Looking at getting a Merhow trailer, and would love to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly from other Merhow owners. The one I am looking at is a two horse, straight load, aluminum skin over steel frame trailer.
Hi Draftmare! I have a Merhow and live right by the Merhow factory --would you like to come for a tour??? Like all trailer companies, Merhow has several models of trailers. Depending on the year you are looking at, there is good, excellent , and top of the line. The differences (as you may know) are in the details --size of windows, number of windows, material, flooring, ceiling, ramp or not, number of doors, and silly things like rain guards. I personally think anything built after 2000 is awesome --but I like aluminum over steel because I’m all about how great my trailer looks. My friend has one the same year as mine, but hers is steel and has more rust (duh). I have a 2004 --that you’ve seen --let me know the year and model you are looking at, and I can give you a better opinion!! FYI before you buy, have it checked out --(any trailer!!) --I use Shipshe Trailer because they specialize in horse trailers. About 40 min drive for you.
I had one! I liked it, but it was a simple 2 horse straight load, and I wanted a dressing room. The left window in mine had leaked, and the plywood between the outer skin and the inner plastic/padding had completely rotted and disintegrated. I was able to remove everything and repair it myself, which was really nice. I would definitely buy one again… I thought it was well made and hauled great!
A good friend of mine has one, I think from the late 1990s. She loves loves loves hers for its design and durability and the way it hauls.
I bought a brand new Merhow alumastar in 2014. It’s a great trailer. I am actually trading it in this weekend - no fault of its own, I’m buying a bockmann instead of having to buy a new truck - so a very well cared for used one is about to hit the market.
I am looking at a mid-1990s 2 horse. It just had a new floor, reinforcement to the cross-beams, and new tires put on. It has a couple of cosmetic things, but nothing serious.
The only problem is that it is 6 hours away. 
Understandably, none of my friends want to go with me, and the SO already has an engagement planned for this coming weekend. I may be stubborn and just go myself, we shall see.
They look to be really well made, and it fits exactly what I want. My only complaint is that they don’t have any kind of tack storage or even really anyway to secure a bale of hay or grain for longer trips, I would have to put all my stuff in my car.
I have a very picky friend who looked at a bunch of used trailers a couple of years ago before settling on a Merhow. He said it was by far the nicest and best made of any of the other trailers he had looked at. I can’t tell you what other brands he looked at, but if he likes the Merhow, it must be a well-made trailer.
I agree that in all the research I did, Merhow came in right behind cimarron, Hart, and 4 star as the best built trailers. I went Merhow because a comparable trailer from the other names was $5000 more. I feel I got a very good value and someone is going to get a super trailer.
Sounds like a great trailer! No tack storage is a downside. If it were only you and Sidney going places (like fox hunting) there are many ideas on outfitting the unused horse side of the trailer for tack storage that doesn’t interfere with the single loaded horse, and is removable if you wanted to haul two. Even though I have a tack room and a truck, I put my extra bale of hay or shavings under the mangers (hay goes into a bag or my horse will eat it). It fits nicely there. I could probably fit two in, or one bagged bale of hay and one bag of shavings. My daughter who kept her horse at a boarding barn and did not have a trailer, outfitted her car trunk quite nicely for saddle/show stuff storage. Not ideal but do-able. What brand is the trailer? I know you said Merhow, but is it an EquiStar, EquiLite, or AlumaStar? I think that’s what they were making during the year your trailer was built.
Also I would add that you could not pay me to ever own a trailer with mangers so if this has them (common in the 90s) then I personally would not consider it.
This one is the Equilite. I have seen people put a bench with storage under it in the front of similar style trailers, I might look into that. Since I load by myself, I wouldn’t be doing a lot with the front area as far as needing the space to walk through, so that might be okay. I only have one horse, and will likely always only have one horse, so I could get creative with the unused side as well.
This the walk through style with the chest bar. My current trailer has mangers, and I haven’t had any issues in the 6 years I have had it. I have actually seen more horses get injured trying to go under or over the chest bar style than I have the manger style, but my neighbor refuses to have the manager style too after one of her horses put a hoof through one.
I love my 2012 verylite 3h GN. MASSIVE upgrade in quality over my previous trailer (exiss sport).
My current trailer is a mid-1970s all steel trailer. It has been good to me the last 6 years that I have had it, but I want to upgrade to something fully enclosed (this one only has 3/4 doors and open sides) and hopefully lighter. It’s a small two horse trailer, and weights 2500 pounds.
I have a 2013, Merhow 3 horse Goose Verylite slant load w/ramp that I custom ordered and that I am very happy with. I did a lot of looking and researching and like soloudinhere said, felt I got the same quality as Hart and 4Star or Platinum for less money.
I had a steel Adam TB 2 horse walk through and a 2 horse Featherlite with mangers, before my first goose, which was a 2 horse walk through Exiss Event. I was happy with all of the trailers at the time, but things I didn’t like were no storage on the Adam which sounds similar to the Merhow you’re looking at. Yes, you can get creative with storage but a dressing room is much better in the long run. All of your stuff will stay much cleaner in a designated tack area. I did not like the mangers in the Featherlite. I did have a horse or two climb up in the manger and another who tried to wedge themselves into the space between the two mangers that lead to the tack compartment. I had the Exiss 2 horse walk through goose for 12 years and if I were to get another, I would want a partition from the chest bar down, so the horses couldn’t submarine beneath the chest bar during sudden starts. I think they all ride much better in my slant where they have dividers or walls they can lean against and steady themselves.
All that aside, Merhows are really good trailers. The only design flaw with my current one is that I wish they had put the wheel wells on with more clearance at the front of the wheel well, as if you go through mud and it builds up on the tire, it will scrape against the front of the wheel well due to lack of clearance.
You may want to get the inside dimensions of the stall portion of the trailer to be sure your horse will fit before you make the long drive.
Look at the distance from the inner side of the butt bar to the inner side of the breast bar.
How much room is in front of the breast bar? Will a hay net take up most of it?
Merhow may have the floor plan archived.
IME a horse that needs draft size tack may need extra room in the trailer.
Super excited and nervous, hopefully going to go get it on Sunday. Going to be a long day!! Starting to question my sanity on driving 5 hours to look at a trailer, but it is the only one that I have found so far that fits my criteria AND is in good shape. A lot of things in my budget range are scary. :eek:
I’m driving 6 hours each way to trade my trailer in. It’s worth it for the right trailer and if not then you had an adventure.
I’m driving 6 hours each way to trade my trailer in. It’s worth it for the right trailer and if not then you had an adventure.
Well I guess at least I am not the only crazy one then!
We did it, well, that and more. Bless the dealer, we rolled up with our trade in, but forgot the title to it. She trusted us to mail it to her. We traded in and bought the Merhow and took it home, having written a check for the balance, about $36K. She took the check on a Saturday. We get home, she calls about a week later, through a banking snafu, that account had been closed by the bank!! So, as far as she knew there for a minute, we’d traded in a stolen trailer and stolen another with a hot check!
Of course it was all fine in the end, she got the title and a good check 
I actually found a Brenderup at a dealer in the same area that I am doing a big “hmm” on. Its about $2000 more though. Too bad I don’t think I would get tiddly for my current trailer as a trade in.
