[drivingpairs] pair hitching to two wheelers, was chariot racing tv story

Don lined out some theoretical  ideas how hitching could be done. I can 
confirm his ideas to be right on the money from my own experience, not with a 
chariot, but I did drive a pair to a two wheeler for many years - when we 
thought we couldn't afford a 4 wheeler yet. Friends in CA from those days 
will remember me with Grimes' Palominos :-) 
The cart was one of the common modern Amish made flexishaft meadowbrook type 
vehicles with the split seat arrangement, step in from behind, left seat 
folding up, except instead of shafts it had a pole. It was similarly (well) 
balanced as any such single vehicle, and as with a single where there should 
not be too much weight in the shafts, this also did not have too much weight 
on the pole.  We hitched the pair with full collar harness and a yoke, with 
very short yoke straps strapped closely into the bottoms of the collars and 
traces to roller bolts on a fixed splinter bar (thus all closely hitched 
without too much play), plus normal pairs breeching and normal pairs reins. 
One needed to be careful when stepping into the vehicle from behind that the 
pole would not come up too much, but that was also very similar to such a 
vehicle driven with a single. Once we were on the way, I think the weight of 
the pole carried through the wide collars on the necks of the horses was 
fairly minimal and exceptable.  It all worked well, EXCEPT: The darn thing 
would turn over very easily, because contrary to a single, which has support 
on both sides through the shafts, this thing did not and could just rotate 
around that one pole in the middle like nothing. So hazard driving, or fast 
turns, or driving sideways on a slope all were very risky, but going straight 
down the road it worked.  For the risks involved I would not recommend it to 
anybody nowadays.
Hardy
_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: 
http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Other related posts: