Maverick trailer question - anyone seen one in person?

[QuestionMark]

I’m thinking about a new BP trailer and am interested in a particular model/feature that I think is only made by Maverick. It’s a 13-foot 2-horse slant trailer, but the bulkhead wall separating the tack room is designed to swing to make a stock trailer when needed. I am attracted to this concept because the purpose of this trailer for me is mostly to haul 1 horse at a time on very short, local hauls, but I’d like to have the option of hauling all 3 of my horses in an emergency or whenever occasionally needed. I currently have a 2-horse straight-load that has worked fine for a long time, but it makes me pretty nervous to have no way to haul all 3 at once without help.

Anyway, this sounds appealing because 1. it’s in the budget and 2. I’d rather not haul a much longer trailer than I’m used to if at all possible, since 90% of the time it will still be one horse. I know Maverick is not a high-end maker and I think I’m okay with that for now IF this concept really will work for my purposes.

However, I’ve been trying to picture how this all works safely. I have a currently very curious and semi-destructive 2-year-old who will absolutely find whatever trouble there is to be found. I finally found this video showing how the swinging wall thing works between minute 4 and 5 and it looks not at all horse-safe.

Has anyone seen this design in person? Is there a way to rig up the wall so that trouble-seeking horses cannot conceivably hook a leg around it while pawing and break it or themselves?

I’m making plans to try to go see one in person at a nearby dealer but I also think it might not be worth the trip; maybe I actually should go back to trying to find an older but solid 3-horse BP. What do you think?

[Training_Cupid]

I haven’t seen this particular model, but about 7 years ago when I was trailer shopping I was at a dealer that also had Mavericks and the rep told me in his opinion the Maverick steel trailers were really good for the price but he said he would not reccomend the aluminum (which is what I need because I live on the coast) because they use 2 sheet aluminum vs many others that use 3.

[Texarkana]

I boarded with someone with a Maverick trailer. It was probably an early 00s model. It was fine. My horse rode in it from time to time. Hers did not have the swing wall but was a slant with windows on the head side and stock sides in the but side.

I have a swing wall stock/combo trailer in a different brand. The appeal was the same for me: to be able to open up the whole trailer in an emergency. The only time I have ever hauled anything with the swing wall open was picking up a carriage; never animals.

Honestly, it would have to be a true emergency to want to haul with the swing wall open. Makes the trailer a touch narrower, which is less than ideal in my already narrow slant. It blocks the tie rings; you could still Jimmy something up to use them over the wall. Or put their heads on the other side maybe? Even tied back, it has a little bit of movement and play to it, so I don’t think the horses would love having it in their faces.

My dressing room has permanent bridle hooks up high on the front wall, so even if you pull out the saddle racks, those would be a risk for tall horses.

I really appreciate my dressing room a ton, but because of the swing wall, it gets very dirty in there. Shavings and sometimes even manure slide under the small gap at the bottom.

Would I buy another? I don’t know. I’m not opposed, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have a real dressing room.

[avjudge]

@Texarkana

I have a swing wall stock/combo trailer in a different brand. The appeal was the same for me: to be able to open up the whole trailer in an emergency. The only time I have ever hauled anything with the swing wall open was picking up a carriage; never animals. . .

My dressing room has permanent bridle hooks up high on the front wall, so even if you pull out the saddle racks, those would be a risk for tall horses.

No experience with Maverick so I can’t help with that.

We also have a swing wall stock/slant trailer, by Frontier in our case. We also have only opened the swing wall to haul hay, never animals. Ours doesn’t tie open although I assume you could rig something.

We installed fold-down saddle racks and a rail system to which hooks can be mounted for hanging bridles and gear. When the hooks are removed, there is nothing protruding. When folded down the saddle racks are a pretty smooth surface.

My husband generally uses it with the dressing room wall in place and one horse hauled loose with the slant divider tied over. I do notice some hay (he doesn’t use bedding) comes under the divider into the dressing room, but at least as much as tracked in or carried in with gear so it doesn’t really make a difference to our use. (This is my husband we’re talking about. )

[fivestrideline]

Most stock combo trailer manufacturers make this configuration. I know Shadow does as well, for a “bigger” horse sized trailer. Debris DEFINITELY gets into the tack area, and permanently affixed hooks are an issue to consider with the design.

My 2 cents: most people tend to store stuff in their trailer tack areas - stuff one wouldn’t want a horse getting access to. If the swing gate is attractive because you can haul lawn equipment or carriages or a bigger load of hay, that’s one thing. But in an emergency, if you want to open the swing gate you’ll have to take the time to toss everything out of the tack room and take down hooks/saddle racks, etc. Then you have to affix the gate and load the animal(s).

If emergency use is a priority (ie running a scared horse on to ride loose, hauling a colic or foaling complication, corralling the neighbor’s pigs before they get on the highway, etc), you want to do it quick and without major modifications - for me, that’s a slant or stock where the dividers can be safely tied back, or a straight load set up to be a box with a quick slide-over divider. In an emergency, you don’t generally have time to reconfigure your rig.

If evacuation from natural disasters is more the concern and the idea with this is to haul more horses than would usually fit, it’s really better to buy enough trailer to haul ALL your animals. Or, get a tall stock trailer and shove them all in there loose. For OP, who sounds like they are looking to occasionally haul 3 horses in a pinch, I’d buy a 3 horse trailer or a stock combo with a cut gate that can be opened to haul all 3 horses.

I’ve known someone who had a Maverick, though a different model. It did its job and they were happy!

[StormyDay]

I’d just get a 3h slant. It will still be shorter than your current 2h straight load. Unless your third horse is a 12h pony I don’t see it fitting in the tack room.

[QuestionMark]

Update: I found a used one of this model and bought it! So far, so good. Haven’t needed to move the wall yet obviously but I’m really glad it’s there as an option. I actually think if I take the horse divider out I could probably fit all 3 in there and that would bypass the whole question I asked in the first place. My biggest horse is 15.1 .

[LCDR]

Having a third horse in the trailer nose might put too much weight on the hitch, and change the towing dynamics in a bad way. So at least put the lightest horse forward, and be aware that too much tongue weight on the truck hitch can cause steering and braking problems.

If you can borrow a WeighSafe hitch or other tongue weight scale to check tongue weight when loaded with three horses in your emergency setup that information will give you the knowledge to modify things for towing safety such as adding a weight distributing hitch.