Can I "lift" a horse trailer

[hawkeye08]

Anyone that hauls 4 horses 150 miles on a trailer with no brakes isn't qualified to lecture here. Period. That is an act of stupidity, plain and simple.

I was trying to find the words to express my thoughts. These do it well.

 

[zing]

and of course what is being IGNORED in the replies about premature brake lock-up is that the wheels that lock up first are the lightest loaded ones - - and it DOESN'T MATTER.
a) If you are braking THAT HARD with horses on board you are getting into situations beyond your capabilities - please stop doing that for the horses' sake(s).
b) The axle with the additional load isn't locking up because it is carrying more load - and will therefore lock-up LATER than if it had been equally loaded.
Bottom line: braking is ALL about coefficient of friction, NOT about area of contact or how many wheels are involved.

If you really want to solve this for minimum cost WITHOUT raising the C of G do the geometry and figure how many cm of tire size increase on the front axle will get you equal load.
Don't worry about equal braking - truck drivers with lift axles don't

Preemptive comment about being cut off and having to brake hard; Again, don't get into those situations.
I towed 4 horses about 150 miles yesterday with no trailer brakes - not a problem, I drive very conservatively in consideration for the horses and I don't "invite" people to cut me off.

I disagree with many of the things you are saying here. Saying that if you leave more lead between cars will mean you never have to brake hard is wrong. People will haul azz past you on the highway just so they can pull in front of you and brake hard for the off ramp, just to save themselves a couple seconds. On the country roads people at a stop sign see a horse trailer coming and they think "I don't want to be behind that guy!" so they pull out in front of you and force you to brake to avoid rear ending them. It happens all the time. I leave a larger buffer when trailering of course, but that doesn't mean I don't still get cut off.

My trailer is a 4-house slant load, when I brake their side is supported by the padded dividers. The barn trailer is up to 7 horses (depending on how we configure the dividers) with some horses facing backwards, some frontwards, and a pony or small horse sideways. An uphill cant is not significantly favouring the horses in either of these scenarios. Besides, most of the time they are standing normally on the trailer, when you are not braking. 60% of a horse's weight is on their front end. Their body is designed to handle that. On a long trailer ride having them stand uphill the whole way is going to put too much weight on the back legs for a long time for no good reason.

Having larger wheels for the front axle sounds like a terrible idea. It sounds like you have the potential to create a see-saw effect where the back end goes down and lightens the tongue weight, possibly separating the gooseneck from the ball if you hit rough terrain or bumps on the highway at overpasses, etc. As well, what happens if you have truck trouble and need to switch the tow vehicle, or someone wants to borrow your trailer? If the new tow vehicle is not as high you will create lift on the gooseneck hitch pulling it away from the ball AND you will be overloading that front axle. Plus, with big tires on the front axle and a see-saw effect, you are moving the pivot point forward and possibly making it tail heavy. We all know that too much tail weigh on a trailer causes it to fishtail more easily.

Plus I agree with the others about that business of hauling a 4 horse trailer for 150 miles with no trailer brakes.

Overall, you seem to be thinking very carefully about things, and coming to all of the wrong conclusions.