My 4 wheel wagon

[SHANA]

Hi,

Well I got this 4 wheel wagon today and was wondering how I go about converting it so it also can be used for a team. It has the shafts for single which can be unhooked. This is my first 4 wheel wagon so not to sure. I have driven a team of ponies before but never paid to much attention to the hitching up of them. OH! Any info would be appreciated.

 

[SHANA]

Anyone????

 

[Relic]

l don't know a heck of a lot on wagons but l know this hay rack for a mini team works real good...l prefer the tires and turning radius on this one better then the one you have pictured. Sorry l know not much help on what you asked.. have you hooked up a mini and driven to see how well yours moves..we had one once and you could mostly just drive a straight line with it so got rid of the thing..

 

[EAD Minis]

I beleive you can get the pole from certain shops, cant think of any off the top of my head but try a couple of stores??

 

[SHANA]

Hi Relic,

No we have not hitched a mini but did pull it around ourselves. The shafts hit if turned to sharp but my husband is going to fix it so the shafts don't hit by making a attachement so that you can turn better without the shafts touching the wagon. He is very handy and can weld and makes 2 wheel carts. So I am not worried about that. If I had a picture of the team pole and how it hitches up to a wagon that has a similar hook up to mine he could probably build me one. Just looking on the internet it doesn't show much of the team pole itself.

 

[MiLo Minis]

Your new wagon, which is very cute by the way

, doesn't appear to have a fifth wheel so you are going to need to use a drop pole which will attach to the sides with clips just like your single shafts and you will be able to raise it up to the horses chests to attach to the yoke. You have choices of how to attach the traces. You can use singletrees attached to the splinter bar, or an evener with 2 singletrees on it attached to the splinter bar, or roller bolts on the splinter bar. The roller bolts are not the best because they don't allow the horses shoulders to move freely. I like an evener with singletrees. The singletrees allow the full movement of the shoulders and the evener takes up the slack if one horse is not putting forth quite as much effort as his partner and keeps them both in draft. I prefer a limited movement evener though to keep the horses from moving back and forth too much.

 

[MiLo Minis]

I looked through my books on carriages and driving and found this in Heike Bean's book, Carriage Driving. I think it shows you exactly what you need for your situation. Just envision the pole extending out far enough to extend past the yokes by a few inches, keeping the yokes close to the horses chests. There are 2 little singletrees on top of that evener, that need to be set far enough apart to allow both horses to bend around a corner, in case that isn't a clear enough picture. Notice how the evener can only move so far and then it hits the little stops.