Couple more pics of the Chuckwagon Wreck--

Here's a few more pics of the chuckwagon. We have decided we may be able to salvage the rear wheels. The heifers are loving the extra feed.

Torch, welder, a little bondo, some JB Weld and a touch of Duct tape.
Good to go! :lol:
Glad no one was hurt!

Don,
Is the running gear trashed from the "free" ride? How is the condition of the wagon box? Glad no one was hurt. Reminds me of the one time I unhooked my feed wagon from my tractor. I used to have 2 ton of feed on a flare box wagon that I always backed inside my barn so I could feed my beef cows daily. Anyway, like an idiot I unhook the wagon from the tractor because I can't back a wagon if my life depended on it. I was going to push the wagon inside the barn after unhooking, yea right. Guess what? The wagon decides to take off through 3 strands of electric fence and stop out in the cattle pasture. I have a small gradual hill to get into the barn. All I could do was stare like an idiot and watch my wagon bust through the fence and keep going. So now I had to hurry up a figure a way out to fix fence, keep the cows in and get my wagon back. It was a long night! It all worked out in the end. I learned my lesson the hard way. I guess that is the only way I ever really learned anything. LOL
Kow Farmer

A couple years ago I was chopping corn and the spindle snapped off the front tandem on the back of our wagon. Dug in and wrecked the back 1/2 of the running gear. I was able to fabricate a new back 1/2 with some new steel and got it back in service in time for 1st crop the next year.

Don't look like that one can be so easily put back together...

Donovan from Wisconsin

It isn't the first wagon we've lost that way. Parker cut one loose about five years ago and it took off. missed another wagon by a foot or soo, hit a rut from a truck in the wet spring mud and went airbourne. It came down into the rut from the other wheels and the front end of the running gear folded up kinda like the wings on a carrier plane.

On another note, I cut one loose from the chopper about two weeks ago and it took off over at my place. It hit the pasture fence and took out two posts, ran over the fence backwards, and the high tensile wire hooked a bolt under the tongue. It pulled out the staples for about six sections in either direction, but got stopped about like the arresting wire on a carrier. My vision was that of having the whole fence follow the wagon on down the hill for 300 feet or so.

Over at Sam's, we started out with six wagons, and are now down to four with two more days to go. Winter repairs are going to be fun....

We NWIA flatlanders don't have that happen quite as often though every fall someone dumps a load of corn in the ditch. I've only had one wagon come unglued and it was empty and happened on a flat road. I had a smaller barge wagon hitched behind a big gravity wagon. I couldn't see the barge wagon back there unless I turned a corner. Took off from town with the empty wagons behind the 1086, went the six miles home, turned into the field and when I looked back the back wagon wasn't there. Backtracked clear back to within 1/2 mile of town and there was the wagon in the ditch upright with the tongue thrust into the ditchbank. The hitchpin was still laying in the middle of the road. The ditch was shallow and there was no damage at all. I just had a red face and I pulled it back out before anyone saw me. Jim

Just south of Dubuque, Iowa 6-7 years ago a farmer unhooked a loaded wagon the tractor/chopper driver took off to the next wagon. The wagon started rolling forward. The farmer grabbed the tongue to steer it up the hill to stop it. The wagon got going too fast for him. He got wrapped around the front axle and drug down the hill. He left a wife and kids on a diary farm. If I see one start to take off I just watch it go. I can always fix or replace it.

One of my wagons, when I bought it, had a little collision damage. I have reduced the likelihood of a runaway by putting a large screw hook into one of the left front cross members and hanging a wheel chock there. That doesn't mean I never get one however. Two years ago I headed out to bale with a wagon behind the baler. I always use a spring retainer clip to keep pins in place, but rarely on a hay wagon because they pull out when crossing a dip. So I pull into the field and go to open the baler, and no wagon. So I back tracked and found it sitting beside the road as if I had parked it there.

Post it in the Photo Ads!

Don't forget the "Ran Good When Parked"!

Curious as to why all the feed on the ground in front of the wagon. Did it roll forward into the ditch and the abrupt stop discharge all the feed out the front? Looks to me that if rolling forward, draw-bar would have dug in some way and caused it to turn/jack knife front axle and perhaps slowed or turned it across the hill. If rolling rearward, draw-bar would have trailed behind and not had a steering effect. If it went into ditch rearward, abrupt stop would cause the load of feed to have burst rear door open and pile of feed would be behind wagon. Sorry for the loss, but it would have been a show to have seen it happen.

That thing broke loose way up on the hill, made a slow turn to the right, gathering speed all the way down, took out several hundred feet of fence, traveled about 800 feet, and went airbourne coming off the bank. When it hit, it threw about half the load through the beaters, bulged the front end out far enough to pull beaters out of the bearings, and threw half the load out forward about fifty feet. the front wheels are shoved back to just forward of the rears and the unloading table is crushed into where the front wheels used to be, and the tongue is still invisible somewhere underneath. We may be able to salvage the rear tires(?).

There's a wagon like it ready to work for sale down the road from me in New Jersey . . . no dairy around here anymore so probably going to sit for a long time or sell cheap. I can get contact info . . . .

My e mail is open----

never had that ever happen but then i dont use chopper wagons just a dump wagon. ive had that come unhooked on its own in the field a couple times but never on a hill. although ive had the mixer wagon come unhooked more than a few times on the hill going up the barn. lucky it was in the driveway at the bottom 2 times so if had broke free on the hill it would have rolled all the way down accross the road and theres a 5 ft drop off going into the feild accross the road so it would destroyed it. its happened on the ford 6610 everytime the hitch broke right where it bends up 2 times. tand 1 other when i was just leaving the bunk with a small load the pin came out for the draw bar in the middle of the road. lucky the it had a smallish load but the skid steer could just barely move it and got it out of the way just in time before a car came flying over the hill. my son also pushed the little ford 4610 down the hill trying to jump start it. got real lucky on that one. it had the rake on it too and it wasnt on a slope enough to jusmp it so he took it out of gear took the brake off and started pushing it started rolling and he couldnt catch back up to it and it was a long a$$ steep hill too. i was in the dump truck waiting for the worker to dump the load in the truck but i saw it and took off right before the load dumped and chased it down the hill where it leveled out a little so it slowed but then there was another steep hill so it kept going again hit wood chuck holes everything in the tool boxed fell out it could have easily went striaght and in the ditch and smashed the whole thing but luckly it turned a little bit and steered toward the woods and it stopped like 3 ft before smashing into a huge rock pile.

Years ago we had a 122 chuck wagon run off and go down a hill through a rock ledge with some trees.It almost made it except that the cross conveyor extention caught the tree and ripped it backward and turned the cross conveyor down and crushed it in.Six inches and the wagon would of been unharmed instead it went to the junk yard.It also threw silage out the front like yours did.By the way that is a forage box and not a Chuck wagon,only 110,112,115,122 and 125's are true chuck wagons the rest are forage boxes(not that it matters).Almost anyone who talks about Chuck wagons has experience with Deere wagons.We still use several 122 and 125 chuck wagons.