Transport - does it matter which side?

[sallyg]

I have a two horse rear facing wagon (a 3.9 ton so plenty of payload) with the ramp on the nearside. I've heard that if you are travelling one horse then the horse should be behind the driver, i.e. in the middle of the road, which makes sense as it will have a smoother ride. I have also heard that if you are travelling two then the heaviest horse should be in the middle of the road. My problem is that my horse hates loading first but is usually the heavier horse. How important is this? Does anyone know if it would cause problems to have the heavier horse on the left hand side of the road and what these would be?

 

[L&M]

Hmmm....interesting one.

When we travel our 2 cobs the lighter one goes behind me as travels better on that side. Admittedly our other cob is only abput 70 kg heavier, but have never felt it to be an issue with him on the left hand side of the road.

If travelling them alone, I take out the partition so they are travelling in the middle and again have never had any ill effects.

 

[gunnergundog]

Think of the cambre of the road.....that is the reason for the heaviest horse being behind the driver. If you had a very unbalanced load with the only/majorly heaviest horse behind the passenger, then you could create an imbalance which could lead to control/steering issues. That is my understanding at least.

Also, I believe that the coachbuilders alter the springs/suspension such that on a two horse rear/front facing lorry the suspension is such that if you only put one horse in on the drivers side then the lorry floor is level..???

 

[Jnhuk]

I have this on a bigger scale with my 7.5 lorry. The smaller horse is driver side and larger horse ramp side on the left due to the fact that the far away has been shorten with an extra front bar so the space is not too large. It was done before I got the lorry but I could not change it around as would interfer with the partition opening. Never caused us any issues and I am talking heavy horses (710kg and over 810kg here) with the drive/control/steering