I have heard a lot of differing opinions on this. Most seem to say that a drawbar is easier to drive than an artic. I can’t see how a rigid with a trailer can be easy to drive, with all that corner cutting & making allowances for the bendy bit. On a right turn, an artic can go right up to the kerb ahead and swing round at the last minute. Surely (as with a rigid) a drawbar would get into trouble if you tried to drive it like that?
What are your opinions?
Personally I’ve just moved from an artic to a drawbar and am trying to keep hold of the drawbar. Thanks for your post, I’ll try and work out why in the next few days and get back to you 
. Maybe it’s because the trailer seems to follow you round that much more naturally on the drawbar. Time will tell 
.
From personal experience, wagon and drag is easier going forward as it follows the prime-mover’s line better and doesn’t cut corners like an artic…but an artic is easier to back as it doesn’t come around so quickly, meaning more time to correct your steering and less damage done if you get it wrong.
In reality, however, it’s horses for courses…and a good chunk of what you’re used to which will dictate your preference.
Thanks, Liberace. There’s nothing like 1st hand experience!
To be honest, Lucy, I haven’t driven either since passing my test so both are going to be ‘interesting’ (read that as scary).
Afterthought…the above is only true if your w&d is “close-coupled” or “straight-bar” so it tows in a similar manner to an oversized caravan with the trailer axles in the centre…
…If, however, it’s “A-frame”, with a fifth-wheel at the front of the trailer, then it’s guarenteed to be evil, will be no help to you whatsoever when you get into an artic 2 weeks later, and should be avoided at all costs! 
I’ve yet to see a training school stupid enough to teach people in an A-frame though, and they’re getting rarer in this country by the day (largely because so few people are able/willing to drive them), so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. 
Aren’t ‘A’ frame drawbars notoriously difficult to reverse?
(Just seen Lucy’s post above)
THE WAGON & DRAG ,if it has a straight bar fitted is easyer to drive,BUT
the system is completely dufferent when it has a ““A”” FRAME instead
also if the trailer is two axles,harder still, a three axle trailer is easyer then the former set-up mentioned withtwi axels but every one has there own
opinions what system is the hardest,
ALSO DO NOT FOR GET THE five-pointed connection system for the ““WAGON &DRAG”” this is in my opinion even harder still, and the drivers of this system are in my eyes good drivers, very good,
brit pete:
THE WAGON & DRAG ,if it has a straight bar fitted is easyer to drive,BUT
the system is completely dufferent when it has a ““A”” FRAME instead
also if the trailer is two axles,harder still, a three axle trailer is easyer then the former set-up mentioned withtwi axels but every one has there own
opinions what system is the hardest,
ALSO DO NOT FOR GET THE five-pointed connection system for the ““WAGON &DRAG”” this is in my opinion even harder still, and the drivers of this system are in my eyes good drivers, very good,
Sorry, Britpete, can you explain the 5 pointed connection system?
Thanks
Like Lucy says it’s what your used to. I passed my test in a W&D so I found artics a pain to drive at first. haven’t driven a W&D since my test but would like to have go.
I’ve driven 32’ box trucks with a 24’ equipment trailer behind it (not a drawbar ‘A-train’, BTW), and found it easy to drive, but difficult to back into a space. OTOH, I’ve driven up to 57’ trailers, and always found them easy to dock, even if the ‘off-track’ on corners was a problem. You just get used to setting your turns up before you actually get to the turn, that’s all.
In my experience, an artic is easier to drive normally, If it wont go in forwards, it will certainly reverse into a small space. A Centre axle drawbar is simple enough going forward on normal routes, but can be easy to knock the corners of it 
An A frame is just 2 rigids, the biggest mistake everyone makes is too much steering input.
I would say I prefer artics, but have had some fun showing off in an A frame
I would seriously dread ever having to reverse a drawbar it just looks very difficult to me, having driven a centre axled drawbar for a couple of years i found it very easy to reverse and a lot easier than an arctic.
But going forwards you have a turning circle the size of Kent. !!!
The one i drove had a box change system thats an experience to say the least.
for ghostscan, this system was used by westermann and there like in the begining as it allowed a close coupling of the two vehicles to descibe it the
two vehicles had a 2 couplings shaped like a V which was connected on
the wagon and also on the trailer with the bottomof the V MEETING IN THE MIDDLE and so you have a 5 point connection.hope that was
easy to understand i have tryed to find a picture but have had no luck at present.
hello, 
i drive A frame drawbars with demountable boxes on the unit and drawbar.at first they are a nightmare to reverse (especially when reversing under a box) but practice makes perfect…lol
as lucy says its horses for courses.many agency drivers have gone home and not even tried when they see its the A frame type
SPAR still use A frames and they are not worth attempting to reverse unless you are very well trained on it. i drove one for a month and i had a go at backing one up straight. it still went off to one side after starting the manouvre perfectly straight.
draw bars are great to pull but artics are easier to reverse with the extra angle that they are capable of. tractor units tend to have a sharper turn than rigids too
Anglian Windows use A frames & I have driven them a reasonable number of times.
I have never been given any training on them, other than about an hour when I did some box changing / shunting work for them one evening.
They are very easy to drive fowards, it the rigid fits the trailer will, on reversing it’s not so easy, you have to turn the steering wheel the wrong way & not steer very much or the trailer over steers. I have never really got the hang of reversing them & consider myself lucky if I get onto bay in 3 or 4 shunts.
But the regular guys seem to do it no problem.
daxi:
But the regular guys seem to do it no problem.
dont they always? im sure they only ever get it right when they are in front of drivers who cant drive the stupid things. they get it spot on in front of us them make a mess of it behind our backs
scanny77:
daxi:
But the regular guys seem to do it no problem.don’t they always? im sure they only ever get it right when they are in front of drivers who cant drive the stupid things. they get it spot on in front of us them make a mess of it behind our backs
It never works that way for me Scanny. The number of times I’ve driven into a drop and done an awkward reverse onto a bay first time, no shunts, and not a soul about to see it. Another time I get to a place, acres of room and it takes me 5 shunts to get it on and there’s 5 drivers with nothing better to do than watch me make a pigs ear of it 
.
A-frame trailers take a lot of getting used to. It’s a real skill to do a good tidy job of reversing them into a spot. You don’t really need training on it though, just practice, practice and then some more practice. I know cause I can/could do it. .
I do know from talking to some of the old hands that due to newer drivers being paid peanuts they have a lot of problems with trailer damage now, but in all honesty most of their guy’s reverse really well.
I don’t know if you have ever tried to put a vehicle under a demountable but it needs more precision than most reverses & these guy’s put an A frame trailer under demounts & that takes real ability.
Also some of the depots are total nightmares but these guy’s still get in & out scratch free, & thats despite a lack of space, PLUS 100’s of vans arriving after you to make getting out as difficult, if not more difficult, than getting in.
In my books that makes them not just good, but zb good at reversing these things.
To be fair Scanny, I have no respect for Anglian Widows, but they do have a lot of decent guy’s who work for them & I have no problem in admitting that.
Im taking the new wagon and drag (A frame) milk tanker out for the next 3 days on farm collections.