How to back up a pivoting axle trailer

[kmesr9]

If it were me I’d have a slot drilled to use drop a spring pin or bolt through when backing it. If you lock the axle up and are hitting the rear tires the tongue is too short. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Sell it and buy one without that extra pivot point. Problem solved. Actually, not solved, just moved to another unsuspecting person.

Yeah. And outlaw doubles while we're at it, since they can't possibly be backed up.

 

[CH4Ohio]

If it has a tongue, it's a wagon. The only way to back one up is to be able to watch the tongue and front wheels so you can tell which direction you're going. Get situated so you can see the tongue and it should be pretty obvious what you need to do.

 

[Geunther]

These wagons are a misery to back. One of the old timers I used to work for (early 1970's), could back three of these, loaded with hay through his barns! I have never learned to back more than one.

Reduce the amount of 'play' in your hitch point. This will help reduce the amount of overcorrection. Very small corrections when you are backing. Try to start the wagon straight to your target, if you have a big turn, make small adjustments. You will find it easier with a tractor, and if you have an older one without power steering, this will help also (it helps reduce the 'large' adjustments, since you are providing all the effort, not just spinning the wheel). Keep your wagon in good repair, so that any movement of the tongue actually moves the steer wheels. Most important, find a big field and practice, A LOT!

Once you have mastered backing one of these damn things, you have graduated to a very small, very elite group of operators.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Hate to be the one to say it, but . . .

Stories about anyone backing 3 hay wagons in anything except a very short straight line strike me as fantasy. As soon as one of them starts to turn, the tongue on the one behind it will go the other way and they're all jack-knifed within a very short distance. You can pull them forward all day long, but you just can't back a train of these hitched together.

As they say in the X-Files, "I want to believe". Fact is, the only way to back up 3 hay wagons is to pull the hitch pins and back them separately. Does anyone have a credible video of this maneuver?

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

If it has a tongue, it's a wagon. The only way to back one up is to be able to watch the tongue and front wheels so you can tell which direction you're going. Get situated so you can see the tongue and it should be pretty obvious what you need to do.

If you pull it, it is a trailer. If it has a tongue, it is still a trailer, but can be defined as a wagon by type. Just like a semi-trailer is a trailer, it is designated a semi- because it carries only a little more than half of its weight on its own axles.
When I had to back a trailer with a tongue, I'd drop the idea of backing a trailer and think about using the truck to steer the front dolly of the trailer. more difficult, but doable.

 

[CH4Ohio]

If you pull it, it is a trailer. If it has a tongue, it is still a trailer, but can be defined as a wagon by type. Just like a semi-trailer is a trailer, it is designated a semi- because it carries only a little more than half of its weight on its own axles.
When I had to back a trailer with a tongue, I'd drop the idea of backing a trailer and think about using the truck to steer the front dolly of the trailer. more difficult, but doable.

Wrong!

A hay wagon is never a "trailer". It doesn't matter that you "pull it". I really don't understand how this part of the conversation has survived.

A buckboard wagon was never a buckboard "trailer". A conestoga wagon was never a Conestoga "trailer". I don't recall John Wayne ever yelling, "Circle them TRAILERS". (Even though horses were PULLING them.) A Little Red Wagon is never a Little Red "trailer".

Go to JD, Kory, EZ-Trail, etc. and look at their hay WAGONS. They don't sell hay "trailers".

I have several trailers. I have several wagons. They are not the same just because you "pull them".

 

[CH4Ohio]

I know some of you guys have driven a team of horses hitched to a wagon. Imagine several wagons hitched together in a train and then imagine trying to back them up . . . Never gonna happen.

I used to love those old 20 Mule Team Borax commercials. Those were huge wagons hitched together in a train. They pulled them all the way across Death Valley. But there was no way they could back them through a barn or into a parking spot. (If you've never seen it, look up 20 Mule Team Borax.)

I occasionally pull 3 wagons loaded behind my truck to deliver hay, or to retrieve unloaded wagons. SLOW, of course. Pulling forward is not an issue as long as you make wide turns and remember your "length". I couldn't back those 3 wagons up more than a few feet and that wouldn't be "controlled" on the back end. Neither could anyone else.

 

[KennyG]

If anyone has a video of someone backing a double or triple wagon, I'd like to see it to understand how it is done. Back in the day, I knew people who would pull double hay wagons or grain wagons, but they would always unhook them and back them one at a time.

 

[LouNY]

I can back this rig up a considerable distance, occasionally I'll have to pull ahead to straighten up a bit.
My brother was much better at it, as is my nephew then I am. The tractor forage chopper and front steer wagon. Hay fields aren't bad, when you start opening up a corn field you may have to back it out a considerable distance to get to a spot to switch wagons without knocking down a lot of corn. Then you have a hedgerow or ditch or tree line crowding in on your left side, so no S's around.