Aluminum Pole

[Does’ Leap]

I have broken many poles over the years without incident. Last year I was working in the woods with my logging arch geeing the horses in a narrow space between a log on one side and a large berm on the other. The pole got wedged and broke. The cart then pitched forward and the dash of the logging arch slammed into the horses’ rear-ends. As I was also pitched forward a lost tension on my lines and they took off. The floor of the cart and the dash created a perfect basket from which I was unable to extricate myself and I found myself behind a couple of galloping horses. After a thousand yards we all went over a culvert into a stream. Remarkably I was not seriously injured and I was able I free up one horse from the wreckage. The other horse was cast the stream partially stuck in the culvert with temperatures well below zero and dusk approaching. After an hour or so, my wife and I were able to get him out of the stream using a winch and block and tackle, pulling up by his halter. Remarkable we did not break his neck. The horse was severely hypothermic and we spent hours shuttling between the clothes dryer and the barn with blankets trying to get him warm. Somehow made it through the night and was OK.

I was no stranger to runaways early in my horse career. However, after 5 years of working regularly with this team logging, haying, spreading manure, etc., without incident the possibility of a wreck couldn’t have been further from my mind. I had been in numerous dicey situations with these horses and they remained calm and collected throughout. Then a combination of factors come together resulting in near disaster and I was lucky to have made out of that situation alive as was my horse.

After that experience, I started to look at my equipment more critically trying reduce or eliminate risk where possible. This brings me to the title of this thread. I spoke with an Amish fellow last year who manufactures aluminum poles. Shipping the pole was prohibitively expensive and he was kind enough to share some plans. I modified to pole to accommodate my plug yoke set-up. I am in the process of setting up my equipment with 3 x 3/16″ square “receivers” to accept this pole. One pin secures the evener between the hammer strap and receiver and also secures the pole. Pull the pin, remove the pole, slide it into another receiver on a different implement and off you go.

Aluminum has a very high strength to weight ratio and it does not rot or rust. It will also bend before it breaks. I just started using it and have only spread a couple thousand bushels of compost, so time will tell whether it holds up. Since I can’t weld aluminum, I had a local shop fabricate it. Cost me $215. You can see some pictures of the pole below (I hope).

I have also attached a basic set of plans.

Safe travels.

George

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[Does’ Leap]

Take 2 on the pictures:

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Take 3…..

Try this Link

[Ron]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I went the same route of the metal pole although not aluminum. I used steel pipe with heavy wall fitting a smaller pipe into a larger pipe. I can’t remember the sizes it was just pipe out of the scrap pile. It has worked well for years. This was great because it allowed me to build off set poles for three horses and shafts for one all that fit in the receiver and all from indestructible metal.
The one thing I did was to use a three quarter inch threaded rod for a bolt to secure the various poles. I used threaded rod because I could not find a long enough bolt. Here is the important part sorry to be so long winded. The rod was what we called airplane grade rod…
I suspect that meant grade eight but I don’t know. That rod has been out side in the rain and snow and use for fifteen years and it is still straight and unrusted. I would not try any of this without that airplane threaded rod.
Ron

[Ed Thayer]

George,

Very glad to hear you and the horses survived your ordeal. That sounded scary.

Did the square tube fit the forecart mount or did you have to modify it? The price seems reasonable for something you will not have to replace in your lifetime.

ED

[Does’ Leap]

Hi Ron, I can get grade 8 bolts of any length from a local shop. I used them to secure the receiver and also make hitch pins out of them. I weld 1/2″ round stock to the head of the bolt for a handle and drill out the bottom to accept a cotter pin – very rugged.

Hi Ed, I had to bolt and weld a length of 3″ x 3/16″ square tubing to the bottom of the forecart to accept the pole. I plan on doing that do most of my equipment. Regarding cost, $215 was a little pricey but I came to the same conclusion – should last many years.

George

[Donn Hewes]

I am planning to put steel tongues on most of my equipment this spring. There is a part of me that thinks it reflects poorly on me that I couldn’t maintain something as simple as a wooden tongue, but I also have to think about students, green animals, etc. There is a reason why all the eveners and most of the neck yokes are steel. I bought 10 pieces of 2″ x 2″ steel tubing with 3/16″ wall. This is definitely on the strong side. Some of these will be removable and some will be welded or bolted on. On my farm there are two mower tongues, two cultivator tongues, three simple forecart tongues, one tongue on the gas PTO cart, and two tongues on the ground drive cart. Until now these have all been wood.

I had a bad mishap with a broken tongue about two months ago, when the neck yoke end of the tongue broke off. I knew tongues were on my list of things to do, but hadn’t gotten to it yet. I usually tested these tongues by jumping on them. This may not be an adequate test. The only thing that prevented it from being worse was the fact that the tongue was also rotten under the cart and broke a second time under the frame at the first bolt. I was surprised to see how much rot had followed bolts down through the frame.

For some of my newer equipment I have used slip in wood tongues and I think this also would be a good solution as they are more likely to not be put back in when bad, and are a lot easier to change. Also with a d ring harness and a deep pocket you can choose to not attach it and that leaves it with no bolt hole to follow down. Also, I would not drill through the tongue to mount an evener. Just mount it under or over depending on the height of the tongue.

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