Turning radius was a longstanding problem with wagons, dictated by the distance between the front wagon wheels and the bed of the wagon—namely, the point where the rotating wheels collide with the side of the wagon when turning. Many earlier designs required a very large turning radius; however, shrinking the width of the bed means decreasing the size of the load. As this is a problem that carts (by virtue of their two-wheeled nature) do not face, this factor, combined with their lighter weight, meant that carts were long preferred over wagons for many uses. The general solutions to this problem involved several modifications to the front-axle assembly. The front axle assembly of a wagon consists of an

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...

, a pair of

wheel A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be ...

s and a round plate with a pin in its centre that sits halfway between the wheels, which may be mounted on spindles. A round plate with a hole in its centre is located on the underside of the wagon. The plate on the wagon, in turn, sits on the plate on the axle between the wheels. This arrangement allows the axle and wheels to turn horizontally. The pin and hole arrangement could be reversed. The

horse harness Horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a vehicle or another type of load. There are two main categories of horse harness: (1) the "breaststrap" or "breastcollar" design, and (2) the collar and hames design. For light work, such as ho ...

is attached to this assembly. To enable the wagon to turn in as little space as possible, the front pair of wheels are often made smaller than the rear pair to allow them to turn close under the vehicle sides, and to allow them to turn still further, the wagon body may be ''waisted''. This technique eventually led to further designs well-adapted to narrow areas; the front wheels of express wagons, trolleys and floats are small enough to turn under the vehicle's body.

References

{{Reflist Wagons Wheels Carts Horse harness

See also

References