Wagon

For other uses, see Wagon (disambiguation).

A team of Australian Draught Horses with a record load of 150 bales of wool.

Wagon with mules harnessed to its tongue.

Circus wagon

A wagon ('waggon' in British and Commonwealth English) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float. Wagons are used for transporting goods, agricultural materials or sometimes people.

Pulling power

Wagons are pulled by animals such as horses, mules or oxen. They may be pulled by one animal or by several, often in pairs.

Similar vehicles

Wagons are distinguished from carts, which have two wheels, and from lighter four-wheeled vehicles for carrying people, such as carriages.

Wheel size

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. The front wheels of trolleys and floats are small enough to turn under the vehicle's body.

See also

Araba (carriage) Dray Buckboard Conestoga wagon Covered wagon Front axle assembly

Horse-drawn vehicle           Milk wagon Lorry (horse-drawn)           Omnibus Ox-wagon Toy wagon

Twenty-mule team Vardo (Romani wagon) Wagon train Wagonette Wagon-wheel effect Wheelchair

External links

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wagon". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.