Inline Triple Question

L

Lazy JW

5K+
Staff member
VIP
I bought this three abreast horse evener for use on wagon tongues. It allows three horses to be used on a wagon that was intended for two horses. Normally, two horses pull on an evener that works about like an ordinary teeter-totter, so both horses pull evenly, hence the term "evener". This three horse evener has a linkage arangement that allows one horse to balnce the pull of two horses so that all three are sharing the load evenly. It works as advertized, but I can't quite grasp in my mind just how it works. Can any of you engineer types figure this Amish built contraption out and explain it to me? That is an 8" crescent wrench on the evener.
Joe
IM001560.jpg

IM001564.jpg
 
Joe, think of it as HP x distance. 1 HP @ 48 inchs = 2 HP @ 24 inchs.
Or on a lever 1000 lbs out 48 inchs = 2000 lbs out only 24 inchs.
Tim
 
On a normal three horse evener, the fulcrum is located so that 2/3 of the lever is attached to one horse and 1/3 is attached to two horses on a 2:1 ratio. Therefore the fulcrum point is exactly centered behind the middle horse. That part is easy, however the horse would have to straddle the pole. But on this evener the fulcrum point is off-center of the middle horse, slightly towards the single horse. From the hitch point of the single horse to the center pin is 29" and from the center pin to the hitch point for the two horses is 24". That is not the usual 2:1 ratio of a three horse evener, and one would think that the two horses could easily pull the single horse backwards, but this doesn't happen in actual use. There is something about the parallelogram linkage that is transferring force to the single horse, but I can't quite figure it out. This evener was designed to allow three horses to pull evenly when hitched off-center without side-draft, and it works. Those Amish are clever folks indeed.
Joe
 
Joe,

OK here's how that contraption works.

Instead of being centered, the pull point is offset 2/3 of the way toward one side.

The long arm that connects to the single horse has twice the leverage as the other side.

The short side connects to two horses to offset the leverage advantage of the other side.

This configuration makes it less likely that a single horse either slacking or pulling harder will bind the hitch assembly. Without the evener, the center horse would be at the fulcrum of the lever and would play no part in the 'see-saw' effect of the outside horses.

With a conventional hitch, if a single outside horse slows or surges, it will apply an equal and oppisite effect to the other outside horse.

With the evener, each horse only deliver 1/3 of the power that could change the angle of the hitch in relation to the other two.

Actually, the hitch is only part of the story. I've seen mule teams hooked to these contraptions, and the harness and rein setups are very elaborate as well. They hook the team into an interlocking unit where a single animal has very little independent motion.

Hope this helps

Kris
 
Nope. Sorry, but this one is most definitely NOT at a 2:1 ratio, as mentioned above. I can grasp the concept of the normal 2/3 against 1/3 leverage of a normal 3 horse evener, but this one isn't normal in that the ratio is 29:24 :?
With the two horse hitched to the 24" side and the single horse hitched to the 29" side. Yet it works fine. If you pivot the hitch, it works like a parallelogram and all of the pin points allow it to pivot, changing the angles. Maybe I'm just having a brain cramp.
Joe
 
(Checky Kiwi says.....Amish Drag Racer Rules apply. if your Ox racing, no more than 12 yoke of oxen per plow. If your doing horse drawn work, don't dare get caught doing donuts with the Clydesdales!)


Hmm, I now now drag racing occured well before some guy put straight pipes on a 32 Ford...

Back to the regular program.
 
Hmmm... Now that I look at it, the design of that one IS different than the ones I've seen before. The ones I've see just have a single pull point that can be adjusted side to side on both the main and smaller bars to compensate for an unmatched team. That design in the pic is decidedly odd looking, and I don't really know HOW it would help balance the pull. Doesn't even seem like it would work. The single horse should be over powered with that wierd ratio.
 
Joe,
You mentioned that the distance from the center pin to the 2 horse hitch point is 24â€￾. If I understand you correctly, that would be the outer pin on the end of the triangle. What is the distance from the center pin to the pin where the end of the wrench handle is resting? I am betting that distance is close to 14.5â€￾ or about half of the distance from the center pin to single horse hitch point. The triangle is redistributing the load to the point where your wrench handle is resting. That gives you 2:1 ratio that is required to balance. Measuring off of the computer screen it seems to work out.
Doug
 
Doug,
The distance from the center pin to the next pin is right at 16", not far from your guesstimate, then another 8" to the outer pin. I think you are correct about the triangle re-distributing the load, and the transfer bar running parallel behind the main bar has some affect also. All of the pin points are flexible pivot points, and as one side gets ahead of the other then the leverage is changed to give more advantage to the side that is behind, until they get evened out again. I can't imagine drinking enough coffee to ever dream this thing up. Leave it to the Amish.
Joe
 
xtaxi":fyk9b8p2 said:
(Checky Kiwi says.....Amish Drag Racer Rules apply. if your Ox racing, no more than 12 yoke of oxen per plow. If your doing horse drawn work, don't dare get caught doing donuts with the Clydesdales!)


Hmm, I now now drag racing occured well before some guy put straight pipes on a 32 Ford...

Back to the regular program.
Click to expand...

Yup, drag racing is at least as ancient as the Old Testament. Any good Bible scholar should know about Jehu. (2Kings 9:20 KJV )
Joe
 
Lazy JW":31ftnmpj said:
Doug,
I can't imagine drinking enough coffee to ever dream this thing up. Leave it to the Amish.
Click to expand...

I guess when you have a cultural restriction on using technology, you get good at what you CAN do. Their not dumb, just technologicly challanged.

Kris
 
Hi Joe,
Where did you get thet contraption? i won't call it a whiffle tree cause of all the moving parts. it looks like some kind of rigg not used mit the tongue, I see hitching no horse to strattle the tongue. And it must work like a cable evener by transferring part of the drag across the back bar to the off side single, maybe even use for different size animals. Question, are all three single trees the same length?
This is just off of the top of my head at two in the morning after getting back from two weeks camping out and dealing mit several hunderd grmmer school kids.
I've seen Amish create some real "Rube Goldburg" cotraptions so as to not step over the line, but push it as far as possible.
 
Howdy Butch
I bought the evener from The Small Farmer's Journal at Sisters, Oregon but it was built by:
Pioneer Equipment, Inc.
16875 Jericho road
Dalton, Ohio 44618

This evener was designed to allow using three abreast on the pole, it does crowd the center horse pretty close to the pole but with my smallish Fjord horses this doesn't seem to be a problem; I talked to one man who said it was really too tight for his big Belgians.

It would seem like the most logical reason for this being developed would be to allow three horses on a mowing machine where it would be difficult to offset the tongue, if one wanted to use three horses on a wagon as a matter of routine it may be better to offset the pole and use a regular three horse evener.

All of the singletrees are the same length.

I think it works about the same as the chain eveners. I was hoping some of the engineer types could give us a mathematical analysis of the forces/leverages involved but so far it's a strikeout.
Joe
 
The reason I asked is if the front bar is free, then my explanation below is makes sense.

I started to dig into the fee body diagrams and attempt to calculate all of the vectors and moments. You would have to write some equation that calculated the one force as a function of the other force. And the angles and leverage points would also be a function of the force. But those Engineering courses were 20 to 25 years ago and as I opened up a text book, I realized why I hated that class and came to the realization that I am too lazy to teach it to myself again. All those dang forces hurt my head. It is just easier to think of each hitches position relative to each other, and make the assumption that if they travel the same speed with equal amounts of pull, then the geometry is not changed.

Anyway, it appears that pin where the wrench handle is located is the point around which the two horse hitch varies is its leverage and transfers the force to the front equalizing bar. If the two horses are out-pulling the single horse, the forward pull acts on the hypotenuse of the triangle trying to rotate it in line with the tongue. As the pull increases on the hypotenuse, a reactive force is created laterally that pushes the front bar of the parallelogram towards the single horse hitch. The triangle rotates forward and inboard slightly changing the length of the lever of each hitch relative to the center point fixed to the tongue on the rear bar of the parallelogram.

Now assuming that the horses are smarter than my dogs, when they feel more pull from the load, they will slow down changing the geometry of the rig back to the neutral state.

But then again, you already knew all that, and I filled up a page of ramblings that did not answer your question. The 16" vs the 14.5" is pretty darn close, and I suspect that the when the horses are pulling equally, the front bar maybe shifted over to the single hitch side slightly to split the difference between the 14.5" & the 16" measurement.
Doug
 
Both front and rear bars are pinned to the tongue but are free to pivot, they do of course remain paralell. I think that the bar connecting the front beam to the rear beam on the single horse side is important as it adds leverage against the rear bar which holds the triangular shaped linkage back. As you noted, when they pivot the leverage changes, giving more leverage to whichever side is slacking.
Joe
 
Is it possible the evener was designed for equine of two sizes?
Everyone has assumed same sized horses.
Is it pssible maybe combination of different sizes?
Ie plow horse versus buggy horse?
DaveP
 
I don't think it was intended for mixed size animals, but their literature is very vague. The Amish aren't really into the information age as of yet. Here is a page from their catalog that shows various rigging setups.
Joe

scan_5530131621_1_1.jpg
 
I'll take a crack at it...

To me, it seems pretty simple. The single horse has a definite mechanical advantage as to leverage on the tongue; his effective lever length is much greater than the other side because...

On the two-horse side, loose pin connections in the triangle linkage are used to transmit pulling forces to the rear crossmember, which are then brought to bear on the front crossmember at a point closer to the tongue than would be the case if the horses were simply connected to the end of the lever.

I'm not convinced as to the efficiency of the apparatus, however. It seems to me that while the evener may even out the mechanical advantages of the two-horse side allowing a stronger pulling effort on the part of all the horses, it looks like a fair amount of force ends up being transmitted sideways (perpendicular) into the tongue. Do the horses wander from side to side when they pull?

I wish I could see the thing in operation; I'm pretty sure it would be clear to me then.

One thing is for certain, however: It would be a damned dangerous contraption on any wagon I was driving because I'd be so enthralled with trying to figure out how the thing worked that I wouldn't pay attention to where the wagon was going...
 
SuperMag":2qzx4jzj said:
I'm not convinced as to the efficiency of the apparatus, however. It seems to me that while the evener may even out the mechanical advantages of the two-horse side allowing a stronger pulling effort on the part of all the horses, it looks like a fair amount of force ends up being transmitted sideways (perpendicular) into the tongue. Do the horses wander from side to side when they pull?

I wish I could see the thing in operation; I'm pretty sure it would be clear to me then....
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there is a small amount of side draft developed as a result of the linkage but it is pretty well controlled by the fact that the tongue is nine feet long, you can cancel out quite a bit of thrust with a lever of that length. Come on up and I'll show you how it works. I just thought this was a clever gadget, but then I like low-tech stuff.
Joe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top