How to back up a pivoting axle trailer

[Eebbee]

I just got an utility trailer with two axles. The front axle pivots.
The tongue is A-Frame. It looks just like the photo attached.
While I am normally pretty good at backing up trailers -without pivoting axles- I find this one is just about impossible to back up. I don't know if it's because the tongue is too short or if it is the double pivot point that screws me up.

So for those of you whom own one of these how do you back them up?
Do I need to lengthen the tongue?DO I need to rig it so I can tie the 3-points lower arms to the tongue or do I need to fit something to lock the tongue at the 0 degree position when backing up?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Norm W]

It is like playing a piano............Practice, Practice, Practice.

 

[oldnslo]

you have to start directional corrections much sooner with steering axle vs straight axle and if looking in mirrors frequently much harder to judge trailer angle vs truck angle.

With the steer axle trailer the rear of tow vehicle moves same direction as rear of trailer which is exact opposite of straight axle trailer.

 

[bigtiller]

It's a wagon, not a trailer. (who cares, right?)

The fastest way to backup a wagon is to put a hitch on the front of the tractor and back it up driving the tractor forward.

 

[jfsawatzky]

I can’t offer any advise… but to me that’s like a hay or forage wagon not a trailer.

 

[leonz]

I just got an utility trailer with two axles. The front axle pivots.
The tongue is A-Frame. It looks just like the photo attached.
While I am normally pretty good at backing up trailers -without pivoting axles- I find this one is just about impossible to back up. I don't know if it's because the tongue is too short or if it is the double pivot point that screws me up.

So for those of you whom own one of these how do you back them up?
Do I need to lengthen the tongue?DO I need to rig it so I can tie the 3-points lower arms to the tongue or do I need to fit something to lock the tongue at the 0 degree position when backing up?

Thanks in advance.


View attachment 849621

If you are at all familiar with small towed trailers, they have safety chains
welded to the trailer hitch to prevent a runaway trailer if it breaks the
hitch ball connection on the car or pickup bumper.

Both lengths of safety chain are long enough to cross each under the
stationary hitch welded to the trailer and then you twist each of the
safety chains tight with enough slack to reach the welded loops on the
bumper hitch. This assures that the trailer stays in a linear track with
the towing vehicle and reduces swaying to a minimum.

In your case you would have to add chain to the lower body of the trailer
to enable you to attach the safety chains hooks to the lower links with shackles
looping the chain though the shackles and using baling wire or loop hitch pins to
secure them to prevent them from separating.

Your trailer has a long tongue and you can back up slowly using a steering wheel knob
as long as you have patience to learn how to back up as you have to steer in the opposite
direction to counter the rear of the trailers desire to move.

A hitch mounted on the front of your tractor eliminates all of the above so that
would be much simpler.

 

[Eebbee]

OK Wagon. I have no issue with the term.

I already figured that it goes reverse as a normal trailer but I still cant get it to back up properly.
Would lengthening the tongue make it easier?
Or any of the other possibilities I mentioned eliminating one of the two pivot points i.e. either pinning the axle so it does not rotate when backing up or braising the tongue (using the 3-point arms) so the hitch does not pivot?

 

[KennyG]

Having grown up on a farm with those wagons, I can tell you no one finds it "easy". Until you have lots of practice, the only advice I can give is to go very slowly and think about how steering the tongue will move the wheels. If you have a front hitch, any trailer/wagon is easier if you can drive forward, but that may not be an option.

 

[bcp]

When we used wagons on the farm, things were arranged so no backing was needed. Too may people can't back even a long single-axle trailer.

Bruce

 

[workinonit]

I can back a wagon with a tractor but not so much with a truck. You won't learn on this forum. That's for sure.

 

[rScotty]

Having a hitch ball on the FEL so you can drive forward to back the trailer up sure does help.

We have an SSQA adapter plate for the FEL that has several different attachments built onto it - including a tube for a hitch ball and also 3pt fittings.
It's real handy for loading implements onto trailers, too.

 

[MossRoad]

Having grown up on a farm with those wagons, I can tell you no one finds it "easy". Until you have lots of practice, the only advice I can give is to go very slowly and think about how steering the tongue will move the wheels. If you have a front hitch, any trailer/wagon is easier if you can drive forward, but that may not be an option.

This!

Airplanes are the same way. You tow them from the nose wheel, which pivots just like a hay wagon front axle. You face the airplane and push it into just about anyplace you want. If you try that with the rear hitch on the tug, forget about it.

 

[LouNY]

It is quite doable it is not real easy but not bad with practice, that said. Do NOT try and eliminate that axle pivot unless you like to break things.
I am hoping you are attaching to the fixed drawbar on your tractor, if trying to use a sloppy floppy bar in the 3 point you are making it even harder to backup.

If you want to make it a bit harder try this setup.

This double rake is even worse

 

[Williy]

To me those wagons are like a case of hemorrhoids I can do nver nicely without!

willy

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I just got an utility trailer with two axles. The front axle pivots.
The tongue is A-Frame. It looks just like the photo attached.
While I am normally pretty good at backing up trailers -without pivoting axles- I find this one is just about impossible to back up. I don't know if it's because the tongue is too short or if it is the double pivot point that screws me up.

So for those of you whom own one of these how do you back them up?
Do I need to lengthen the tongue?DO I need to rig it so I can tie the 3-points lower arms to the tongue or do I need to fit something to lock the tongue at the 0 degree position when backing up?

Thanks in advance.


View attachment 849621

What are you going to do with it? If you can use a regular trailer instead of that, get rid of it, they are a headache trying to back up behind a truck.

 

[LouNY]

What are you going to do with it? If you can use a regular trailer instead of that, get rid of it, they are a headache trying to back up behind a truck.

Why they are handy, have almost no tongue weight, are easy to hook up. Don't rear up in the air like a single axle trailer will just walking around on it.
The same tongue weight empty or fully loaded.
No need for a jack to hold up.

 

[BlueKnife]

So for those of you whom own one of these how do you back them up?
Do I need to lengthen the tongue?DO I need to rig it so I can tie the 3-points lower arms to the tongue or do I need to fit something to lock the tongue at the 0 degree position when backing up?

Thanks in advance.


View attachment 849621

I don't own one currently, but have used plenty of them. That's a wagon, BTW, not a trailer. Anyway, yes, lengthening the tongue can help by making steering adjustments have a less dramatic effect. Similar to backing a long trailer, the longer the distance from hitch to axle, the easier it is to control. Think of the pivot point of the tongue of your wagon the same way you think of the center point of the axle/axles on a trailer. It's the same thing as backing two trailers at the same time. You'll break something for sure if you try to lock the tongue. As has been pointed out, all of this is easier if you have a hitch on the front of your tractor, rather than the rear. Really though, this isn't something you can learn from reading. You have to just learn by experience.

 

[5030]

I can’t offer any advise… but to me that’s like a hay or forage wagon not a trailer.

Exactly my thought. repurposed hay rack and the only way to back them up is either put a hitch on the front of your vehicle or on your tractor so you can watch which way it going. If not, practice, practice, practice...

 

[Farmer495]

How do you back it up?

Use reverse!

The shorter the wagon wheel base and shorter the hitch, the harder it is though.

There is no mystery to backing a wagon up, just takes a lot of practice, I have decades of it though.

Just imagine the tractor is the "steering wheel" for the front axle of the wagon, use the tractor to move the wagon pole the same way you'd turn the steering wheel.

No need for front hitches or other stuff, regular hitch, choose the lowest reverse gear and keep your RPMS up as needed for good steering.

I have several wagons, when I did square bales almost every wagon was backed into, or away from, the hay elevator at the barn. Back loaded wagons into the shed if I couldn't get them unloaded before rain. I could even back up a wagon while hitched to a baler. I've backed them up with pickup using mirrors as well, just takes more time. I can back up two wagons hitched together in an emergency but it's a very slow process.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Why they are handy, have almost no tongue weight, are easy to hook up. Don't rear up in the air like a single axle trailer will just walking around on it.
The same tongue weight empty or fully loaded.
No need for a jack to hold up.

Because if he doesn't have a practical use for that wagon such as hay ride, hay wagon , corn wagon ,etc, he will be much better off IMO with a regular trailer. I hope he comes back and let's us know what he plans on using it for and depending on what he says it might change my mind, most farm folks around here try to figure out how not to hook up to a wagon with a tongue on it, especially behind a pickup.