Drey??

[Theloggerswife]

What use does a drey have? I have been in contact with a man that wants to empty out his fathers barn of horse implements and he gave me a “whole lot price”. He’s going to throw in the drey that his father built…okay, but with my limited knowledge, I have no idea what one is or used for! 😮 HELP.

[jac]

Hi.. Is it definatly “drey” ?.. A dray is a 4 wheeled wagon that was used for street deliveries..the railway companies were big users and of course beer companies. Could be a usefull thing to have.Cheers
John

[LStone]

I have come to understand it as a heavy 4 wheeled higher set flatbed. I think they were used as a “local” city delivery vehicle. I have seen them with and without driver seats and spelled both drey and dray. Think it originated in England. I may not be totally accurate but I think I am close.

[grey]

I’ve never seen “dray” spelled “drey” but I’d believe it. A dray is a flatbed wagon built for heavy cargo. The wagon bed sat higher up so the front wheels could turn entirely underneath the bed for tighter manouvering in close quarters. This allowed the wheel base to be a normal (narrow) width. Warehouses built freight docks with higher platforms so cargo could be easily rolled on and off the higher wagons… and are still used today to load and unload semi trailers. A dray often has steel wheels or very heavily built wood wheels. We’d love to see any photos you can get of the thing, whatever it turns out to be!

[grey]

Oh, also, it may or may not have any suspension to speak of. They weren’t built for speed or comfort, and – as LStone said – mostly stayed within the confines of the city.

[Carl Russell]

I think you will find that it is an attachment for a single bunk bobsled. Usually with a pin down into a swing bunk, it is made with two long poles attached together with cross pieces.

They were used to load four foot wood cross-ways, or more commonly used for sap tank for gathering maple sap.

Built like this the font bunks can be turned under the load making a fairly maneuverable long sled.

This is a distinctly New England term.

Carl

[Mark Cowdrey]

Here’s one I set up a few years ago.

Mark

[grey]

So the travois-looking part behind the bobs is called the “drey”? Or is it the whole apparatus?

[Carl Russell]

grey;15562 wrote:

So the travois-looking part behind the bobs is called the “drey”? …

Yes.

Other renditions have steel shoes on the ends of the poles.

If the front cross piece is under the poles, and the rear one above, as in Mark’s pic, then those two points can be fairly level. By adding two more rails on top of those points a rack can be made to use it in any way that one would use a double bunk sled. It’s just that this style can take much more abuse, and is cheap to rebuild.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hey missy, can’t wait to see what comes out of that barn. i’m with carl, in this neck of the woods, a dray is just what he described. i’ve heard it called a sloven or a slewgee, and the french called it travois, but its beauty was you could make it in less than an hour right in the woods, and it wore down pretty fast so you probably had a couple in a winter. they were spruce and you looked for one with a sweep and pulled them top first so the butts dragged on the ground. at the end of the job, you cut it up and threw it in with the pulp. it would be fun to see one that made it through under cover. send us a photo, please. thanks, mitch

[Ed Thayer]

@Mark Cowdrey 15551 wrote:

Here’s one I set up a few years ago.

Mark

Mark,

Were you happy with that setup?

How much cord wood did you get on that thing?

ED

[Mark Cowdrey]

Ed,

I didn’t end up using it a whole lot. As a matter of fact I just dragged it out of the barn & disassembled it yesterday. It’s been sitting there for 3 years at least. The bob came from my sleigh & I needed it for that.

I guess you could put half a cord on it. If the going is side hill at all & the wood frozen you would want to chain it down. I have gone to hauling my stuff long lengths with the arch to the wood yard near the house and bucking & stacking it there. Saves handling it once and works very well in a winter like this when we have no mud. The dray is good for keeping wood clean in muddy conditions.

I can see how a dray would work well in a bucket sap operation. I know at one time anyway John Rhicard used one with a bob to start the season & had one with wheels for when the snow was gone. He called them both “drays”.

Are we going to see you at Sanborn Mills on the 27th?

Mark

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