Operating Skills

[Soundguy]

I've had some luck backing in trailers wagons by using a hitch on my front bumper.. Thus.. 'driving them in.. not backing them in...

Soundguy

 

[JoshJ]

I've had some luck backing in trailers wagons by using a hitch on my front bumper.. Thus.. 'driving them in.. not backing them in...

Soundguy

Ditto. A hitch welded to the tractors front axle is great for that kind of thing. You can see, and the front of the tractor moves the tongue more than the back hitch does, so you can turn/correct faster.

Besides that, all I've got on backing in 4-wheeled wagons is to turn the wheel the direction you want the rear of the wagon to go. And avoid trying it on a slight slope, in wet ground, with a hayride of people and more than one flat tire....

 

[Marlowe]

When I first bought my tractor I thought I'd made a mistake and got one too small. Now, nearly two years later, either it's getting bigger and stronger, or I've finally learned how to work the little fella. I used to drag stumps with a chain, now I just pick them up with the FEL.

Speaking of backing trailers; when I was sixteen years old I went to work at a boat shop. I did a whole bunch of trailer backing in those days. I drove my car into a dead end road one day and tried to back out. I got mixed up without the trailer behind it. It's all about what you get used to.

 

[drssg]

No exceptional skills here. I do OK backing by visualizing how I want to move the hitch, instead of focusing on which way to turn the wheel. Mentally, it's almost as if I'm pushing the trailer back by hand. I would be toast trying to back two trailers at once.

These guys seem to do pretty well! Tractor Square Dancing

 

[Fjord]

Sometimes I help a friend pick up square bales off the field using his team of Belgians to pull the wagon. He can back up that wagon into the barn with the team better than I could back in the horse trailer using a pickup. That's a combination of good team and good teamster. You can leave them hitched to a wagon or sleigh not tied to anything and go in for a coffee for 15 minutes and they just stand there and wait.

 

[EddieWalker]

You might be refering to me. I can back a wagon without too much trouble. Done it every day for years out at the Oakland Airport. I tried plenty of times to back up a set to double wagons but could never get it. Not even from a perfectly straight shot on a smooth surface. There was one guy who could do it, but he was just that type of guy who did things that the rest of us just dream of being able to do. He had a knack for stuff like that.

I cannot work a boxblade. I've spent hours and hours trying to get it right, but the skill is beyond me. I can smooth a road by backdragging with my front bucket better than anything else I have.

I can level a pad with the dozer to just about perfect, but I cannot cut a drainage ditch and maintain a constant slope. I have allot of trouble eye balling a slope.

Eddie

 

[JoshJ]

I dont think I've done anything spectacular, but I remember a few of Dad's maneuvers:
- Loading packers hooked to the hitch on the front axle of the tractor while having a bush hog hooked to the back hitch, without getting jammed on either
- Backing the hay basket into the barn, with it hooked behind the baler
- Backing a 4 wheel wagon over planks to stack on another 4 wheel wagon to save space.

The trick at first seems to be to go slower than you think you should, and to watch everything that is going on (or get somebody to do the watching for you)

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I never considered them extraordinary skills, just what I had to know. Backing a trailer or backing a hay wagon was just a way of life. And if you've ever had to back a loaded hay rack into a barn just as a rainstorm is starting, you'll know that it can be done FAST. If you think it's tough with a tractor, try it with a pick up truck.....that's ALSO loaded with hay. Not nearly as manueverable as a tractor. (Learn to use the mirrors)

I took my shot at our 4H tractor rodeo way back then. I did ok. Not great, but just ok. My best friend smoked everyone. He had a great teacher. His dad. I saw the man back two loaded wagons, hitched back to back, in a barn, both OVER loaded with straw. He never stopped moving. One shot and in the door. (Trick is to KNOW HOW and KNOW WHEN to start turning. You don't make corrections, 'cause you don't make mistakes.)

My first house had a driveway that opened out onto a BUSY state hi way. There wasn't enough room in the drive to turn a trailer around. The only way in was to stop traffic and back in as fast as I could. I got better quick.

Trailer and wagon backing is like a lot of sports. The better you get, the more you can relax and enjoy. The more you relax and enjoy, the better you can get.

 

[Egon]

Backing up a wagon a long tongue makes it easier. A pair of horses hitched to the wagon makes it even easier.

As for operator skills it's just like sports. Combination of practice and the required physical coordination skills your genes gave you.

 

[ronjhall]

I can do fairly well backing a trailer. At one time I could back a hay wagon into the barn no problem. Today, I do not think I can get it done the first or 4th try. I put a trailer ball on the front of pallet forks. By the time I got trailer a pushed into barn. Had to go around and make sure there was still tail lights on it.