Got my heavy harness for Christmas, and it arrived yesterday, today was the first day to hitch up and we cracked out the sloop to do some snow removal, it was a good learning curve on it, and we figured out that not only can you move a good amount of snow, dirt or manure from place to place but its also be designed so that if you choose to dump it in a certain way, it will in fact also spread and smooth the ground afterwards, we can both see many hours being spent this spring in the gardens and the summer/fall in working to improve our pastures.
If anyone else has used and worked with a sloop, i would love to hear what length of handles you have on yours? I think ours are just a tad short but I can't find any "typical" measurements for them.
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
I googled what a sloop was and found out it was a boat. Eventually I found out it was a horse drawn scoop shovel x wheelless barrow type thingy.
Seems like the handles would not have a typical length but would have been made by the user to personal specifications. Me thinks you are just going to have to experiment. Where did you out find out about find this peice of equipment? It doesn't seem to be all that common. I showed a picture to my Amish neighbor and he wasn't familiar with it. I can try another neighbor next week who farms with draft horses but I know they use a scraper blade for their driveway. Looks like it has a good fun factor.
That was what it was sold as at the sale by name and my folks called it a Ditch Digger when I showed them a picture, but mine is a bit different then the ones they have seen/used in alberta, those ones they flipped to the side only, but mine will flip up on itself and then can be used to drag/spread, I should take a video of it, its really sweet, I wonder if that is why it might have the shorter handles then the flip sideways ones.
It does not seem common now but I have found alot of the older folks remember a version of it. It was the first one I had seen in eight years of local farm sales.
http://homestead.org/GinGetz/HorsePower/Horsepwr.htm
Here is a link that shows one in action with dirt instead of snow
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/