looking for volunteers to move an old school house using draft power

[Anonymous]

I work for a small company that restores barns and other post and beam structures (buildingheritage.com), and we recently got a job that entails moving the schoolhouse in Saint George, Vermont about a mile up the road on 2A.
Money is still being raised for the project, so I can’t give a date for the move, but the reason we got the job is that we want to move it with draft power. I was hoping anyone interested in bringing their team to help us move the structure could reply, so I could get an idea if we could make it work.
Thanks,

Miles Jenness,
traditionaltrades@gmail.com

[Anonymous]

This is a picture of the schoolhouse; if the attachment doesn’t work, check out
http://www.stgeorgevt.com/images/gallery/enlarged/schoolhouse.jpg

[CharlyBonifaz]

move = move as is?
would I like to see that! please pictures/film…

[goodcompanion]

I could possibly come if my team could catch a lift up and back from Ferrisburgh. 25 minutes away down 116 and the Vergennes-Monkton Road.

[jen judkins]

I would love to participate with my team of percherons. Sounds like quite an adventure! How much horse power do you think you need? I’ll put the word out on our FB page as well.

[LongViewFarm]

I’m in if the date shakes out with a pair of belgian/morgans. I bet I can give good companion a ride too.

[Anonymous]

Hi folks,
It’s awesome to hear that people are into this. To answer the first question, yes, the structure will be moved as is. we will brace it, jack it up, and put it on I-beams and then onto rollers or a heavy duty trailer with a dolly. As to the second question, it is hard to know for sure how much it weighs without a crane, but my estimate is 10-15 tons. Like I said, the building will be rolling, so the friction shouldn’t be too high, but there is a slight up hill on the stretch of 2A we have to travel. I was thinking along the lines of 3 or 4 teams, but I’m sure there are other of you who are much more knowledgeable than I about large hitch ups and weight pulled versus weight pulling. I would be glad to hear your input.
Thanks

[jen judkins]

Miles, Do you know Pat Palmer? He is over your way and would be a great person to talk to about the hitch. He has moved all sorts of things with his percherons.

[mitchmaine]

hey all, moving a building must have been a big event around here, cause the maine archives are full of photos of old timers moving their buildings. seems that in the mid to late 1880’s folks just abandoned their farms up here in great numbers and the neighbors after a respectful time just hooked on and took the buildings over to their place. according to the pictures, winter seemed to be the time of choice, frozen ground and snow, and oxen were the animal of choice. don’t know why but its not for lack of horses. the photos are full of teams looking on, and occasionally a lead team might be horses. all the photos had LOTS of animal. thirty or forty teams hooked in equal numbers to peeled hemlock trees laid under the buildings as skids. take lots of pictures for the future. best of luck, mitch

[near horse]

I think it’s imperative to not only make sure they can move the load but stop it as well. Whether it’s braking on a down slope or holding on an upslope make sure the load and gravity don’t take over.

[Big Horses]

My thoughts exactly, Geoff!!! Too many times I’ve seen all the attention paid to getting something to move, and then discovering that it wasn’t the only problem!
John

[mstacy]

@Miles Jenness 29623 wrote:

Hi folks,
onto rollers or a heavy duty trailer with a dolly. As to the second question, it is hard to know for sure how much it weighs without a crane, but my estimate is 10-15 tons. Like I said, the building will be rolling, so the friction shouldn’t be too high, but there is a slight up hill on the stretch of 2A we have to travel. I was thinking along the lines of 3 or 4 teams,

Miles this sounds like a fantastic project. I don’t have ANY personal experience moving houses period, let alone with draft animials. But I suspect that it’s going to take a whole lot more than 4 teams to move this thing 1.2 miles. Geoff and Mitch already highlighted some of the paramount safety issues (stopping, steering, controlling the load).

Over that kind of distance I can’t imagine you’re going to get more than 400 pounds (horizontal pulling force) per team (estimate based on 2hp * 550ft*lb/s/hp * 1s/3ft = 370 pounds). A fact of life is that draft efficiency drops as the number of animals in the hitch increases so you’re not really going to get a full 370 pounds per team.

Don’t underestimate the friction either. Unless you’ve got fantastic rollers and smooth ground. The other question to ask is “could I pull this load at a walking pace with an 8hp tractor?” If the answer is “yes” then you’re probably good to go with four teams. This might be a good test to perform before the teams arrive. A really stout winch could perform the same test.

You might consider some form of mechanical advantage (block & tackle, windlass, etc) to multiply your draft force. The animals will have to walk further … but they stand a better chance of being able to walk.

A friend’s aunt wrote a book about moving a covered bridge with draft animals in Massachussetts with draft animals (within the last couple decades). She took great photos of the animals and all the rigging (windlass in series with block and tackle).

My steers and I are looking forward to hearing about your adventure.

Regards,

Matt
W. Topsham, VT

[Andy Carson]

I am much more optimist about getting the thing to move, especially if the weight is really in the range of 10-15 tons. Divide the weight by four teams (8 animals), and you have the equivalent of 1.25-1.9 tons per animal. That’s roughly twice the animals weight, which on a wheeled vehicle should be easily doable. I agree that there is some loss in efficiency with a big group, and some mechanical advantage would be a good idea especially on hills. Brakes are definately critical too. 1.2 miles isn’t really that far either, even at a very slow 2.5 MPH pace, that is only a half hour of pulling. Not that I think it would only take a half hour, but the point is that there is pletty of time for breaks. Probably a good thing too, as this is going to attract attention from the public. In my experience, the public often doesn’t understand that horses sweat when they work and if some people see your horse sweat, then you have to explain to them why/how you are not being “cruel.”

I hear what you are saying about horsepower, Matt, but this number doesn’t capture what animals can do over the short term, especially with breaks. Pulling horses, for example, exert over ten times this horizontal force figure for short distances. Logging with horses would be severly limited if no team could pull logs weighing more than 800 lbs (400*50% friction). The point being that there is precident set for animals to ruitinely and dramatically exceed there somewhat misleading horsepower figures for minutes at a time. I think the horsepower term and concept is best applied to machines, as there is so much that is not captured by this figure with animal power. I get a much better estimate of what an animal can do by looking at what other animals can do and multiplying and/or dividing by the number of animals, the weight of the object, or the width of an implement.

[Joshua Kingsley]

Let me know when you are planning this I have a team of Haflinger mares that my wife drives and I also have several Percherons that I would be willing to bring to help with the move.

[near horse]

I know I’ve seen pictures of buildings being moved with horses – one that comes to mind is a 2 story Victorian styled house all blocked up and on some sort of roller setup but the teams were pulling with some sort of anchor winch between them and the load (like a capstan? winch). I couldn’t figure out how the winch anchored to ground …. and it was on some sort of hill, maybe in Chicago or San Francisco.

I think the distance might not be the challenge (rest more often, switch out teams etc) as much as “finessing” it into the final resting place etc.

This is a MUST VIDEO! Make sure it’s on tape (or a couple of them). Perhaps Uncle Joe from RH would be interested.

[Author]

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