Is it worth it to have a slide out installed on a horse trailer?

[bazman82]

A few more pics since I know people love having the visual of things to comment on. The inside pic is more updated now as the boot box was replaced with the bunk cots. The wall thats showing is 8' from left till the closest starts on the right.

 

[2manyrocks]

Although I have seen some sketchy school bus conversions, they weren't carrying the weight of live horses that can shift their weight around while being trailered.

 

[Birdhunter1]

If it were me (a horse owner/rider and skilled enough craftsman) I wouldn't venture down the path of a slide out. When not slid out it will eat real estate , when slid out you will have just a little more space. Find a way to reduce what is inside, maybe add (or add on to) a rack up top where your hay would go to store various stuff.

 

[2manyrocks]

Finding a way to make the most efficient use of interior space would be my suggestion. Airstreams seem to excel at it with overhead storage bins like airliners as well as storage bins under seating/bed areas all constructed of lightweight, but sturdy materials.

 

[bazman82]

I have looked at a few hay racks several years ago. It wasn't in the budget at the time so we never continued to look. That would be a good addition, plus the slide out . Having more storage up on the walls helps but still doesnt increase the floor space. As for dead space when we are not using it for camping, it would be no different than how we currently use it so I am not worried about that.

Back to the hay rack, I'll have to look more into those again and maybe find one that has a spot for an onboard generator up top powerful enough to just run the heat and AC(all we have plus 1 outlet in the closet). Currently we use the front stall area for hay, wood, wheelbarrow, buckets etc.

 

[ponytug]

I wouldn't do it, even if some company said that they could get it done. That is a big trailer, and when loaded up, I would bet that you are over the braking capacity of the truck, if not the payload. E.g.

https://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/english/index/shopping-tools/download-catalog/03-pdf/MY21-Trailering-Guide-eBrochure.pdf

(not picking on Chevy here)
A 2500 can trailer up to 16,500lbs, aka 3,300lbs on the truck via a gooseneck, which means that the truck needs to be close to empty as its capacity is only 3,794lbs, and empty that would leave you a net of 494lbs for you, your passengers and fuel. If you, your passengers, and your fuel weigh more than that, it cuts back into the trailer load capacity. (Fuel is going to be at least 260lbs full...)

Now let's take a stab at the trailer load; 4 Arabians at 1,000lbs a piece is 4,000lbs. A four horse slant load, with a 10' shortwall is going to be in the 8,000lb range, so that would be 12,000 before you have added tack, water, feed, etc. So at a minimum, the slide out, plus the engineering to strengthen the floor and walls wouldn't leave you with much of a remaining payload budget on either the truck or trailer.

I'm not saying that people don't grossly overload their trucks and trailers. People certainly do, and many get away with it. Location certainly matters; central Iowa has fewer challenges than upstate New York, or say Colorado or California. I'm just saying that there isn't a lot of elbow room to stay in the generally regarded as safe area.

You might look into a used toterhome, some of which are built to pull 70,000lbs easily. They often can be found at reasonable discounts to new because many are bought by car racing enthusiasts, depreciated, and then sold after five years.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

How far do you travel? Maybe it would be better having someone follow in a separate vehicle with small travel trailer. The advantage is two vehicles if one breaks down, trailer is close but away from horses, it's self contained, you have extra storage.
Horse trailer is 100% horse related.
People trailer 100% people related.
Trailer has of course bathroom, kitchen, beds. Either that or small RV.

 

[bazman82]

I wouldn't do it, even if some company said that they could get it done. That is a big trailer, and when loaded up, I would bet that you are over the braking capacity of the truck, if not the payload. E.g.

https://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/english/index/shopping-tools/download-catalog/03-pdf/MY21-Trailering-Guide-eBrochure.pdf

(not picking on Chevy here)
A 2500 can trailer up to 16,500lbs, aka 3,300lbs on the truck via a gooseneck, which means that the truck needs to be close to empty as its capacity is only 3,794lbs, and empty that would leave you a net of 494lbs for you, your passengers and fuel. If you, your passengers, and your fuel weigh more than that, it cuts back into the trailer load capacity. (Fuel is going to be at least 260lbs full...)

Now let's take a stab at the trailer load; 4 Arabians at 1,000lbs a piece is 4,000lbs. A four horse slant load, with a 10' shortwall is going to be in the 8,000lb range, so that would be 12,000 before you have added tack, water, feed, etc. So at a minimum, the slide out, plus the engineering to strengthen the floor and walls wouldn't leave you with much of a remaining payload budget on either the truck or trailer.

I'm not saying that people don't grossly overload their trucks and trailers. People certainly do, and many get away with it. Location certainly matters; central Iowa has fewer challenges than upstate New York, or say Colorado or California. I'm just saying that there isn't a lot of elbow room to stay in the generally regarded as safe area.

You might look into a used toterhome, some of which are built to pull 70,000lbs easily. They often can be found at reasonable discounts to new because many are bought by car racing enthusiasts, depreciated, and then sold after five years.

All the best,

Peter

So I did think of this as well. I would look to upgrade the axles/tires of the trailer along with adding the extra leaf springs on the truck to make it a 3500. The 2015 2500hd tow rating is only 14500 for our model. It's a gasser. The trailer itself has a max weight of 10800. I have a picture of the plate on it, I'll post that shortly.

How far do you travel? Maybe it would be better having someone follow in a separate vehicle with small travel trailer. The advantage is two vehicles if one breaks down, trailer is close but away from horses, it's self contained, you have extra storage.
Horse trailer is 100% horse related.
People trailer 100% people related.
Trailer has of course bathroom, kitchen, beds. Either that or small RV.

We did this memorial day weekend as we do have a 25' avenger travel trailer (no slide out). We had the wifes cousin pull it down and camp with us and they watched our youngin's while we went for 13 and 11 mile trail rides. If we made enough upgrades to ours, or could find a 4 horse trailer with living quarters suitable for us that our truck could pull, we would trade in both trailers for 1 and use the horse/rv combo for everything.

 

[2manyrocks]

Efficient storage means stuff doesn't end up on the floor space.

 

[bazman82]

Thats the horse trailer spec's tag and inside the horse trailer after a camping trip so its a bit messy. The other pic is our truck and the travel trailer.