Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Garandman]

We towed a keelboat to FL a number of times, using cargo vans with 31-35 gallon tanks. If we went over 75, the fuel consumption increased so much we would have an early fuel stop that wiped out any gain. If we drove smart we could go 300 miles between stops.

Coming home from Sarasota the same weekend as the Daytona 500, we were passed by NASCAR transporters going Way North of 80mph. Never seen trucks move so fast.

 

[jeeptchr]

Lol he was paying the bill, and I had the truck so I didn’t argue... I think somewhere in SD I averaged like 4 mpg into a headwind. I had a 38gallon tank.

Nice.

 

[California]

Coming home from Sarasota the same weekend as the Daytona 500, we were passed by NASCAR transporters going Way North of 80mph. Never seen trucks move so fast.

Similar experience. I rented a new Chevy Citation at Ontario airport for a business trip to Needles, some 220 miles east. 2/3 of that is across open empty Mojave Desert. I got passed on the freeway by a semi with trailer that I couldn't keep up with, the car had the horsepower but it didn't stay planted well enough to catch up to his speed.

 

[zing]

I usually do a couple of longer trailer tow trips per year with my 38 foot gooseneck horse trailer. With horses on board you don't want to make those trips any longer than they have to be. This year it was Halifax to Montreal at 14ish hours each way, and Halifax to Toronto at about 21 hours each direction. No way I am doing that kind of distance at 100 kph. Aside from very steep hills, I average about 120. Speed limit in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is 110 so they never touch anyone doing 125 or less, limit in Quebec and Ontario is 100, so as long as you stay under 120 you are safe. In freedom units, that means I am driving about 75 mph.

 

[BigBlue1]

I usually do a couple of longer trailer tow trips per year with my 38 foot gooseneck horse trailer. With horses on board you don't want to make those trips any longer than they have to be. This year it was Halifax to Montreal at 14ish hours each way, and Halifax to Toronto at about 21 hours each direction. No way I am doing that kind of distance at 100 kph. Aside from very steep hills, I average about 120. Speed limit in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is 110 so they never touch anyone doing 125 or less, limit in Quebec and Ontario is 100, so as long as you stay under 120 you are safe. In freedom units, that means I am driving about 75 mph.

Are horses good in the trailer that whole time or do you have to find a way to let them out for a bit along the way? The trailer has a way to feed and water them inside? I suppose it is like a semi stock trailer hauling pigs or cattle. Never really pondered the logistics until now.

 

[vulcancowboy]

Are horses good in the trailer that whole time or do you have to find a way to let them out for a bit along the way? The trailer has a way to feed and water them inside? I suppose it is like a semi stock trailer hauling pigs or cattle. Never really pondered the logistics until now.

We used to haul horses from PA to Florida, pretty much nonstop. Just over 20 hrs. We did not take the horses off the trailer, but did remove manure, water them every few hours and try to keep hay in front of them the whole trip. No problems.

 

[zing]

Are horses good in the trailer that whole time or do you have to find a way to let them out for a bit along the way? The trailer has a way to feed and water them inside? I suppose it is like a semi stock trailer hauling pigs or cattle. Never really pondered the logistics until now.

Each horse has a hay net so they are eating constantly. I have a water tower with a gravity feed hose, so each time I stop for fuel one person fills the truck while the other fills buckets with water. Then we hold them up to the horses so they can drink. Some horses don't want to drink on the trailer, so my trick is to dice apples and put them into the water bucket. Most will not refuse that, so they get some water while they are bobbing around for apple bits. Some people want me to give the horse a bit of grain or beet pulp, but that will only be small amounts because they cannot move around as much as they would in a stall of paddock and you don't want them to colic. Horse trailers are different from most stock trailers in that it is not one big open area with loose animals, it is separate stalls for each horse and they are attached to a cleat, plus there are extra cleats to hang hay.

You definitely do not want to take them off during transit because the last thing you want is a bunch of horses on lead lines in a gas station parking lot, especially when they may outnumber the people you have with you, some of them may not be yours so they are not familiar with you, they may not be familiar with or get along well with each other, and some may refuse to get back on the trailer. If I had a friend with a horse property at the halfway point where I could take them and let them overnight I would consider that, but I don't so we just keep them fed and watered, and keep on trucking.

 

[vulcancowboy]

You definitely do not want to take them off during transit because the last thing you want is a bunch of horses on lead lines in a gas station parking lot, especially when they may outnumber the people you have with you, some of them may not be yours so they are not familiar with you, they may not be familiar with or get along well with each other, and some may refuse to get back on the trailer. If I had a friend with a horse property at the halfway point where I could take them and let them overnight I would consider that, but I don't so we just keep them fed and watered, and keep on trucking.

True! About 40 years ago, my wife and I hauled 2 horses from NY to New Mexico. One horse was a big, thorobred, just off the track. The young girl who owned him gave us instructions to stop every 3 hours, unload, and walk the horse. I said nothing to her, but there was no way that was going to happen! At the end of the 1st day, we pulled off the interstate, found a spot near an open field where it was safe to pull over and unload. The trailer was an old straight load, I was at his head and my wife was waiting to "catch" him when he was unhooked. When I unhooked him, he flew backwards like he had been shot from a cannon. My wife tried to grab the lead, but only got some nasty rope burns for her effort. The horse took off!

We somehow managed to catch him and get him back on the trailer. Needless to say, he didn't come off again until we got to NM.

 

[zing]

True! About 40 years ago, my wife and I hauled 2 horses from NY to New Mexico. One horse was a big, thorobred, just off the track. The young girl who owned him gave us instructions to stop every 3 hours, unload, and walk the horse. I said nothing to her, but there was no way that was going to happen! At the end of the 1st day, we pulled off the interstate, found a spot near an open field where it was safe to pull over and unload. The trailer was an old straight load, I was at his head and my wife was waiting to "catch" him when he was unhooked. When I unhooked him, he flew backwards like he had been shot from a cannon. My wife tried to grab the lead, but only got some nasty rope burns for her effort. The horse took off!

We somehow managed to catch him and get him back on the trailer. Needless to say, he didn't come off again until we got to NM.

Yikes, that could have been disastrous for the horse or worse for your wife. I haven't had anything that bad, but I have been learning things as I go along. Some of the things I have learned to take along now whenever I trailer more that a short local trip are:
- Two full spares for the truck and two full spares for the trailer. I realized after a trailer tire blowout about 4 hours away from my destination that once you have your first blowout, the rest of your trip is driving without a spare. I can replace a tire in 15 minutes or less, but with a trailer load of horses you don't want to be sitting in a tire shop for a couple hours to get the spare replaced, or it may not be possible if you are trailering through the night. I spent the last four hours of that trip sweating about what I would do if I had another blowout.
- A 25L jug of diesel in case of issues finding an open station at night. Nothing like having a load of horses on at 3 am and your computer says 25 kms to empty because the last 3 stations you passed were closed or located way off the hwy ramp in an unknown town.
- I have a tire ramp so I don't have to jack up the trailer to change a tire. Just drive the undamaged tire (dual axle trailer) up on the ramp, change the bad tire, and drive it back off the ramp.
- I have a cheater bar to put over the tire iron, because places nowadays put the lug nuts on so tight that I can bounce my 220 lbs on the tire iron and they sometimes still won't move. You can't change a tire if you can't budge the lugnuts.
- I keep a cordless impact wrench in the truck because 8 lugnuts off and 8 lugnuts back on takes a long time by hand. Once I start them with my tire iron and cheater bar, those nuts come off in a half second each, and the same going back on. I also have an adapter to the jack pole, and the wrench will spin my truck jack fast enough to lift the truck tire off the ground in a couple of seconds.
- I took the Ford spare tire lock key off after finding I had a slow leak one time and when I went to lower the spare under the truck bed, there was so much mud and dirt in the tube that the key would not bite and the tire wouldn't come down. This was before I had the second truck spare, so I had to keep pumping the tire and driving until I got home.
- As per above, I keep a plug in tire pump.

 

[vulcancowboy]

Sounds like you have done your homework Zing.