Hi. I have a trailer that barely fits my current horses and I don’t have the money to buy a bigger one. Someone on another forums says she took hers to a welding shop and they made hers taller. Is this possible, something I could reasonably find someone to do?
In theory this is possible. In actuality, I’d guess you could buy a new-to-you trailer at the correct height for the same cost, with less or equal risk.
Also - the forum post you were talking about was more than likely talking about blocking the axles to increase the height of the trailer in relation to the truck’s bed rails.
Not the interior height.
Id make sure that this doesn’t impact the structural integrity of the trailer. I’m sure it’s doable, no doubt. Is it doable in a safe way? That is where the knowledge of the welder and general materials science comes in.
It would be cheaper to sell your current trailer and buy one of the height you need.
Welding work isn’t cheap and you better have a good one dealing with the structural integrity of the trailer.
Trailer “barely fits” my current horse --are you sure? In my opinion most trailers don’t allow a tall horse to hold his head completely up --we hauled OTTBs that were 17+ hands and a Percheron 18.2 in a standard size horse trailer. We hauled the OTTBs to Canada, NY, TN, IL, OH --many, many times for 3-Day events.
I occasionally leased my white (snow white when washed) Percheron to a carriage driver for weddings when the bride wanted a white Percheron (the carriage owner only had back Percherons). He picked up Charlie in a stock trailer. Standard size. I asked him if it was tall enough. He asked me, “Don’t you think he’s smart enough to keep his head down?” --of course the horse was smart enough to do that.
I’ve said this often - taller is good, but if you have a fruit loop hell bent on losing their cookies, it doesn’t matter how tall the trailer is… they will find the ceiling with their head.
I feel like you used to see this a lot when 6’ or 6’6” height was standard and steel trailers were the main option.
Of course I can’t find a picture of one, because I haven’t seen this done to a trailer in decades. But I have seen it a fair amount back in the day.
No idea what it does to the structural integrity of the trailer. And modern cost to weld is probably $$$.
I’m not even that old and I remember when 7’ was considered “extra tall.”
Edited to add: Google turned up this ad from Horse Trailer World. I don’t think this was an after-market roof raise, but they do look sort of like this when someone does it:
If this one from Marketplace isn’t an after-market job, I’ll eat my hat:
Also, honestly, IME a horse that is too big for a trailer is often too long to fit before they are too tall. The small trailers are often both.
Truly, I think you will do better patiently hunting for another trailer and then selling yours to someone with smaller horses.
I’m the one who brought up raising the roof on the forum. I already had a big 18’ steel stock trailer and extra tall trailers are rare in my area. Took it too a welder who specialized in trailer repairs (who also is a horse person). Cut off the roof, extended the frame work to add a panel above the side windows and to the back door.
I don’t know what the price of trailers are in other areas , maybe they are cheaper where you are. Taking the roof cap off and replacing it would be fairly basic straightforward work for a red seal welder. I would guess the paint job would cost as much as the actual welding/fabricating. But would bet it would be much cheaper than a different trailer.
That said, as others have mentioned I would consider if the trailer is actually too small. Are you hoping to have a trailer roof the horse cannot reach with her ears even in a high alert position?
If that blue & white trailer is actually a 2004 model, I’d eat my hat too. It looks older than the 1986 model!
They are talking about making the interior height taller, basically you saw the top of a steel trailer off, add metal, then hot glue it all back together. Basically.
I have seen it done several times, but most of the time it’s because someone has a welder in the family.
News to me, honestly. I’d never do that personally! Too much to go wrong.