Question about towing and wagons vs trailers

**jbeall** · 08-03-2009, 04:30 PM

Hi All,

I've been looking into towing some, and I had a question--why is that I never see a "wagon" type of trailer, made for on-road vehicles?

One of the common issues when dealing with trailering is making sure you don't exceed your tongue weight or the axle weight on your towing vehicle. But that's only because all (?) trailers made to be towed behind on-road vehicles do not have a pair of wheels in the front.

In agriculture, they've had wagons that effectively make those two things non-issues. You have (at least) a pair of wheels in the front, and in the bag, and the front pair of wheels are articulated so that they can turn when the tow bar attached to the vehicle is turning.

He's an example (hopefully these images will work!):

I'm sure you've all seen wagons like this. They make them big (for ag use) and small (for home use, and as toys). You can see just by looking at them that there is no downward load transmitted by the tongue--the entire downforce of the wagon's load is transmitted to the wagon's own tires. Thus, the only thing the hauling vehicle needs to worry about is, well, hauling it (forward).

But in the on-road trailering world, it seems we never see these kinds of vehicles. The trailers I come across always have wheels either center or to the rear of the vehicle, and a significant downforce is transmitted onto the towing vehicle's hitch. In the case of heavier loads, a weight distrbuting hitch is necessary in order to prevent the towing vehicle from being dangerously unbalanced, with too much downforce on the rear axle, with then pushes the front (steering) wheels off the ground.

So, I've been wondering--why build trailers in this fashion, so that downforce is even transmitted to the towing vehicle at all? I'm guessing there's some reason that the "wagon" type of trailer is not desirable in on-road conditions (hence we see wagons primarily in ag use)--but I can't figure out what that reason is?

Would someone mind enlightening me?

-Josh

**phoebeisis** · 08-03-2009, 05:12 PM

Hmmm, that is a good question.I don't have a good answer, but I have some guesses.

Maybe it makes sense to add weight to the drive wheels so they won't slip going uphill on snow/ice/mud etc with the extra load.

Charlie

**Jimmiee** · 08-03-2009, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

Hmmm, that is a good question.I don't have a good answer, but I have some guesses.

Maybe it makes sense to add weight to the drive wheels so they won't slip going uphill on snow/ice/mud etc with the extra load.

Charlie

Good answer Charlie. The tractor needs all the weight it can get on the drive axles. If there were a wagon trailer attached the tractor would spin the wheels in poor traction conditions like rain, ice and snow. Chains would not help as the trailer is just too heavy with a wagon axle in front.

**tbplus10** · 08-03-2009, 07:42 PM

Semi's sometimes haul a second wagon style trailer.
Weight over the rear wheels is one issue also wagon style trailers arent as stable in sharp turns.

**bill190** · 08-03-2009, 08:04 PM

Actually they are a NIGHTMARE to backup! (With a tractor you can look down and see what is going on with the hitch, a car you can't)

Something similar is a car "tow dolly" like in the picture below.

Here is says "Do not attempt to back up your rental truck with the tow dolly attached"...
http://www.pensketruckrental.com/per...tow_dolly.html

Car tow dolly...

**ahm1127** · 08-05-2009, 07:51 AM

There is no backing up with a wagon style trailer, 1 to many turning points. You will only see a tractor with 2 trailers on the highway, remove 1 when going to local streets. It would be nice to tow a truck with a wagon trailer instead of a regular trailer.