Making Singletrees and Eveners

[Russel]

Hi everyone

Does anyone know of a website that has the plans and specifications for making singletrees and eveners?

Thanks
Russel Harvey

[jac]

Hey Russel you’re on that web site.. Plenty folks on here make stuff. Alot depends on what you intend to do workwise ?? The loggers will give you their own specifications as that industry is real tough on ironwork.. My own neckyokes and singletrees and evenerers are all made with 1″ and 3/4″ steel tubing with half inch round bar forming the ends and centre eyes..
John

[Russel]

Hi jac, I want to use them for stuff like plowing and discing etc. There arent enough trees here to use for logging 🙂

[jac]

The sizes i mentioned will do that ok, I forgot to mention that the tubing is 1/8th” thick or 3/16″ if you thought you might need a bit more strength, mabey if a bigger team was being hitched you would make the wheel set of the heavier metal…
John

[Russel]

Can wood be used for plowing etc?

[goodcompanion]

@Russel 19174 wrote:

Can wood be used for plowing etc?

I’ve used both wood and steel eveners for plowing and other farm work. Around here you can find a lot of old wood eveners–seems the majority of eveners and neckyokes used to be wood with iron hardware. So if you make a new wood part and reuse the hardware, you can score yourself a cheap functional evener.

[PhilG]

Don’t use plate steel !

[Big Horses]

@Russel 19174 wrote:

Can wood be used for plowing etc?

It has been for hundreds of years……..
John

[near horse]

Hi Russel,

There’s a “basic” drawing for a wooden doubletree in the book “The Draft Horse Primer” by Maurice Telleen. That said, some of the round pipe or square tubing designs don’t look to hard to fabricate w/ a little bit of welding.

Are you asking more about the actual measurements of the singletrees etc?

Good luck –

[Russel]

Yes I am. I havent been able to find any plans on the internet…

[jac]

Hi Russel.. A couple of fotos of what I made a few years ago.. The single trees are 36″ overall and the double tree and neckyoke are both 40″ overall. I have a set of singletrees at 32″ that get used mainly in shaft work like the hay turner. Bear in mind that we have full size Clydes but it gives you an idea.. good luck…
John

PS Please ignore the spring clips on the singletrees… I got dogs abuse for those 1st time i posted this foto.. I now use shackles

[Russel]

Thanks a lot jac

[near horse]

Hi John – I’ve got a couple of measurements from some books I’ve got:

From Farming w/ Horses by Steve Bowers
“to maintain lateral alignment , the bit centers, neck yoke snap and doubletree widths need to be the same”

From Lynn Miller ” Workhorse Handbook”
“singletree standard dimensions are 26, 28,30,36 and 38 inches”
” wagon doubletree lengths are 42 an 46 inches while plow-type doubletrees are 36 and 40 inches wide”

From Draft Horse Primer by Maurice Telleen drawing on pg 263 Fig 7-52

doubletree = 48 inches wide w/ hooks for traces in 2″ from each end. Wood appears to be 1 3/4 to 2 ” thick and 4 inches deep (So 48 by 4 inches of 2 inch lumber)

Singletrees = 36 ” by 2 1/4″ by 2″ lumber

Neck yoke = 38 ” by 3″ by 2″ lumber

The last measures don’t follow the rule I listed at the top but …. ? Also this mentions that these drawings are available in Autuumn 1973 Draft Horse Journal.

Good luck.
“

[jac]

I’ve heard of the draft horse primer Geoff.. it sounds a good read. I know if I had access to Lynn Millers books in the 70s and early 80s it would have made a huge difference to my use of horses.. Russel if you can access some decent timber, a set of eveners made this way look awwsome….
John

[Russel]

@ jac, what wood can be used? Any of the following: eucalyptus, oak, poplar, wattle and pine??? Those are the only trees I could actually get wood from…

[Author]

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