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Drive a Vehicle Backwards with a Wagon - homesteading.wood.reverse PEP BB

BB homesteading - wood badge

posted 4 years ago

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This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum. Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Homesteading.

In this Badge Bit you will drive a truck/tractor/vehicle backwards with a wagon (front wheels of wagon turn with tongue)!

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- you must drive a truck with a wagon backwards for 100 feet
- properly connect and disconnect wagon from vehicle
- any vehicle that is moving in reverse is acceptable for this

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
- post a 2 minute video of you:
o connecting the wagon properly
o driving a vehicle and wagon backwards for at least 100 feet
o disconnecting the wagon properly

COMMENTS:

Mike Haasl

steward

Posts: 15517

Location: Northern WI (zone 4)

4852

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posted 2 years ago

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Approved submission

I knew backing up a wagon is a pain in the ass. I didn't realize FINDING one to back up would be an even bigger pain. After talking to every farmer I know I finally found one who'd let me screw around with their wagon. Luckily Darin also let me use his tractor because backing it up with a truck would be even more impossible.

I used a 100' tape on the road and backed up about 105'. This was my first time and I did about 4 practice runs (getting 5-25' each time) before doing the whole thing in one semi-straight shot. Filmed it twice to be sure and only had one do-over before the second run. So it is doable. My biggest hint is to ignore the advice "turn the top of the steering wheel the way you want the back of the trailer to go". By them time you're looking around backwards, you forget which way is left and right...

My solution was to just watch the tongue of the wagon. I knew how I wanted to push the tongue to move the wagon the correct way. Then I could innately turn the tractor to move the pin end of the tongue where I needed.