DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Sustainable Living and Land use › Sustainable Farming › Reducing tongue-slap
- This topic has 18 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 7 months ago by
Jay.
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- April 23, 2012 at 5:27 pm #43755
near horse
ParticipantNot sure if this is the “right place” for this but ……. this last weekend I was dragging a harrow over recently tilled ground and experienced quite a bit of tongue slap, actually more tongue sway/swing. This was a 2 wheeled cart but I’ve had similar action with my 3 wheeler. Any thoughts on reducing this? My horses are “good eggs” about stuff like this but I do ask a lot from them as a team so I would like to make their work environment as forgiving/comfortable as possible. Thanks.
April 23, 2012 at 6:51 pm #73569grey
ParticipantD-ring harness. 😉
April 23, 2012 at 7:03 pm #73570ParticipantIf we back up a little and look at the reasons that tongue-slap is undesireable, I come up with:
– puts torque on the collars
– can hit the horses with the tongue
– makes a gawd-awful racket which could potentially startle a team and cause them to boltA wider evener and neck yoke would get the horses away from the tongue and out of the line of fire. A D-ring harness eliminates the collar-tongue association found with belly-backer harnesses and removes the collar torque. The third one is just a matter of experience and teamster vigilance.
Have I overlooked any of the concerns associated with tongue-slap? Disking across plowed sod can be bad for producing tongue-slap, as can any vehicle with thin/narrow wheels across rocky terrain.
April 23, 2012 at 7:08 pm #73575ParticipantSo I assume that the trouble is in the length of my breast strap. As you know, Jenny, I have pretty tall horses so I let out the breast straps to get the tongue down into Earth’s orbit. That would allow more swing/sway, I think. Might have to look at Donn’s alteration of harness to D-ring article again.
BTW – what trouble have you been up to, young gal?:o
April 23, 2012 at 8:13 pm #73571ParticipantYeah, longer breast strap willl allow for more sway. I assume you’re running the typical breast-strap-with-combination-snap? Not a chain and Mast clip or a breast strap with a sliding snap?
Is your breast strap pretty snug in the raceway on your combination snap?
Just got back from the SFJ auction last night. Gloating over my loot and still shaking my head at some of the treasures I had to watch slip past me.
April 24, 2012 at 3:39 am #73576ParticipantI’m afraid to hear what I missed at SFJ this year. Just couldn’t muster the effort to drive down on Tues, back on Fri PM and load up for Colfax early Sat AM. – must be gettin old.
So let’s hear about the auction AND your “loot”! :>)
April 24, 2012 at 5:10 am #73572ParticipantMostly just picked up odds and ends. I learned my lesson about bragging on my good purchases when I unwittingly told the consigner of my new horse hair mecate that I’d snagged it for $2.50. Oh, was he ever displeased.
Prices were down… except, it seemed, for all the 23″ collars I tried to bid on. Mowers were back down in the realm of reasonable. $800-$1400 for field-ready to rebuilt and freshly powder coated. A treadmill went for $900. A single horsepower went for $2000. I believe that last year an identical one went for $3200. Three single-horse mowers $950 to $2000. Minnie Moline loose hay loader $1450. Vehicles went pretty cheap for the most part. Couple of exceptions. Excellent prices on the really nice vehicles. Quite a bargain for whoever brought them home. Didn’t see what the two Canadian competition plows went for. One was completely tricked out with a coulter knife, a jointer, a depth wheel.
April 24, 2012 at 7:08 am #73577ParticipantThanks Jenny – didn’t mean to put you on the spot ;>)
April 24, 2012 at 1:00 pm #73566Marshall
ParticipantCould the tongue slap be cause from too little tongue weight? I built my forecart with and adjustable seat for different loads like a hay rake as opposed to a trailer. When I have the seat moved back for less tongue weight there is more side to side movement. Just a thought.
April 24, 2012 at 3:30 pm #73578ParticipantMarshall – Yep, you hit another point of trouble. On the 2 wheeler I used on Sun, no doubt that lack of tongue weight was an issue. The seat was far enough back of the axle that when I sat down the tongue would lift up. But I mostly stood while harrowing – sat while resting.
On my 3 wheeled version, I have no height adjustment on my front wheel – tongue (pipe) just slides inside part of the frame so height is fixed (too high IMO) right at neck yoke level for my team. That brings up an interesting conundrum RE: alleviating tongue weight. I’ve always been concerned about too much but obviously not enough or zero isn’t that great either. How to design in the ability to adjust to a “happy medium” based on hitch weight. Movable seat is seen most often but IMO needs to be in conjunction with seat placement in relation to the axle. And add in the 3rd wheel and I’m confused about the real benefit etc.
April 24, 2012 at 6:49 pm #73567ParticipantGeoff, I will see if I can get my wife to post a picture of how I made mine. I can go from directly over the axle to about 10 inches forward.
April 25, 2012 at 1:06 am #73579ParticipantPictures are ALWAYS good. Thanks Marshall.
April 25, 2012 at 1:13 am #73582Jay
ParticipantAs was said earlier, D ring harness and most all of that goes away. The pole can weigh what ever it does and the horse’s backs carry the weight, the pole is secured tightly side to side with the tight hitch, so not much bounce there. Jay
April 25, 2012 at 1:50 am #73568Participant
Here are the pictures, I hope they work. This is my first try at posting a picture.April 25, 2012 at 4:49 pm #73580ParticipantThanks – downloaded pics worked fine. Got one more of the rear?:p (the cart’s not yours!)
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