Hay Wagon

I agree with George, though sometimes when it comes to having to replace some of the wood I briefly think otherwise, but keeping the $ local is pretty important to me and when I can use my own materiels or some from a neighbor, that’s great. Jay

You can even make them 17′ 6″. For flat ground and longer fields. This keeps you from having to stack them so high. The extra foot and a half will allow you to stand on the wagon and pull it with horses, if you have that kind of tongue. I have two wagons with a sliding tongue. Slide it in and pull it with the forecart, tractor, or baler. Slide it out, put a pin in it, evener on, and pull it with a team. I have found these tongues to be useful. Nice even for backing up to the loaded wagon. Slide the the tongue out to hook up. drop the pin in and back up until they hit. Drop the second pin and go.

The sliding tongue is pretty easy to make and has proven very handy. I leave it short and pull it with a forecart most often. When a wagon is full we will unhook from the baler and hook to another. Now the full wagon is much easier to hook (pto cart, forecart, tractor, or truck) with the sliding tongue. Once you back up close (with in two or three feet) hop off and slide the tongue out, hook pin to cart, then back until you hit and add a second pin. Ready to go.

My sliding tongue is made of two pieces of square tubing, I think they are 2 1/2 and 2″. with 3/16″ wall thickness. the smaller one has two pieces of channel about a foot long welded above and below the end forming the hitch. When you back until the channel hits the larger square; this is where a set of holes is drilled through both tubes for a second pin, making it easy to lock after backing into it. There are also a second set of holes that can be used when the tongue is long enough for horses. A neck yoke with a ring will slip over the channel on the end; and a hammer strap and hole for a pin are in place for an evener. Make sure the tongues are long enough so you will have a good overlap when using it long. Mine got a little short at just under a foot. Two feet would be much better. My horses are also a little close to the bed of the wagon but this is just an over-site in design.

She looks good and stout. Did you attach the deck to the bunk standards?

I used big galvanized nails on mine cause they don’t pull out. I find that screws tend to snap when I use em on wagons – too much flex, or maybe I just beat on my wagons too much. I built a trailer deck out of pressure treated lumber once. New, green lumber. Oh gosh – so heavy! Had to tighten everything down when it dried. Is that why you went with screws?