backing a four wheeled wagon

Greg

Practice with the wagon empty. Don't over load the wagon, trying to push a load up a bank is no fun. Narrow front is the way to go. Good brakes. Easy tractor to steer. Make sure hitch on the wagon is long enough, so that the tire on the tractor don't hit.

Watch the front tires on the wagon. Aim the back corner (that is easiest to watch to the point you wish to go). Remember if the wagon is 8' and the door is 12' it will fix. So knowing that it will just watch one side, ( to be on the safe side just as I'm about to pass into the barn, I get off and look ) . Have a bad habit of over loading wagons 7 rows is ok but 9,10,or ever 12 will just not fit LOL . I learn to stack on a hill side with an 80 yr young tractor driver, on a JD 60 , what a time LOL I was the only one out of 4 -5 kids that would stack, many any time we would have to restack loads, at Mr Mclaughlin's farm. So get me behind a good baler driver and a level field I get , well cared away.

Practice empty or small load. You put 160 bales on a wagon 4 tons and use a H to back her up a grade and your not going to be have much luck, having to go faster to be able to get it in, do to weight. Much easier to get 2.5 tons to move than 4 tons. Get help to watch, DON"T YELL AT HELP, Had that trouble so I have to watch my tongue.

Have a Good One !! Teddy

There arent all that many double axled (unless close coupled obviously) trailers here in the UK. Cant see why youd want them really, unless your pulling behind something that cant take down weight, ie a baler. The only times ive really seen them is the guys that buy old lorry trailers and stick a dolly thing under it to hook to the tractor.

If possible back in a straight line, or do what someone said, hook to the back of the trailer and push it, and get someone to steer.

Let me ask you this. If you were to walk up to the wagon and bend over pick up the tounge, could you by hand steer the wagon? Probally so. I use to not be able to back a wagon until I realized that if I pretended that the drawbar was my hand, I had no problem backing and generaly place in the wagon backing compitition at our tractor rodeo.

Some people NEVER get the hang of it.

We used to have a contest at the county 4H fair. You had to back a (loaded) wagon through an obsticle course. It was for time, with penalties for hitting cones. As soon as someone would hit a cone, they'd start to panic. That would lead them to try and go faster. Net result....More cones... One year, I decided to help with setting up the contest course. That's when i learned the "trick"! It was imposible to NOT hit a few of them. That was by design. You just needed to keep your composure when you hit the ones that were set "in harms way".

Growing up, my best friends dad could back TWO wagons, hooked back to back...He never tried to turn with them, but he could back them straight into the barn. SLOW...STEADY...and (did I say) PRACTICE!

Also, it helps to have 20' wide barn doors! John

Front hitches are very nice, especially as the neck and torso become not so agile as they once were. The vehicle I liked for backing was a skid loader with hitch where bucket normally goes. I could put my grain drill and corn planter through a door that was actually not as wide as they were.

Learning this at a very young age, important. You can pick those guys a mile away. I started driving highway Super B trains at 57. We had to back these close to 300 feet onto a platform about 1' wider than trailers, and the two units had to be in perfect alignment with each other. One was also backing to a bumper at a dead end. I remember the first time I went there, guy that operated faculity said after I backed on," not hard to pick out the old farm boys on this job." The very best wagon backers started at about 7 to 8 years of age. That you have missed.

The first time I tried the front hitch on my old truck, I backed a hay rack around a square corner then parallel parked it 5" from the barn. Those getting ready to unload the hay wouldn't believe I've never tried that before. It really worked slick.

Gerald J.

However I think longer running gear does back better than short. Also a worn gear with slop in the stearing is a real pain in the ____.

Practice, practice, practice.

Chuck

Every once in awhile, someone will post something up here that makes a guy think, especially if you have been doing it all your life.

Like John says, it takes a lot of practice, I guess. The main thing is not to "over-steer" with your tractor and use small corrections.

Tryin' to help,

Allan