Years ago on our farm in IL, I acquired several old horse-drawn implements for yard art, one of which was an old flarebox wagon on steel.
The box gradually rotted to the point where I removed and burned the wood. It sat under the old apple tree by the road for years after.
When we relocated to TN, I kept the running gear, a one-bottom JD plow and an old hay rake. The plow is under the tree in the front yard, and the rake is by the cow pasture fence in the back yard. The gear has sat near the shop I’ve been building since last year.
Our church is having a family fun day/picnic on Memorial Day weekend, so I volunteered to give hay rides, which also gave me an excuse to do something with the running gear. I stopped by one of the Amish farms last week and bought some rough-sawn Ash. They charged $12.00 per 5/4″x8″x16′ board.
While I looked at photos of various wagons online, I pretty much just kind of designed mine as I went. The main box came together pretty quickly. This was at the end of the first day of work on the wagon.
I did a little blacksmithing making supports for the front and back sides, starting with drilling holes in some 1/4″ bar stock.
I heated them up and bent them 45 degrees while they were cherry red.
They turned out nice!
A hinged tailgate was cobbled together using parts from my junk bins.
And a seat and footboard completed the wagon.
All loaded up and ready to head to town!