Dressing room door on street (driver's) side or curb (passenger's) side?

[wsmoak]

My current slant load trailer has the dressing room door on the street (driver’s) side. My friend’s who I meet at horse shows does also. This has always seemed very convenient and has never caused a problem.

I’m ordering a new trailer and getting pressure to put the dressing room door on the curb side for ‘safety reasons’ (so you don’t have traffic passing by if you have to pull over and get into the dressing room.)

My old trailer has unfortunately had A LOT of flat tires. When I needed the drive-on jack and lug wrench, I simply waited for a break in traffic and hopped in, then peeked out to check if it was safe before exiting. It was always the drivers side tire that had to be changed anyway, and that was way more dangerous than getting in and out of the dressing room!

Plus, the new trailer [1] has escape doors on both sides plus a pass-through door from the dressing room to the horse box. I could get into the dressing room from the curb side escape door if I needed to.

So, convince me. Which side should I put the dressing room door on?

[1] gooseneck 2H straight load, no LQ

[soloudinhere]

Is the new trailer a gooseneck?

if so, spare under the goose, problem solved.

i prefer street side as when I’m at a show, if I’m in and out of my truck, I’m in and out on the drivers side so it just makes things easier.

[cutter99]

I prefer the passenger’s side, for two reasons. First for safety, second for the fact if it is an LQ trailer the hook ups for water, sewer and electric are then on the driver’s side, which is the side they will be located on in campsIte.

For the safety factor, complacency is a very dangerous thing. The more we do something, the more complacent we get. I had a blowout yesterday, and was able to get off the road on a on-ramp. I was a good 8’-10’ off the white line on the side of the ramp, and I was surprised how many people were over the white line and within a couple feet of my rig after they made the turn onto the ramp. All it takes to get hit is one small moment of complacency.

[Bluey]

Slants are built slanting from the left to right, so generally the doors are on the right, where they have more wall to put them.

We had one 12’ GN straight stock trailer with a gate that made the front 4’ it’s own compartment if we wanted one.
The escape door was on the left, the traffic side, as many are, as we requested, for the same reason you bring up.
Handy as it was most times, if you had to go in there with traffic whizzing by, you realized that was not a good idea at all and that was before today’s phones and distracted drivers.

I think I would walk the extra steps and keep those doors on the curb side, or if possible have two such doors, one on each side.

[Guilherme]

Coke or Pepsi. You choice.

G.

[grinanride]

Besides being away from traffic, would you tie up and tack up on the passengers side or road side?? slants typically go left because we lead on the left typically…
Risa
HappyTrailsTrailers.com
BalancedRideTrailers.com

[wsmoak]

I have always tied up on the road/drivers side – but that’s because that’s where my dressing room is… obviously not while I’m pulled off on the side of the road, I mean at a trail head or at a show, where there’s no traffic.

Thanks for mentioning the LQ, it makes sense to have the doors on the ‘other’ side if you’re going to be in a camping spot with those hookups.

[Jarpur]

I’ve had two with the door on the street side, two with the door on the curb side. Even though it’s a walk around from the driver’s seat to a door on the curb, I think I prefer that set-up, for the reasons mentioned above.

When I’m at an event or trail head, I tie on the same side as the door for my convenience, assuming that keeps the horse in shade (it’s warm here and we’re always looking for shade). If the shade is on the other side, the horse is tied there, and I walk around.

[PNWjumper]

I’ve had one of each. I prefer the door to be on the driver side. But I only use my trailer as transport, and so the only time I need to access anything is while en route. I might feel differently if I ever tied up at the trailer? As it is, I prefer being able to hop out of my truck and be right at the tack door. But it’s not a terribly strong preference…I didn’t hate my curb-side tack door either.

[sunkistbey]

My current trailer is street side as was the one before it. We’ve never had a problem with hook ups, but we always carry extra hoses and extension cords made for hooking up our LQ.

[yaya]

My first two bumper pulls were passenger side doors, and I just thought that was the way it was. My first gooseneck with small LQ was driver’s side, and oh, what a difference! So nice to be able to jump out of the truck and go straight into the trailer. Now I have a trailer with no LQ, but passenger side door, and I curse under my breath every time I have to duck under the gooseneck to go to the other side.

I’m not yet going to spend the money to build a trailer with a driver’s side door, but my next trailer will sure have it.

Think about all the places you use your trailer, and how you would prefer to get into it. For me, most shows have parking out in a field, not by a street, so a driver’s side door isn’t a danger.

Hopefully you are not stranded by the side of a road often enough to need the door to be on the passenger side! (And if you are, maybe consider hiring a hauler? :lol: )

[saddleup]

I prefer the curb side just because of how I park my trailer, with the curb side facing the barn. It makes it easier to load and unload items into and out of the dressing room/tack room of my gooseneck trailer. My old trailer had the door on the street side and it meant I had to walk around the trailer every time. Not a big deal, but it’s easier for me now…especially when lugging saddles.

[jbonifas]

Like it’s been said each to their own but I had mine put on the drivers side…my trailer, I’m driving, I don’t want to have to walk all the way around the trailer to get into the dressing room. I hated the last trailer I had with the door on the passenger side. I felt like I was always circling the trailer to get anything.

[SLW]

I had mine built with the DR door on the curb side just for road safety reasons. I’d never planned to finish the Dressing room into living quarters so having the door on the long wall was a non-issue.

[lintesia]

There are advantages to both. For me, the solution was to have two doors – one on either side!

[wsmoak]

@lintesia

There are advantages to both. For me, the solution was to have two doors – one on either side!

In the dressing room? Mine is only 4’, I need the other wall for the saddle racks. I did get two escape doors though!

[tbchick84]

As someone who goes lots of places alone, I would have preferred to have it on the drivers side so it would be same side as my horse. With it on the passenger side, I have to move his hay over when I unload him and move it again when it’s time to go home. Also, when I do have a human passenger with a second horse, they always assume he passenger side and I’m left walking back and forth to get all of my stuff.

[ecileh]

I wish mine was on the driver’s side.

I’m a fox hunter and we park on the road at a lot of fixtures. Most of the time, there is a ditch, so you can’t tie the horse on the passenger side and have to carry tack around the back of the trailer–while not falling into said ditch.

More importantly, though, I have to tie my horse on the road side and then leave her there exposed to traffic while getting my stuff. I’d much prefer to have quick access to her in these situations.

[tabula_rashah]

I have two GN slants, one with the door on the driver’s side and one with the door on the passenger side. I far prefer the passenger side- esp for when we have to park along side the road to tack up. Passenger side works better for my camping set up too

[Horseman15]

My dressing room door is on the passenger (right) side. Honestly, if something happens on the road it’s safer to have it on the passenger side. I drive a tractor trailer for a living and people are stupid. They’ll see the open door and gravitate towards it unconsciously.

When I’m out and parked somewhere, depending upon how well the horses get along and how well they tie (I have one that dances constantly) I’ll either tie them up together on one side or put one on one side and one on the other. It’s definitely more convenient to have the door on the same side you tie up on