Driving a wagon and drag next week, never driven one before after 30 years on artics, can somebody give me the 2 minute “Wagon and Drag for Dummies” Guide?
If it’s an a frame a dummy’s guide ain’t any good .
If it’s a bar drawbar it neigh on an artic harry just like driving a big car and caravan that’s all I can say really. Little movements and when revering keep it moving have a look on u tube is the easiest mate .
Don’t panic and enjoy I prefer W&D if I’m honest .
Who’s it for
Harry Monk:
Driving a wagon and drag next week, never driven one before after 30 years on artics, can somebody give me the 2 minute “Wagon and Drag for Dummies” Guide?
Dead easy no need to swing out the trailer just follows,reversing is a dream,you’ll be good,enjoy.
Going forwards the trailer wheels will follow more or less the same path as the rear wheels of the lorry so don’t need to worry much about cutting corners. In reverse,piece of cake. Only small movements needed to get it going in the direction you want, or to adjust. Can usually reverse into a side road,for example, without the front wheels going over the centre line. Only thing you might need to watch, depending on the trailer, is the rear end can swing out on a tight 90 degree turn, and obviously you can’t U turn them in the same way as an artic. You’ll be suprised how easy they are. I wouldn’t want to go back to an artic, especially as everything I do is building sites or farms.
Assume not an A frame, which is a lot more than two sentences and a bit of a nightmare first time.
Lovely smooth ride due to long wheelbase and usually heavier prime mover, plus lorry in more control of the trailer than an artic IMHO, unless the trailer is loaded arse end heavy.
Obviously your steering lock is less due to chassis length, and U turns will be most difficult…might be interesting to turn the vehicle hard right so you’re at 45’ and then get out and have a look see where the trailer chassis is in relation to the tow hitch, you cannot jack knife one tight like a semi trailer or you could bend or jam the neck, you’ll see what i mean.
Reversing is fine, though the trailer turns faster obviously, if you have a tight reverse between two lorries when the trailer is in the gap but the tractor is still on the ■■■■ you’ll lose sight completely of the back of the trailer due to the length of said tractor, just means you might have to nip out a couple of times, cos if some bugger could access the space behind you would not see them…if that makes any sense.
I’ve found that going forward is a dream. Going backwards on the other hand is like trying to push a wheel barrow with one hand.
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I’m like you Harry, similar time on road, never driven one, never want to, especially one of them ■■■■ horrible A frame jobbies…ughhh !
I take my hat off (if I was wearing one) to those lads who reverse them, I don’t think that I could, and that’s admitting it.
I once watched a German driver who could (and did) put it anywhere, much harder than an artic I reckon, unless it’s the modern type.
class 3 wages for class 1 work so you have to start a fight with the class 1 boys at the service station
If you drive an A frame trailer, the distribution of the trailer load wont affect the handling of the combination very much, but a rigid bar trailer will. To much weight in front of yhe axles will overload the drove axle of the unit, and to much weight behind the trailer axles will lift the drive axle.
The most imported thing to remember, is to begin every conversation with “I normally drive a proper artic, but I’m doing this job today to help out my company/my truck is in for mot/I’m doing my boss a favour” (other excuses are available)…
If it’s an A frame then going forward is so easy the drag follows pretty much the same line as the prime mover, however reversing is a different kettle of fish but get yourself as straight as possible to the gap or bay you’re going in and little movements is key and doing an L shape reverse is a more skilled affair and remember when reversing the prime mover and A frame wheels will be pointing in the same direction therefore like I said start in a straight a line as possible, not many about these days but some parcel firms still use them. If there’s a stick in the cab about 18" long don’t chuck it you may need it !!
As for a drawbar it’s really easy to manoeuvre and I can’t imagine you’ll have any issues in fact I think you’ll enjoy it.
Obviously get back to us with how it went 
bald bloke:
If it’s an A frame then going forward is so easy the drag follows pretty much the same line as the prime mover, however reversing is a different kettle of fish but get yourself as straight as possible to the gap or bay you’re going in and little movements is key and doing an L shape reverse is a more skilled affair and remember when reversing the prime mover and A frame wheels will be pointing in the same direction therefore like I said start in a straight a line as possible
And if you can see more than a couple of feet of trailer headboard in your mirror, pull forward, straighten up and start again cos you’ll never get it back. The longer the trailer is in relation to the towing vehicle on an A frame the easier it is. If its a short one it’ll be a real barsteward.
Conor:
bald bloke:
If it’s an A frame then going forward is so easy the drag follows pretty much the same line as the prime mover, however reversing is a different kettle of fish but get yourself as straight as possible to the gap or bay you’re going in and little movements is key and doing an L shape reverse is a more skilled affair and remember when reversing the prime mover and A frame wheels will be pointing in the same direction therefore like I said start in a straight a line as possibleAnd if you can see more than a couple of feet of trailer headboard in your mirror, pull forward, straighten up and start again cos you’ll never get it back. The longer the trailer is in relation to the towing vehicle on an A frame the easier it is. If its a short one it’ll be a real barsteward.
Yep good point I’d forgotten but it has been about 26 years !!
Its coming up to 20 years since I last drove an A frame but it had that big an impact on me. The trailer was only about half the length of the Scania 92H 6 legger pulling it. The guy who owned it could get it in places you couldn’t get an artic in but even he admitted it was a year after he bought the outfit before he took the trailer out again and even then it was only following spending an entire weekend practising.
If it is an A-FRAME Let us know how you get on. 
the nodding donkey:
If you drive an A frame trailer, the distribution of the trailer load wont affect the handling of the combination very much, but a rigid bar trailer will. To much weight in front of yhe axles will overload the drove axle of the unit, and to much weight behind the trailer axles will lift the drive axle.
That flaw alone,in addition to the potential for the tail to wag the dog,should really be considered bad enough for the close coupled,what is really just an over sized car and caravan type combination with all the same traits,to be banned.While the move away from A frames is a just a case of dumbing down the job to suit the steering wheel attendants.While to be fair at least the continentals and scandinavians still seem to be staying more with A frames and in fact developing them in the form of rigid and artic length trailers in that regard.
While ironically after almost 20 years out of the job I’d probably still find it easier going back to A frames now than artics,having always liked the A frame configuration even before I started driving them.
Carryfast:
… While to be fair at least the continentals and scandinavians still seem to be staying more with A frames and in fact developing them in the form of rigid and artic length trailers in that regard.
Oh Carryfast, so you’ve noticed that “developing” eh?
I can tell you that I saw (first-hand) in Sweden exactly the combinations you describe back in… let me just check… ah, yes it was 1984/5.
My memory and rusty maths tells me that I took the pics below somewhere around Halmstad on the E6 just over 30 years ago.
It would be a 6X4 rigid pulling a standard (at the time) 12 metre 2 or 3 axle trailer by means of a single or twin axle converter dolly that had a standard 5th wheel mounted on it. As I recall, these were approx. 25 metres in length and some of them weighed in at 55(ish) tonnes GTW.
There are guys on TN who go back further than me, or seen and photographed things that I haven’t seen, so there might be some other observations from other posters on this point.
I apologise if this contradicts any of your theories of “developing,” but I will swear to any deity of your choice that I took the pics when and where I said.
I have further proof if needed.
If its a vbg coupling, be aware of the relevance of the red button on the side of the coupling.
The red button should be flush with its surrounding after you’ve coupled up, you could do a tug test, think you’ve coupled correctly, but the red button is still protruding. The button indicates the pin hasn’t dropped correctly.
dieseldave:
Carryfast:
… While to be fair at least the continentals and scandinavians still seem to be staying more with A frames and in fact developing them in the form of rigid and artic length trailers in that regard.Oh Carryfast, so you’ve noticed that “developing” eh?
I can tell you that I saw (first-hand) in Sweden exactly the combinations you describe back in… let me just check… ah, yes it was 1984/5.
My memory and rusty maths tells me that I took the pics below somewhere around Halmstad on the E6 just over 30 years ago.It would be a 6X4 rigid pulling a standard (at the time) 12 metre 2 or 3 axle trailer by means of a single or twin axle converter dolly that had a standard 5th wheel mounted on it. As I recall, these were approx. 25 metres in length and some of them weighed in at 55(ish) tonnes GTW.
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I apologise if this contradicts any of your theories of “developing,” but I will swear to any deity of your choice that I took the pics when and where I said.
I have further proof if needed.
I didn’t mean that the Scandinavians haven’t been using that type of configuration for decades.On that note yes I also saw them during my travels there during the early 1980’s at least and I’d guess they were probably using those outfits before that.
While I just mean’t that firstly the Scandinavians have kept with that configuration to a large degree.While now the idea is also being taken up in Euroland too.When maybe, with the exception of the Dutch,the rest of Europe have mainly stayed either with the typical rigid and short trailer drawbar outfit and increasingly standard artics.
In which the Germans at least,surprisingly,now seem to be making a lot of needless drama about that possible move to full size trailer drawbar outfits.When they’d have been expected to have taken it up much sooner with their Scandinavian neighbours.Which seems to fit the description of a ‘new development’ on the theme ‘in Europe’ and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it in the case of Scandinavia,which is what I mean’t and should have made clearer in my post.
irc5468:
If its a vbg coupling, be aware of the relevance of the red button on the side of the coupling.The red button should be flush with its surrounding after you’ve coupled up, you could do a tug test, think you’ve coupled correctly, but the red button is still protruding. The button indicates the pin hasn’t dropped correctly.
Or even the release handle needs to be horizontal ,most pins go in enough but sometimes a fare bit of tugging is required for the pin to drop all the way leaving the handle horizontal .
Punchy Dan:
sometimes a fare bit of tugging is required for the pin to drop all the way leaving the handle horizontal .
Keeping the coupling as clean as possible of road dirt and well oiled also cleaning and pouring some oil into the coupling eye of the trailer before coupling up,all helps. Air line couplings also get jammed with road dirt especially in the winter when they are in a permanent salt water bath compared to artics which rusts the couplings up and need plenty of oil/WD 40 etc on them to keep them working.Palm coupling are much better for use with drawbars in that regard.