the Mannheim-Heidelberg (1840), Heidelberg-Neckargemünd-Meckesheim-Neckarelz-Mosbach (1862), Meckesheim-Rappenau (1868) and Rappenau-Jagstfeld (1869) routes. The railway offered low fares and high speeds. For the boatmen, this meant that their declining incomes were offset by ever-increasing costs, leading to fears that shipping would cease altogether within a few years.

The first attempts to switch to steam were made as early as 1841 with a paddle steamer. However, these failed due to the difficult conditions on the Neckar. The low water level, the narrow bends and the strong current in the area of the numerous rapids made operation impossible or at least unprofitable, depending on the water level.