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Talk to me about your 3-horse bumper pull trailer

Around The Farm
#1

I’ve towed a basic 2-horse steel trailer for years.

I’m looking to upgrade to a 3-horse trailer.
I’ve already decided to go all-aluminum this time, and probably brand new because I just don’t want to deal with the secondhand hassle. I would like to own this trailer for a very long time, so it make sense to get what I want and know exactly where it’s been and what it’s been through.

For awhile I was convinced that I wanted a GN, for all of the reasons people say they like GNs: it feels better to pull, you can put a bed in the GN (maybe I could sleep in it at shows and save money!) etc etc.

But I was browsing online last night and there are some decent all-aluminum 3-horse BPs out there. I was surprised. What’s more, the cost difference is enough that were I to get a BP, I could either pay complete cash, or pay it off very quickly – whereas for a GN, I’d have to take out a bigger loan and add the expense of installing GN hitch in my truck.

Storage space is another concern for me – all GNs seem so long, but that extra stall on a BP doesn’t add quite as much length.

So I’m really curious to hear from people who own or have owned 3-horse BP trailers. What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? What’s it like to pull?

Now before anybody gets started with the truck thing, because that’s always a hot topic in these threads :slight_smile: I have a very capable late-model pickup truck with the manufacturer’s beefiest tow package. I’ve already done my research about towing capacity, payload, pin weight, etc. and my truck is fully capable of handling either type of trailer at the size and scale I’m looking at. I’m purely looking for information from a handling, convenience, features standpoint.

I look forward to hearing your perspectives!

#2

I hauled a friend’s once with her 1 ton flatbed truck, and it was the most squirrelly trailer I’ve ever driven. Fully loaded, the weight balance is just not favorable. A gooseneck would do it much better. I think at that length you’re getting to the length where a lot of weight further away from the hitch just makes it unstable.

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#3

I don’t love the idea of a 3 horse BP when it’s fully loaded but if I were going to do it, I’d make sure I had weight distribution bars.

#4

I towed with a little Morgan Built 3-horse bumper pull for 10 or so years. I absolutely loved it at the time! I have a Featherlite 4-horse gooseneck now and I love it a lot more, but for those early years when I only had a few horses going to shows the 3h was perfectly fine. And from an expense perspective it was extremely affordable at a time that I really couldn’t afford to splurge on a trailer. For the first 6 or 7 years I towed it with a Dodge 1500 (with the beefiest tow package) and for the last couple of years with an F350 (which is what I now tow my GN with). Honestly didn’t notice a difference between the vehicles with that trailer.

One thing that did surprise me was the fact that my 4h GN is only a few feet longer than my 3h BP, and that’s with a MUCH larger tackroom, larger horse stalls, and, of course, the extra horse spot. So the GN trailers may look longer, but IME, they’re not. On a side note, I know the specific length because I frequently take a ferry boat where they measure me every time - my truck + 3h BP was 40’ and my truck + 4h GN is 44’.

As far as the actual hauling goes - I hauled all over the place in that little 3 horse. Over many mountain passes, through inclement weather, up and down the coast…and I never had any issues because of the fact that it was a BP. It hauled easily and never gave me any problems. But having switched over to GN, I’m not sure I could go back. The difference in the overall feel of stability is significant to me. Also, the extra storage in the GN is really really nice. I will say that the one thing I do really miss about my BP is the ease of backing it up! Oh, and the fact that the trailer itself wasn’t expensive which meant that I worried a lot less about having it stolen out of a horseshow parking lot!

#5

As far as pulling, GN are first class, BP a far second.

Then, BP’s advantage over GN, anyone can pull it, you don’t need a pickup and GN ball in there.
Many here have a spare BP just for those times there is something in the bed of the pickup, like a cake feeder and the only way to also pull a trailer is BP.

We have one because the vet will use it to pull it behind his pickup with the vet box in the back, in an emergency, to get a horse to his clinic.

Now, BP trailers really start losing it any longer than 16’, they will fishtail on you if something happens and they have to really be well balanced toward’s the back of the trailer so as not to put too much weight on your bumper and raise the front of your pickup, which is why they can fishtail so easily.

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#6

Thank you for sharing your experience – this is exactly the kind of information I hoped for. It’s helpful to hear from somebody who has ownership experience with both!

#7

I’ll clarify my above post a bit. I have not personally owned a 3H BP but have driven one, as well as a 4H BP quite often. My friend’s 3H gives me the willies to drive partly because she pulls it with a truck that shouldn’t be and loads it to the gills. The 4H I pulled for work and it was always hitched to a F350 dually. It was our short trip, use around the farm, emergency trailer but did end up going to some shows that were fairly far away. Even with a beast of a truck, I could still feel a bit of the “wag the dog” effect on the highway with big trucks passing and young horse antics, especially when compared to the feel of a GN with the same truck. With the GN, you can feel horses being orangutans but you don’t actually feel the truck being shifted. If a 3H BP is your best option budget wise etc, I’d make sure you had the right hitch for it and I probably wouldn’t put 3 draft horses in there lol. Have you driven a GN before OP? If you haven’t, see if you drive someone’s and I bet all notions of that BP will leave your mind

#8

Before GN ever came on the picture, all we had were BP in our horse trailers and stock trailers, so we made do fine with them.

Once GN came on the market about 30 years ago or so, now you won’t hardly see any BP any more for daily use by those that haul something all day long, because of GN being just better at pulling, if you have a choice.

There are plenty of BPs out there also, because for some, that is the best tool for the job, fit what they do best, even being second best at hauling itself.

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#9

@tabula rashah Thanks for that clarification.
I have not driven a GN before, but I’m sure I know people who would let me test drive if I wanted to.
My horses are all smaller and have excellent trailering manners, and generally I would be hauling 1-2 at a time to lessons and shows. I want the 3rd stall mostly for short trips out to the local trailhead. However, I don’t necessarily want to shoot myself in the foot either.

@Bluey thanks for your post too. I think the bottom-line theme I’m sensing is that a 3H BP can be an OK choice given certain constraints, but you have to be smart about what horses you put in it, equipping your tow vehicle properly, and it’s not going to be as comfortable to drive.

Thanks everybody!

#10

I have a friend who went from a two horse BP to a two horse slant and she actually lost 4 feet of trailer on the ground while gaining all the space in the neck for sleeping!

#11

A 3 horse slant BP makes a fabulous 2 horse trailer, if that’s how you will be using it the bulk of the time. You can pull the front divider and make two generously-sized stalls, or use the front stall to transport hay and bedding for overnight trips.

As an actual 3 horse trailer… well, you’ve heard the issues that can arise.

But if your primary use is less than 3 horses, I think it will work fine for your purposes. Just watch out for too narrow slant designs-- there is definitely a lot more variability in design with slants than with straight loads. Width of the trailer, angle of the slant, and placement of the wheel wells can make huge differences in horse comfort.

#12

I had a 3 horse steel BP with an F250 with heavy duty springs. Weight distribution bars made a HUGE difference. Without them there was some issues with tail wagging and feeling bumps. With the bars it towed very nicely, even fully loaded.

#13

I’ve had the same experience as most others, my employer had one, it was fine for 2 horses and light equipment. It was not fun to drive with 3 horses, even with weight distribution bars.

I’ve driven a 2 horse straight load BP with side ramp and dressing room that was the same length or possibly longer, and that pulled fine, just less weight.

Thoughts on the GN:
I went gooseneck when I bought my trailer and I do not regret it one bit…I have a mattress up in the GN, and I save hundreds of dollars on lodging anytime I go to a show or several day clinic. Depending on how much you show/would use it to sleep in, that savings might be worth considering when you look at purchasing. I personally like/don’t mind it–it’s free, it’s quiet (shared hotel rooms or campers, less so), it’s comfortable (I have a super thick memory foam mattress and a great sleeping bag), I can do night check, read in “bed” then go to sleep, and best of all, I can take a nap any time during the show.

I will also say that I have a way easier time both hitching and backing up any GN than most of the bumper pulls I’ve driven. Granted, at this point I’ve driven/hitched/parked GNs probably hundreds of times more than BPs, so that could just be practice.

#14

I have a 3h slant bumper pull trailer. It pulls just fine. No worries no wiggles behind my former F250 or my current F350. Like it’s not even back there. I have no hauled with a GN, but I have to say this is pretty dang easy.

However, I think one reason people hate towing a bumper pull is because folks tend to think they go with less truck, so I imagine a 3H bp behind a station wagon or an F150 would be a nightmare.

We have a properly sized, weight distributing hitch with an optional anti-sway bar that we only use if the wind is gusting up above 30 mph. Set up properly, with the right hitch and the right truck, that 3h slant bp is like nothing. I don’t know the full length, but we have a small dressing room up front and three on the slant behind. No worries. If you have a capable truck now, I think you can put the extra money in your pocket. Just MHO

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#15

I had a three horse BP and when I finished driving it I always felt I needed to shake my pant leg out. No matter how I planned on weight distribution that trailer would work me over. I was pulling with a Chevy 2500HD long bed with air bags. The goose neck has NEVER made me feel that weird feeling of my trailer controlling me. Perhaps I was doing it all wrong, but I was a white knuckled driver who was sweating when I arrived! My gooseneck and I are friends forever! Plus it is very maneuverable in small places to turn around etc. I love that I can jack knife it to turn around in tight quarters.

#16

I sized up from a BIG 2-h BP with DR to a 3-h GN with huge DR. Go with the gooseneck, or at least find one to test drive.

I pulled thousands of miles with my BP and it was a perfectly suitable trailer. But I’ll never go back. The GN is easier to hitch by myself (although I got the BP down to a science as well), it hauls better, it parks easier despite being an extra 5-7’ long, the horses seem to like it better. I did exactly what another poster suggested, and pulled the second divider, since I am usually just hauling one who then gets a deluxe stall to haul loose in.

#17

I have a three horse slant, bumper pull. I will never put a third horse on, except in the case of a dire emergency.

My tack is in the front, so I have a full swing back door. I just don’t feel like I could safely have a third horse back there.

My bumper pull hauls like a tank on four wheels. It’s heavy. I wish I had looked for aluminum, but too late now. I do like having a slant though. I can load more easily by myself.

#18

I’ve only had bp trailers; current is a 3h modified STEEL bp. I have hauled 3 horses at a time, and felt I needed to put a small horse in the 3rd stall, but it was still nerve-wracking–probably worse for the horses. My only complaint is that there isn’t an escape door for the driver.

For me, the ideal trailer would be a four horse trailer that had two exit doors–one being situated in the middle.

#19

No! No! Nonononono!!!

omg! PLEASE do not weight your BP rearward. BP trailers fishtail because of the physics of a pendulum swinging and the longer the pendulum (distance from trailer center mass to hitch) the greater the forces involved in the sway.

My my one and only seriously life flashing before my eyes moment was hauling my 33’ BP RV across a bridge with the fresh water tank full (located above the rear bumper). Thought I was going to plummet off of the side of the Lehigh Valley Bridge just north of the turnpike tunnel.

video of model trailer sway:
https://youtu.be/i2fkOVHAC8Q

#20

Well, you are talking a 33’ long bumper pull, supposedly with a very large pickup hauling that.
Does your water tank has baffles in it, so the water doesn’t move the weight back and forth?

For the light pickups, I have seen a loose horse walk to the back of the 16’ trailer and then back to the front, making the trailer try to fishtail as the weight changed, the front of the pickup raising as he was on the front of it.

Bumper pulls are not very steady, you have to be careful with them and be ready, if the weight changes, to slow down and compensate if things start to sway behind you.

GN is definitely the better mousetrap for hauling, but some times, BP is what fits the needs of the one hauling, so just be careful out there if that is what you drive.

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