OT (double tonque)

[steve19438]

heard somebody talking today about a "double tongue" wagon hitch. used mostly to move hay wagons with a tractor. can someone explain this to me ? pics ?

 

[Dollar Bill]

For a definitive answer, could you provide a few more dots?

Here's one guess:

 

[steve19438]

the guy who was trying to explain it to me said it was a regular wagon tongue with a means to attach to back of wagon and to tractor and back a trailer into a barn. especially a "bank" barn. you still needed a human or two to manually steer wagon from front end. i think it was a home made affair.

 

[L.Fure]

I've seen people find all kind of ways to avoid learning how to back wagons into sheds or barns. It isn't something you can learn over night. It just takes a lot of practice. A lot of old timers were very good at backing wagons and implements into tight areas. I knew one farmer that could back a load of hay into a shed still hitched to the baler. I asked him what his secret was to be able to do that, and he told me it was all in the wrist. :roll:

 

[steve19438]

that was talent i never mastered. my old man would get so mad at me. only made matters worse.

 

[R Geiger]

(quoted from post at 16:35:02 12/21/17) heard somebody talking today about a "double tongue" wagon hitch. used mostly to move hay wagons with a tractor. can someone explain this to me ? pics ?

Backing up a single axle hay trailer was easy but a wagon with a front steerable axle was real fun. Worked or an uncle and he had a long drive to barn had wooden fence on both sides and not much room for error, but he had a lot of patience and let me learn.

 

[PumpkinHead]

(quoted from post at 21:35:02 12/21/17) heard somebody talking today about a "double tongue" wagon hitch. used mostly to move hay wagons with a tractor. can someone explain this to me ? pics ?

We use one all the time at my Pappys. It is basically a pipe with a hitch on each end. You then hook it to the back of the wagon and the back of the tractor and push it in. Some one still needs to steer the wagon tongue. Most of our kicker wagons do not have a door in the back so it makes it easier to unload.

 

[L.Fure]

Two things that make backing a wagon difficult. Having a lot of side to side slop in the tractor hitch, and play in the wagons steering mechanism. This will prevent you from being able to back a wagon in a straight line. Once you master backing in a straight line, you will soon learn to steer the wagon where you want it to go.

 

[hd6gtom]

A lot of guys put a hitch on the front and backed them in with that. For most it was easier than learning to back 1.

 

[Dollar Bill]

My Dad taught me to envision walking the trailer back then move the trailer hitch/ball the same way.

 

[L.Fure]

(quoted from post at 18:18:56 12/22/17) A lot of guys put a hitch on the front and backed them in with that. For most it was easier than learning to back 1.

One problem with that is the front of the tractor can get pushed off course by a heavy load on the wagon.

 

[steve19438]

you got it.

 

[Blue Jay]

(quoted from post at 10:34:14 12/22/17) that was talent i never mastered. my old man would get so mad at me. only made matters worse.

I had to learn to back a wagon at the age of 12, Dad had passed away and Mom and us 4 kids were keeping the farm going as that was all we knew.

I had loaded the wagon with corn and oats and went to the elevator to get it ground, the old men standing around just about died laughing as I kept working, finally got it close enough to load the sacks of feed. Told myself that was not going to happen again, think I burn't over a tank of fuel in the 2N as I practiced at home, next time we need feed ground their jaws just about hit the floor as some did not get there in time from the coffee table to watch. Those that did gave me a pat on the back.

 

[L.Fure]

(quoted from post at 23:10:20 12/22/17)

(quoted from post at 10:34:14 12/22/17) that was talent i never mastered. my old man would get so mad at me. only made matters worse.

I had to learn to back a wagon at the age of 12, Dad had passed away and Mom and us 4 kids were keeping the farm going as that was all we knew.

I had loaded the wagon with corn and oats and went to the elevator to get it ground, the old men standing around just about died laughing as I kept working, finally got it close enough to load the sacks of feed. Told myself that was not going to happen again, think I burn't over a tank of fuel in the 2N as I practiced at home, next time we need feed ground their jaws just about hit the floor as some did not get there in time from the coffee table to watch. Those that did gave me a pat on the back.

That's the true secret to backing a wagon, practice, practice, and more practice.

In my home town we celebrate "Dairy Days" in September. When I was young it had more to do with dairy farming, but now it's just a run of the mill carnival. The local FFA chapter used to have a lot of activities that were geared towards dairy farming in general. One activity they set up was a tractor driving obstacle course. They had a course set up and the contestant had to maneuver a tractor and wagon through it forward and backwards. One of the rules was not to slip the clutch on the tractor. Once you had the tractor in motion you were to keep your foot off the clutch peddle until you needed to stop. I remember people giving a contestant a hard time before he/she got on the tractor. After they got started it was completely silent until they finished.

 

[Dean]

Though I grew up on a small farm neither I nor my father was a real farmer, rather more of wannabes.

Though I thoroughly mastered backing a trailer and consider myself somewhat of an expert, I never had a steerable wagon to practice with so backing a wagon is a skill that I never developed.

My one or two wagon backing efforts were, no doubt, quite laughable to anyone who might have been watching.

Kudos to all of you wagon backing experts.

Dean

 

[HFJ]

i'm great at backing a trailer up... assuming it's light enough for me to lift the tongue and push it. with a vehicle, not so much.

 

[Leroy]

Had them all the time and were just galled a push bar. You could put the front of the wagon up to the elevator setting too close or in the barn to get a tractor so you could pull the wagon up to the elevator. To me a double toung is a toung that in short position was for behind the tractor with capabilities to make toung longer to hitch the team of horses to.

 

[Ed S.]

After sixteen years of "practice," I can back a hay rack about 30-50' before balling things up completely and having to start over.

I normally hitch to the front bumper on the 8N, though. The comment above about a heavy load 'steering' the tractor is spot on - there's a certain angle beyond which I know I'm going to lose traction on the three-ribs.

In fact, that same idea also seems to be the trick to backing a rack (at least to me) - input angles have to be kept tight!

es

 

[L.Fure]

(quoted from post at 04:59:27 12/24/17) After sixteen years of "practice," I can back a hay rack about 30-50' before balling things up completely and having to start over.

I normally hitch to the front bumper on the 8N, though. The comment above about a heavy load 'steering' the tractor is spot on - there's a certain angle beyond which I know I'm going to lose traction on the three-ribs.

In fact, that same idea also seems to be the trick to backing a rack (at least to me) - input angles have to be kept tight!

es

The one thing that makes me go off course is when I over steer while backing up. Then I have to do a pull ahead to straighten things out. I've had situations when I kept making the same mistake over and over. I'd start backing, get things out of wack, pull ahead, and make the same mistake. It's like my mind was somewhere else that day. Sometimes it's hard to stay focused.