If the Hawk is 4’ longer than the 4 star, then the 4 star is only 15 ft? If 15 ft it’s probably not a true 2+1 even without a tack room.
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If you want a brand new Hawk without a dressing room, order it from Risa at Happy Trails Trailers. That’s what I did. She orders this custom regularly, and the cost is less by the way she puts it in (or at least 5 years ago when I got mine). It’s officially something like a 2 horse with front ramp and dressing room, minus the dressing room and plus horse-friendly flooring and the stud gate (I also got breast and butt bars with two heights to choose from and back windows). It came out cheaper than any other stock 2+1s, and like you said, it was very hard to find them without dressing rooms anyway. At 17’, it’s the maximum length I can get into my steep driveway off a narrow gravel road. This is my second Hawk, and my first one was still in good shape after 20 years.
My friend has almost the same trailer from 4star: 2+1 with no dressing room. There are some things I like better on her trailer and some I like better on mine, and she feels the same way. They’re both good trailers and I’d be happy to own either one. However, as you found, 4stars are generally more expensive.
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So that cage thingie in front of your pretty pony, that is pulled up to the ceiling, is for the gooseneck area?
Yes (I’ve seen them on some other hawk trailers)
Mine has a gate wall. You can open or close it for the front box stall. I use the front stall as the tack room normally and if there’s a horse in there then I use the gooseneck.
Yes, the gate pulls down to create a barrier to the gooseneck area.
I’m with you. Slants make me feel claustrophobic.
It would be a small one, but it could still be one, I think. The 15’ is just the floor length, generally the “nose” is not included.
I thought OP was looking at bumper pulls, in which case I’d imagine the 15’ would be to the nose. My straight load with side ramp GN is 15’ at the longest part of the horse area (I have the slant wall in the dressing room so that eats into the horse area a bit on one side). That long side has 7.5’ in front of the breast bar, so would be very very tight to use as a 2+1 unless we were talking ponies 
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If you can get a 4 star that you can afford, do it! The quality is superior, IMO, to anything else out there. All of the little things (door latches, hinges, etc.) work many times better than other brands, and they’re very responsive to questions.
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thanks everyone. i went with new 4 star on sale. appreciate everyone.
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And I ordered a Balanced Ride 2 +1 with tack room, hydraulic jack, solar panels, fans, and bulkhead door. Very excited!
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Sounds dreamy. Would love to see pics when it arrives!
Who did you order from? I am looking at this.
Balanced Ride is Risa at Happy Trails Trailers in SC. The trailers are very well thought out and built, and Risa is great to work with.
greys
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I ordered from Risa at Happy Trails Trailers (Therisa Couch). She sold me my first Hawk Trailer 20 years ago (and it still looks great!). She was very patient with me as I hemmed and hawed between the 2+1 and the 2 horse gooseneck XL (it’s a rear facing two horse but has room behind the horses to make loading the big boys easier and have some room for strapping down hay) or a 2+1 gooseneck without a tack room (you’d still have the goose) and I’d rarely haul 3 horses, so that seemed to make some sense too. I ended up with the 2+1 with tack room. I wanted the 2+1 because I have 3 horses (although one is retired), but also because you can turn this into front facing (for extra $) or two box stalls. My concern was the length, or I would add two or three feet to the front box stall to make them even (although this might be the configuration for a four horse straight load). I got the Max version (lots of extras and upgrades) and added a hydraulic jack, solar panels, some cargo ties for the front stall, a door in the bulkhead between the front stall and tack room (in the event I ever trailer in to a show and want to use that stall for tacking up); the reversible stall option, and; fans over all the stalls. The trailer will be delivered in August (I hope).
Risa also talked me through my truck purchase (replacing my old GMC duramax diesel–by old, I bought it new and it was a 2002). She was very kind to help me with that as I wanted to be sure to have the right truck for the gooseneck trailer (picked up the truck last Thursday!).
For what it’s worth, I was thought I was going to buy a 4Star or a Cimarron 2+1, as we have dealers here and they are nice trailers, and I like the quiet ride feature on the 4 Star. But I kept going back to the Balanced Ride and Hawk, as I have had such good experience with the Hawk. When they raised the price by $20k since last year (this might be the local dealers) on BOTH 4Star and Cimarron, it made my decision very easy. Those trailers are definitely not worth 20k more than the Balanced Ride and in some ways can’t compare in horse friendy features (like the floor).
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