LQ trailers?

[MMacallister]

How many have them? What are the best features in your opinion? Worst? What do you wish you had added but didn’t?
I do a lot of camping with my horse and to this point have slept in a tent or in a cot in my tag along. Now I have a pretty new truck that will pull a decent size trailer and I will be minus a big payment in about 6 months, so of course I am thinking new horse trailer :lol:

I am thinking a 2 horse with living quarters, but the 3’s seem more popular. Really I almost never haul 2 in the the trailer I have now so 3 seems like a waste. When I go I usually go with a group and they tend to have their own set ups. I wouldn’t mind taking a friend but currently just don’t know anyone without there own set up.
Occasionaly some friends and I do go for an all girls weekend and we take one girls 3 horse with BIG LQ, which is nice for all of us, but its only maybe 2 weekends a year.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

PS. Mr. Ridingmic does join us but is usually very happy with the Camp B&*ch position, so sleeping quarters helpful, but we rarely bring a horse for him

[birdsong]

I am on my 2nd two horse since 2000…slant with 6’ short wall. Not big but is very doable. Forget about the stove IMO…microwave and grill does it all.
I like the window also in the long wall…

I LOVE a hot shower and didn’t want to sacrifice interior space so use a Coleman Instant hot in the first stall…I have a door into the stall area (very important) and after sweeping out I put down a small tarp and a nice bath mat. I put my portable toilet and shower there. Have a hanging rack for soaps and shampoo

Awning of course provides the real “living area” …indoors is just mainly to change and sleep for me. A closet for hanging garments…I hang tons of stuff and have cabinets for towels and jeans.

I also have a counter top and cabinets on the long wall that has all my supplies and permanent dishes.

When I’m camping I toss in the horses and stock the fridge, load their food and I’m off!

Many of my friends (most ) have at least a 3 horse…but IMO, mine is easier to take anywhere! If I were taking long extended trips I would probably get the 3 horse just to take more “stuff”.

Just remembered…my friend’s husband did ALL the research before getting their trailer and having mangers in the slant is great!! It is otherwise wasted space that can be used to store a small generator, feed etc.

[katyb]

Well, I just bought my 3 horse, so I’m still figuring it all out. The shower was cool last weekend, staying in a primitive camp. I like the stove - just to boil water, mostly. I don’t have a/c yet, but I’m sure I’ll add it next Spring. I like having tons of cabinets, and the awning rocks. Lots of lights are good, and it’s nice having a decent sized water tank. My trailer isn’t big at all - not hard to manuever.

[Whitfield_Farm_Hanov]

I love my 2+1 because it gives me so much room in the front box stall to haul anything I might need. It also has an outside tack room so it keeps all this stuff out of the living quarters.
I have a slide out which I cannot do without. I’d like as much cabinet space as I can get. The small fridge is okay with me though. I wish I had a door into the horse area as I could easily store clothes, etc out there & get to it easily if I had that door.
Get the biggest living quarters you can afford. You’ll love the room & none of it will be extra. Also many people use a cowboy shower but I love my inside shower however small. Also I love the reading lights at the head of the bed along with lots of electrical outlets, one at the head of the bed so that I can use my cell phone for an alarm clock & be sure it gets re-charged. Also great for laptop use.
Oh also get a trailer at least 7’6" so you’ll have head room in the bed.

[Heart_s_Journey]

You’ll gets lots of different opinons, so here’s mine. I have a 2H
GN 5’ short wall and the LQ has: queen bed, AC, pocket screen door, 2 burner cooktop, microwave, hot water heater, 30 gallon water tank, medicine cabinet, nose cabinets for clothing storage, other cabinets to store towels, food, paper goods, etc, fridge, towel bar, a fan in the GN and kitchen area, inside lights, solar panel, dinnette, fans in the horse area, and pass thru door. Propane runs the fridge, hot water heater, & cooktop. they call this a weekend package since it doesn’t have the separate shower, but heck, it’s great for 10 day trips.

I have a cowboy shower in the 1st stall and put my potty in the horse area so it becomes the bathroom when camping. And an awning outside. My absolute favorite option on the trailer is the HYDRAULIC HITCH! no cranking for me.

I love the cooktop to heat water for coffe/tea and it warms up the LQ on cold days. I also have a separate generator that is a Honda 2000EUI - very quiet, easy to lift, goes along time before refilling, but it won’t run the AC. I have been seriously camping for the past 17 years and go on many 10-12 day trips, so I do like having the comforts of home. I have an electric heater which the generator runs, but a propane furnance would be nice.

The battery runs the lights, but I use the generator alot if there isn’t electric. It will run for 12 hours before refiling the 1.5 gallon tank, so it’s very economical.

I set up the awning with a floor mat, table, and lounge chairs outside, so it’s very comfy. I use the dinnette for fixing meals, reading, eating breakfast, etc

I rarely bring anyone else, so I put hay in bale bags w/ wheels and tie them up in the first stall and put shavings around them in case my horse pees (rarely in the trailer). When I arrive, I clean out the horse area, move the bales of hay against the rear tack, open up the cowboy shower, put a big clean tub under to catch the water, put the potty back there and I’m all set for the weekend.

My next trailer though will be a 3H with a real shower - that way I can store the hay in the first stall and not have to move it. I would also like more cabinets (you can never have neough storage), mangers, ducted air, and the big 6.0 fridge! (A girl can dream…) But for now, this works well for me and I have no plans to sell or trade the trailer anytime soon.

[Mtn_trails]

My husband built our LQ trailer out of a 4 horse straight load. He took out the front wall that separated the horses from the tack area and moved it back 6 feet and installed on an angle. He installed a rear tack area, and made the box into a 3 horse slant. Then bought an old travel trailer and gutted it, using all the cabinets, appliances, plumbing, etc. in the LQ. We like having a stove with an oven, which is hard to get nowadays unless you’re willing to shell out the dough, and the old trailer had one, major score. He built a bench sofa with fold up table and cushions, and remodeled the gooseneck section for sleeping.

It still needs some finish work, but we have a flush toilet, a large outside awning, and almost all the comforts of home. I particularly like it because it’s easy to get in and out of compared to the truck camper we had where you had to climb over the hitch and up the stairs and hope you didn’t fall. The dogs can get in and out unassisted, and it hauls great. I can’t see ever not having a gooseneck LQ.

[Ridge_Runner]

We have a pretty big self contained LQ trailer and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s a 4H slant with a 10 foot shortwall and a slide out. It is a Double D…galvanized steel which reduced the cost dramatically from an aluminum but still gave us great corrosion resistance. We have a kitchenette with a small fridge, propane 2 burner stove, and a microwave. My only complaint is storage space. We took out the old tv which we didn’t use much and use that for storage space.

The slide out is wonderful…we love it. It did add a good bit of cost but the space you get is incredible. I can sit 4 adults easily in our cabin and we are comfortable. If you find yourself stuck inside for a rainy day while camping, you’ll appreciate that extra space.

Ours has a shower stall, toilet and closet…something else I’d not want to do without. We use the first stall to keep stuff we don’t need all the time and have a walk through door.

Our dinette pulls down to a single person bed. My only complaint is that our trailer only really sleeps three people unless someone crashes on the floor. I suppose two people could sleep on the dinette but they’d have to be cuddly. Might work for two kids.

We do go camping and riding year round in it. Having a furnace is nice for winter or fall camping and is way better than the air handler on top. It also runs on battery so if you don’t have power, you still have heat. Priceless. I used to camp in an unheated tack room and I’m just getting too old for that now. I like my creature comforts!

We found ourselves camping one October up on top of the Shenandoah mountains in an ice storm with 50 mph winds, and they have no hookups up at Big Meadow. Having heat was a godsend.

We also have a large awning and that is also well worth it. Just be careful in heavy downpours or strong wind. We had ours ripped off last Spring up in the VA mountains. Our insurance covered it but I’d rather not experience that again. No fun!

I do wish I had an oven…that is a great feature. I may buy a propane oven to set outside under the awning for next season. It is nice for fixing some things and you won’t need electricity for it either…at least I would think not.

if you do get a LQ trailer that is fully self contained like an RV, you can qualify for the longer 15 year financing and deduct your interest like a second home. That was one reason we splurged on it as well as my need to be able to cook my own meals once I found I had Celiac Disease which makes it hard to eat away from home.

I really don’t think you can ever have too much room so I’d get that third stall if you can manage. You’ll need it at some point. We use our extra stall to haul hay and feed all the time and it’s nice be able to haul an extra horse if we nee to.

Best of luck with your decision!

[katarine]

I have a 3H GN 4’ short wall and the LQ has: queen bed, AC, 2 burner cooktop, microwave,6 gallon hot water heater, 30 gallon water tank, medicine cabinet, other cabinets to store towels, food, paper goods, etc, fridge, inside lights, and pass thru door. Propane runs the hot water heater.

I have a cowboy shower in the 1st stall and put my potty in the horse area so it becomes the bathroom when camping. And an awning outside.

I set up the awning with a floor mat, table, and lounge chairs outside, so it’s very comfy. I use the dinnette for fixing meals, reading, eating breakfast, etc The string lights hanging from the awning offer nice ambient light.

I use the third stall/front one for storage of hay, chairs, tables, etc in transit. When I arrive, I clean out the horse area, move the bales of hay against the rear tack, open up the cowboy shower, put a big clean tub under to catch the water, put the potty back there and I’m all set for the weekend.

My next trailer though will be a 3H with a real shower and incinolet toilet. 8’ wide so I have manger storage. 7’6" tall so I have better height in the nose. Still only want a 7 or 8’ SW, I just don’t want a huge trailer.

[MMacallister]

Thanks so much for all the replies! You guys have really given me some things to think about.

Whitfield does your 2+1 have a side ramp? That sounds like a pretty interesting set up.

Daydream, I live in the VA mountains so I know what you mean about the heat! We were camping and it got into the 40’s in July! I woke up with no blankets and my son looked like a burrito:lol: It was in the low 80’s during the day and I wasn’t prepared for the temps to get that low.

I really do think I would like a shower/potty combo. Are they hard to take care of? Do you have to winterize even if you ride year round?

[JollyBadger]

My SO has a two-horse slant Hart trailer with LQ - a “weekender” package, although we frequently use it for weeklong trips quite comfortably. As long as things are kept fairly organized, it doesn’t feel cramped.

No slide-outs, but it does have the toilet and shower, and a cooktop (which we never use) and a fridge. My SO removed the table inside so we just have the benches.

The awning really does make up most of the living space - the inside of the LQ is just for sleeping, changing clothes, etc. We have a little propane grill and a small cheap-o charcoal grill, plus we may take along a small microwave on those longer trips if we’ll be staying in a place with electric hookup.

A couple of years ago we bought a “regular” mattress for the gooseneck, instead of those thin flimsy things that normally come with the trailer. It’s a king-size and was quite a squeeze to fit it in the gooseneck. It really takes up the whole gooseneck, but it’s soooo nice to crawl into that bed after a long day of riding. If the day comes that he sells that trailer, the mattress is going with it. . .because there’s no way we’re going to try to get that monstrous thing back out.:lol:

The trailer has two “tack rooms,” though the main one with the built-in saddle racks was on the side of the trailer. We often ended up storing our saddle pads and things in the horse section of the trailer while camping, so we wouldn’t have to sit in camp and smell sweaty horse pads the whole time. Opening and closing that door all the time also created wear and tear on the awning because that door goes clear to the top of the trailer.

Eventually, my SO cut the saddle racks out of that tack room and we installed saddle racks in the rear tack area. That’s where we store all of the grooming stuff, tack, blankets, etc. now.

The side tack room is now used for storage of all the kitchen and “awning room” furniture, including stacked plastic drawers for non-perishable foods, plates, cups, cooking utensils. We can just keep that door open the whole time without wafting odors of stinky horse blankets while we eat dinner.:winkgrin:

I really like our current setup. My SO has talked about possibly moving up to a three-horse in the future, just for the sake of having that third stall as extra storage, but that will be a long way off and right now we have a pretty good system.

[Heart_s_Journey]

Hey daydream - buy yourself a small toaster oven and use that with your generator. I’ve made small cakes, casseroles, etc with mine and it works great.

[Beverley]

I’m more primitive. Just got a new 2h BP w/tack room, and got a pull down cot in the tack room. But someday I do plan to get an LQ, I think. However I will point out one drawback, as per a friend of mine who is a real veteran, logs thousands of miles around the country every year. She uses a triple-rig, truck + camper + trailer, sets up camp and then has truck + trailer hooked up. I asked her why she didn’t get a LQ trailer and she noted that since she most often has a ‘base camp’ and will haul to ride within the particular area, her setup works better for her, because with a LQ trailer, you have to pack and stow everything for every little day trip you might want to make. Which is indeed something to think about.

But I will say- best feature on my new trailer is indeed that automatic jack. With a light on it that you can turn on when hooking/unhooking in the dark.

[Guilherme]

When we built out very basic LQ we did some research and the only consistent item we found was money. You can have a “hovel on wheels” or “taj on wheels” from weekender to a commercial 53 footer. The only real limitation was dollars.

So when somebody asks “LQ trailers?” I always respond with a question: “How much money you got???”

Before you decide to spend anything, however, sit down with your yellow pad and list out what sorts of things you’re going to be doing (types of events, places, distance traveled, etc.); the number horses expected to be carried; the support you expect in places you routinely travel (shore power, water, sewer, etc.).; and “level of discomfort” you’re willing to endure.

Then ask “how much will what I want weigh and can it be safely pulled by my existing truck?” The upper limit for most one tons is going to be a loaded out trailer of about 15,000-18,000 pounds. That sounds like a lot (and it is for a light duty truck and ALL one ton pickups are “light duty trucks” no matter what the manufacturer’s ad copy says). With a four horse you’ve got to reserve about 4000-5000 pounds for the equines. Then add to that the forage, fodder, tack, water, etc. the horse’s need. Then you’ve got all the human needs. It’s real easy to “bump up” against weight limits.

DO NOT rely on “towing capacity” numbers. Instead find the Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating (GCVWR) for your truck and actually weigh things at your local truck stop on their CAT scale. This will save you money (you won’t get “nicked” by a “weight watcher” from your local State Police) and it may save you a wreck caused by over loading your braking system. Or eating up a transmission by constantly overloading it.

We have a four horse, but seldom haul more than two. We use the first stall (e-door and stallion panel) as the “utility stall” where we have the cowboy shower, ice chest, hanging clothes bags, etc. The last stall, by the rear tack compartment, will hold a couple of hay bales, extra hay bags, etc. For short trips we don’t have to use the roof rack to store hay. For longer trips we do. Using that rack has a negative effect of about 10% on mpg.

Our “discomfort level” is actually significant but after almost 40 years of marriage my wife and I can “suck it up” and survive for as long as two weeks. Not sure how much more, though, before we might be entering “dangerous waters.”

Again, the only real limitation is money and how much you are willing to spend to be comfortable (person and horse). If you are professional on the road many days per month then spending more on creature comforts makes a lot of sense. Living in a “hovel” is not fun. If you only use it a few times per year then lots of “taj” features might be wildly extravagant.

There’s really no “school” answer, here. Spend your money on what makes you happy as you can’t take it with you and when the die the govt. is going to get a big share of what’s left!!!

G.

[GaitedGloryRider]

I love having a slide-out. Makes the trailer so much more roomy. Hot shower and flush toilet is a must, it was the main reason for going with a LQ in my case. I much prefer emptying a grey water tank over using outhouses.

I also rather enjoy have a TV/DVD player to kill time if the weather goes bad while I’m flying solo in an empty camp. Fridge/freezer is nice too. Heat is a must for chilly nights.

Three horse trailers are great, you’ve got room to stack extra hay even if you only ever haul two.

Awning is a must IMO. A generator also comes in handy for places you can’t plug in.

[clanter]

What may be a consideration is the interest paid on a loan for a LQ trailer is deductible on your Federal taxes as unit is considered a second home or a vacation home

[Ridge_Runner]

[QUOTE=Heart’s Journey;6544054]
Hey daydream - buy yourself a small toaster oven and use that with your generator. I’ve made small cakes, casseroles, etc with mine and it works great.[/QUOTE]

Good idea! thanks! I was thinking more of roasting meat and stuff but it might work. I do like the idea of using propane and not having to carry a generator. Ours is not onboard but rather a small 3.5k that we bought and can take along if we need it.

Guilherme makes good points about scaling the trailer. We did that back when we first got ours and got an accurate empty weight so we knew what our payload is.

As for money…IF you can still find a steel LQ trailer, they are a lot less expensive than aluminum and can be a good choice…especially if they are galvanized as ours is. Double D I think switched over to aluminum unfortunately…I think there are a few others. For what little you save in weight, you will pay a lot more in price…and I don’t think it makes a bit of difference in our case. I haul with a 3/4 ton HD Duramax GMC. We had to add some springs in the back for the weight of the trailer in the bed, but it handles the 28’ trailer fine. We’ve hauled many long trips…as far as Wyoming and back…and it is fine.

There may be some good deals on used trailers also and you can save quite a bit of markup.

[CO1]

We looked at LQs for a long time and thought about the places we went and camped. A lot of times there was no room for a LQ and sometimes we go places to camp without horses. We went with a pickup camper and a bumper pull trailer. For us it is the perfect setup.
Our first one was a popup. Nice when traveling down the highway and on narrow Forest Service roads. It has a queen bed,fridge, stove top, furnace, hot water and an outside shower. The table can be removed and folds down into a small bed.
We have been very happy with our choice.

[Beverley]

CO, you make a good point, which is why I went with a new 2H BP this year. Space at camp or trailhead is an issue, and as you noted, some of the mountain roads (Forest and otherwise), that we have to negotiate to get where we want to go, just don’t accommodate longer trailers, combination of road width and hairpin turns, often. Some of my friends with 3 or 4 horse GNs have to pass on some trips for that reason.

[Ridge_Runner]

I have to admit that getting a 28 foot trailer into a tight spot is NOT fun. Been there done that…been stuck too…really not fun. I am now very careful where I try to go with our big trailer.