[Rod]

How far away from the tree do you stand to do the thumb measurement?

[Rod]

http://www.dayspringfarm.com

[Rod]

@dominiquer60 30978 wrote:

I have been told that good rings can be fabricated from old truck springs, and the price is right if you have or have access to old truck parts laying around.

I have found that you have to be careful with the spring steel from old coil springs. If you heat them in a forge to bend the rings together and do not quench them right or anneal them afterward they can be brittle and fail under load. (that is the voice of experience speaking)

[Rod]

What about setting some panels to make an alley at the puddles so they have to walk through them as you go?

[Rod]

I noticed when I used my steers normal halter it had little effect when I tried to slow the boys down but when I switched to a rough rope halter that tightened on his nose when pulled on that it had a good effect. Or the chain hook location, that should work because if he wants to pull ahead he starts to pull the whole load with that halter which tightens up on his nose as he does so.

[Rod]

Thank you.

[Rod]

BTW I like your donkey and cart. He looks like a mammoth? And the cart design looks nice and light but rugged enough to do some hauling. Are the runners made of steel pipe?

Looks like you are not using a bit but just the halter. I might try that with my donkey.

[Rod]

I sold the wagon with the brakes on it so I can not get more photos but will try and explain how it was built.

The brakes were on a four wheel hitch wagon I built so I was able to set the frame up to receive the brake arm when I put it together. This is how it went:

The brakes worked on the back wheel on the rear of the tires so the thrust on the brake arm when engaged was upward. The brake arm was a 2×6 which fit in slots in the wagon frame. Stop blocks were glued and screwed to the 2×6 inside the frame to keep it aligned on the wheels. The brake pads as mentioned were made of a piece of cow mat sandwiched between the 2×6 and a piece of ¾” plywood and through bolted to keep the parts in place. The wood, rubber sandwich provides good friction from the rubber to rubber contact with the wheel and the wood part wears down the match the rubber profile as the brakes wear it. The pad and all the parts are easily replaced if you should wear them out which would take a lot of use to do. Above the brake arm you will see a caster in the photo. This keeps the arm from chattering or breaking as the brake contact with the wheel exerts upward force on the arm during operation. Two springs shown in the previous photo keep the brake arm away from the wheels when the brakes are not actuated.

A stranded cable is attached to the center of the arm and run through pulleys to the front of the wagon with a turnbuckle in line (for adjustment) to the brake pedal setup. Initially I used a boat trailer winch mounted beside the seat as the brake actuator but found it inconvenient to operate when I was driving so I changed it to a lever and then again to a pedal located in the center of the floor in front of the seat. This pedal shaft which extend through the floor is built of ¾” pipe which pivots at the floor level in two steel bushings made from 1” pipe welded to a mounting plate. To make the pedal operate by pushing the top away from the driver sitting behind it I mounted a pulley on the front frame bulkhead and ran the brake cable through it to turn the pull direction around. In addition I rigged a couple of extra pulleys underneath to provide a block and tackle arrangement so as to provide a 2:1 pedal force advantage. Also this setup has a heavy spring in the cable line to soften the brake action and pedal feel.

The additional photo below shows the front of the wagon with the original winch, the center lever which was later change to the pedal setup which worked the best.

[Rod]

Not when the horse is in alignment. With normal team line setups it is not possible to communicate individually with each horse since each line is split to both horses and a pull on that line effects both horses equally.

[Rod]

@Baystatetom 30677 wrote:

I have been fighting with my off steer for two years now trying to slow him down. At least my near steer moves at a reasonable pace and kind of acts like an anchor.

Driving horse teams that are not in alignment are sometimes evened up by the use of a buck back strap. What this device is if you are not familiar with it is a line running from the forward horses bit to the evener of the slower horse. In effect what happens when the fast horse pulls ahead the strap tightens and more of the load is transferred to the fast horses bit and it gets to pull the increased load with it’s mouth.
A similar principal might work with an ox team if a training halter was tied back with a rope to the load chain so that the slack in the rope was taken up when the fast ox pulled ahead and conversely let out when the fast ox evened out. It might take some experimenting to get it right but is a possibility.

[Rod]

My off steer does the same thing but not as extreme as what you have described about yours in other posts. The training I have been working on for driving from the front seems to help my steer in this area.

[Rod]

Today was much better. I have been training them to drive from the front so they would learn my pace which is a lot slower than their previous owner. I put a couple of real rough nylon rope halters on them today and tried the stone boat which they ran away with yesterday. By walking along a fence and building in front I was able to keep them down somewhat and then from the side the halters worked good to check their pace.The halters had a good effect and by the end of our session they were wrapped around the bows and I did not need them any longer.

[Rod]

Do you know how the retrieve drafts for reply’s. I spent a long time typing up how I built the brakes and then lost it by a missed keystroke but noticed an auto save window was appearing from time to time as I constructed the narrative. If not I will do it over again later.

[Rod]

Hi Tom

I have built friction brakes for a few vehicles and if done right are just as good or better than the mechanical brakes that Pioneer sells and a lot less noisy. I have the pioneer brakes on my for-cart and they squealed a lot and did not lockup evenly. The best set I built myself has a pulley and heavy spring arrangement to provide some softness to the pedal and provide adjustment. The brake pad is made of a wood sandwich with a piece of rubber cow mat in the center. This has good friction and locks the wheels up well.
The attached photo shows the Brake beam and the return springs. The pedal spring is a HT fence spring and is located in front of the wagon along with the cable and pulleys which give the mechanical advantage needed to put enough pressure on the brake beam.. Sorry I do not have any better photos of that part.

[Rod]

That is the article I was referring to.

[Author]

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