OX Cart

This is great. I love historical projects.

When are you going to try wheels?

-- Father of two sons. Both Eagle Scouts.

Thanks firecaster. I hope I live long anough to learn the skill to make those wheels. The man who does these also restores old carts, wagons and sleds. He is a true craftsman.

-- Guy Kroll

This is just plain ole’ awesome… Great project, I like history too.

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17) †

It is my dream to know how to make the wagen wheels
Thank you for sharing

-- Suliman , Syria, jablah ,

Great project. Learning to work the oxen will be next.

-- Thos. Angle

beautiful work Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Thanks to all
SteveKorz, you would love this place, built around the 1890’s. So much history.

Suliman, me too, I wouldn’t even know where to begin making wheels, but would sure love to try.

Thos.Angle, I knew this project would catch your eye. The Oxen are small yet, and in training. They are going to hook them up to the cart this week. It will be their first time pulling anything.

Alistair, thank you

-- Guy Kroll

Great work. That was my first question when I saw it: did he do the wheels:-)) That is one thing I would like to do is build wheels, another is do a tooled leather saddle, but I’ll probably never do either. Too many other things of higher priority. Glad to see you posted it. do yiu have an ox to pull it?

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Yes, TopamaxSurvivor, we have two steers, we are training to pull the cart. Ox are technically called steers until they reach the age for 4, then they can be called OX. I should have posted a picture of them also. As far as the wheels are concerned, that is the reason I made it clear I didn’t do the wheels. I thought if i didn’t everyone would think I did those also. I would like to be able to build them, maybe someday. Thank you for for your interest. If you get the opportunity check out the web site for the farm. It is a great place.

-- Guy Kroll

Most awesome! Some call it history, I call it modern. Once we run out of fuel, we’ll all be driving these again.
Seriously I am looking for a design to haul firewood out of my forest without using machinery. I was thinking of something like this where initially the ox power would be me. Unfortunately there are no mennonites within 10,000km of me, so I might have to learn how to make the wheels too.

Can you post more pictures?

Very cool project you got going at the farm. As the title implies, everything we need for sustainable living has already been invented. We need only to look at how things were done. We don’t need a $9 billion free-for-all money-grab for that! I hope your project gets some of that $9 billion.

-- Steve, New Zealand, www.steveracz.com

GuyK, I just saw the web address for your farm site. I’ll check it out. I did check out your other project with the team and the double trees. My dad used a team of mules until I was a teenager. Guess he couldn’t find any draft horses when he replaced the old Belgian and Percheron in the early 50s. When he sold the mules, the best one was put on the lead of a 20 mule team hitch in Southeastern Idaho. He was pretty proud of Brownie:-)) The best part about big draft horses is they don’t run away like mules do! :-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Hi Steve, well even though we are a non-profit organization, I don’t think we will get any of the ” Stimulus ” monies, but it would be nice.

Well if your are going to use a cart like this to haul wood out of the forest, make sure it is light enough for you to pull. This one is way to heavy, even though I was able to move it with out anyproblem myself. But moving it on flat ground is a lot easier then a forest.

As for the wheels, you wouldn’t want wooden wheels, they would be to heavy. How about bicycle wheels?? They would be light and thin enough to travel well through the forest. You could build it to look like a Chinese Riskshaw (spelling).

Thank you for your interest in our project, it is something I truely believe in. I will try to post some additional pictures as I get them.

-- Guy Kroll

daltxguy, the easiest is probably a single horse when the logs are cut small enough.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

TopamaxSurvivor, would you have a picture of that 20 mule team?? That I would like to see.
I hope you enjoy the website. Someday, I am going to take pictures inside the barns, just to show everyone the joinery that was used, it is amazing to see.

-- Guy Kroll

GuyK, seemes to be a problem with “www.thelandsathillsidefarms.com”. The cyber world keeps saying it doesn’t exist. ???? any idea abut the problem? thx

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Topa, I will check it out, will let you know.

-- Guy Kroll

TopamaxSurvivor, I am sorry, try this.

www.thelandsathillsidefarms.org

My mistake, used .com instead of .org

-- Guy Kroll

Wow! Great project!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Thanks Charlie, it was fun to build. As always with having a basement shop, I build everything in small units so I can get it out. Sometimes just figuring that part is half the fun.

-- Guy Kroll

No, unfortunately, I never even got to see them. I’m not sure my dad ever saw them either. He told me where Brownie went after he sold her. I do have a lot of draft pics I have taken at Draft events, but 8 is the largest hitch. 2 is the most I have ever driven ;-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Great looking cart. You did a beautiful job on it. Thanks for posting.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

thanks Tom

-- Guy Kroll

HI Guy, the .org fixed the web address issue. Thanks. I remember riding in my dad’s horse drawn wagon as a very small boy. I was small enough that even at the speed of large draft horses, he made me sit down. I learned very quickly to sit on a plank and not let my rear end get near the edges where two of them met. Just little advice for kids riding in the cart:-)

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I have added additional photos to this posting. Thanks Topamax for letting me know about the web site, hope you enjoy.

-- Guy Kroll

Thanks for the extra pics. Just happened to think, your planks are probably a little tighter than dad’s were until you get some use on it. :-) Are you building the yoke when the steers become oxen? How are you attaching the yoke to the tongue? Horses pull on the back of the tongue, so does the ox cart have to have a larger tongue than a horse drawn vehicle? I can imagine a pair of oxen can put quite a bit of torque on it even if they are little guys (Jerseys). :-)

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

No problem with the extra pics, iI should have added them to start. When I did the planks for the side I didn’t leave alot of room, just enough ( I hope ) to cover any expansion with the changes in the weather. On the floor of the cart I left more room between the joints as this will get more rain/sun exposure than the rest of the cart.
No I am not building the yoke, well not yet anyway. The farm has purchased them for now, but in the future I may give it a try.
The tounge is a normal size, nothing special needed, except for the ox there is a hook on the front of the tounge to attach the ring on the yoke. Really they are quite gentle.

-- Guy Kroll

I wasn’t thinking of the oxen putting wild girations on the tongue the way a pair of run away mules do, I was thinking more along the lines of having the cart in a plowed field full of rocks. They could really put a lot of force on the tongue turning it vs a team pulling on the double tree right at the vehicle instead of 8 feet or so from the point of attachment.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Oh ok, well you are right. Not having much experience with OXen, I forget they do pull heavy objects in the field. I know they even make what is called a “Rock Sled” ( or something like that) for them.

-- Guy Kroll

I was just using the load of rocks as an example to get the point across. Stone boats or sleds are the best way to go if the rock is very big; ie, you do not have to lift them!! Just roll ‘em on:-) I don’t have any ox experience either, I’m just a curious little cuss :-)) I suppose if the cart needs a bigger tongue, they’ll find out when the cart is loaded. I have no idea of how to size an ox cart tongue for that kind of lateral force. The standard framing data doesn’t have one end force, it’s load bearing. With a team, the tongue primarily has length wise compression when they are backing or when additional teams are added out front. BTW, my granddad left PA because he said it was too rocky to farm :-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Thanks for the extra pictures Guy. I can see from your extra pictures why this might be best suited for a draft animal! That looks like a steel axle for starters…

I did actually have a thought to perhaps use some kind of chinese bicycle delivery van and make some sort of mountain bike hybrid. I do have plans to develop my forest trail system wide enough for two people side by side, about 1200mm ( or about 4ft ).

I had thought about horses but the issue for me would be what to do with the horses the other 360 days of the year when I don’t need them! Is there a rent-a-draft-horse service?

-- Steve, New Zealand, www.steveracz.com

Hi Steve I think you may have come with a new business plan there. Rent-a-draft-horse sounds like it might work in the right area. You would have to come with a name to really draw attention to it though.
If not horse’s maybe you could get just one Ox. They get big enough to pull logs by themselves and with two you could pull the whole forest behind you.
Ok, I will stop with the ideas now. Yes that is a steel axle, it weighs about 50/60 pounds by it self. With wheels and axle close to 100 pounds. Let me know what your finally come up with to get the logs out of the forest.
Somewhere I have a video of the draft horses at the farm pulling logs out the forest, I will have to find it and send it to you, it is fun to watch.

-- Guy Kroll

You might check around with any lodal draft horse orginizations or events. Lots of those guys might like any opportunity to just get out and work their horses.

You could use the Mormon Hand Cart theory. When they moved west, they pushed carts about that size all the way acros the plains to Utah! Those guys were tough!!

I have seen light hand type garden carts designed to carry a pretty good load on bike tires.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I love this, did you do your own blacksmithing? I would love to have the plans for this if you could e-mail them to me.

-- Robert-maine