The oldest daughter is starting to get into horses and I need to get a horse trailer. We have two horses now and I don't think we'll have any more than that. We'll be using the trailer for traveling for trail rides and horse clinics. The current tow rig is a F150 crew cab with 3.5 Ecoboost with a tow rating of 9600 lbs. However, the next truck will probably be a GM 2500 with a large gas or diesel. I've been watching Craigslist for trailers. My original thoughts are a 2 horse slant bumper pull, however, a 3 horse slant gooseneck would work too and maybe give me more flexibility. We're not looking at long hauls (at least not currently). I'm not seeing much in the way of bargains out there, they either are still high valued or look pretty worn out. But I might stumble upon something. I'm also looking at new trailers. Does anyone have any suggestions on what features are "must haves"? Any brands/models to look for or avoid?
Ditto on aluminum versus steel.
We've had an aluminum GN stock trailer that we hauled four horses with our 1997 K1500, 5.7L, extended cab, short bed. It had a rear ramp, with rubber mats on the ramp and half way up the interior, two doors at the front, center divider (side to side). We also had a water tank in the GN part of the trailer, which had a drop down gate to prevent things from rolling out of the GN section.
Since then, we've had two, 2 horse BP trailers, each with a dressing room. We hauled these with a 2004 K1500, reg cab, 8 foot bed, 5.3L.
We had the stock trailer built to order from a local manufacturer. The first BP was from my sister, who no longer needed it. The second BP we bought from the owner of a local tack shop who was retiring. We heard about him from our farrier. So, I recommend putting out the word through the 'horse' people you deal with, e.g., people you buy hay from, farrier, where you buy feed, etc.
Each of our trucks handled these trailers when loaded with horses well. However, my wife drove the truck, with whomever she was riding with as passengers. I never went along. I asked her how the truck did and she reported OK. She, the truck, trailer and horses came back in one piece, so I took her at her word. I told her to keep an eye on the water temp and trans temp. I assume she did.
The longest trip she was on was 60 miles, round trip, so nothing major.
Must haves;
1. Rubber floor mats.
2. Rubber wall mats.
3. Outside tie downs
4. Inside tie downs
5. Outside lights.
6. Tack/dressing room. You will have a lot of stuff to take and this is a place to store all the tack, etc. The outside door to the tack room also had a screen door.
7. The water tank on our GN was nice.
8. Our GN had two doors at the front so we had two ways to get out of the trailer in the event of an emergency.
9. If this is a more serious activity, consider AC
10. The tie downs we've had were aluminum, but the screws used were steel, which rusted and ran down the trailer.
11. Ramp the horses can walk up/down and not have to step up/down.
12. I wish the trailers had disc brakes, they didn't.
13. Indoor/outdoor carpet in tack room.
Why have we had so many trailers?
The first two were hit, while parked near our barn (which was also hit), when people drove off the road, traveled almost 700 feet, through multiple fences and hit the trailers and pushed them into the barn.
These incident happened about 18 months apart. Fortunately, no one was hurt. First guy said he was avoiding a deer. The second guy had a medical emergency and had passed out.
