A cam carriage for flat-bed knitting machines has at least one leading and trailing draw-down element, having a drive top plate and a bottom plate with a draw-down track located at opposite sides of a cam plate in which a draw-down element is placed movably between an alignment position and several casting-off positions in a guide slot, and the driven top plate is rigidly connected with a drive element at least in the direction of the draw-down position. In such a cam carriage for flat-bed knitting machines, the draw-down elements of which provide a very high draw-down force on the one hand, and, on the other, react with sufficient resilience during the movement in the direction of the draw-down position, it has been provided that the top plate and the bottom plate, of the draw-down element are movable in relation to each other and are biased to take up a basic position such that a relative movement of the top and bottom plates can only be performed during a shifting movement of the top plate in the direction of one of the draw-down positions.