Travois, anyone?

@Ixy 12328 wrote:

Has anybody used a travois with their oxen? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois

I’ve seen mongolians using them with yaks to carry the elderly on migrations – seems like a simple, easy way of transporting perhaps a single small bale, sack of feed or a load of firewood – I think I’ll give it a go!

it could work, but the problem i see would be placing too much weight on the neck.
if you’re using a single ox, and i think you do, maybe a little different design bcould suit you better. here some pics:

here the same design, a somewhat more detailed view

you notice that the load is actually carried on the back pair of staves, but so that a good part of the weight of the load on back staves is leaned on the front ones, so the load is for the most part held on these four. a significantly lesser ammount of weight is so placed on the animal’s neck, even if the design is somewhat more sophisticated.
the good thing about this design is that it retains the benefits of a travois, such as relative simplicity, low loading surface, but doesn’t inherit the faults of a sled, such as enhanced friction on the runners.
this design also makes possible to load a heavier load rthan on the travois without the same friction as the same sized sled.

oh, ok.

than an actual travois would be better.

always wondered how the dogs could pull significant loads with a travois, guess i need to look more into the problematics. overall, a good idea, give it a go!

So,Ixy,any progress?
~~R