Trailer Mods

[Bebe_Falcon1]

Update for anyone interested! The trailer tongue box I bought fits a standard TrailerAid like a glove:

https://www.princessauto.com/en/trailer-storage-box/product/PA0008879033

… so that takes care of all the road-safety items that were looking for a more permanent home. Hopefully it mounts to the frame without issue in the spring.

And as for the gate at the rear, Horsemen’s Pride does a lightweight plastic gate that I’m ordering-in and will mount to the frame with a bracket and piece of lumber which will also help to reduce the gap as this gate is 6" too short:

https://www.doversaddlery.com/hrsmns-prd-plstc-stall-gates/p/X1-270236/

A friend of DH’s does custom welding on the side, so I’ll have him figure out the lower chest bar mount. And then the rest is all going to be maintenance-related as the trailer is probably over-due for servicing at this point.

All the modifications thus far look like they’ll run about $1000 total (how did everything add up so quickly?!), but in today’s market, I like to think I’d easily get that back (and then some) on top of the original purchase price if I were to sell it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself as I hand-over my Visa card

[Bebe_Falcon1]

Welp, my mechanic took the trailer apart and has found $1800 worth of repairs just to safety it

As for the other modifications? About another $1000 between all the parts and labour to install! Honestly, trailer ownership is just a whole 'nother level of horsey expense

[clanter]

@Bebe_Falcon1

Welp, my mechanic took the trailer apart and has found $1800 worth of repairs just to safety it

well, back in the old days of the mid 1990s (never thought I could refer to last century LOL) but I bought a two horse slant then contacted the manufacturer to see if they wanted to do a quality analyzes of this trailer… they had never done such they said but were interested.

Their slow time was between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they asked me to bring the trailer before Thanksgiving. They ran the trailer backwards through their assembly process, disassembled it, sand blasted the metal to bare, repaired any questionable wields, disassembled the axle assemblies (had torsion axle) replaced any worn part, rewired the complete trailer. Repainted the trailer inside and out adding their current decals…the five year old trailer was new… $1500 (would have been $2830 in today’s dollars)

[Bebe_Falcon1]

@clanter

Repainted the trailer inside and out adding their current decals…the five year old trailer was new… $1500 (would have been $2830 in today’s dollars)

Reviving this as further upgrades happened this week (I still need photos), but decals is a great subject.

Some of the decals may be more of a headache than they’re worth to replace (stripes on the sides) but perhaps someone can share a good place to source the generic “Caution: Horses” sort of decals for the back/ramp? The one there now is cracked and peeling and could do with replacing.

[clanter]

@Bebe_Falcon1

(stripes on the sides)

decretive I agree but dot reflective tape strips are a must

however when the company rebuilt our trailer they stripped it in the same manor as their current production models, honestly when I picked it up it did look just like new.

[Jarpur]

https://cautionhorses.com/

[LCDR]

Unfortunately the pictures of the trailer posted by the OP shows that it has a rounded front. Otherwise replacing the tiny, high up windows with larger window units would allow her pony to see out.

And on the subject of conspicuity tapes, adding them or replacing them if they have faded will arguably reduce the odds of being hit. I have added and replaced mine several times over the years, and my advice is to not cheap out. Buy quality 3M conspicuity tape and not the thin generic stuff which some trailer manufacturers will use to cut cost.

If you have an older trailer and haven’t paid much attention to the reflective tape, compare it to a piece of new stuff. It does dim with time.

[Jarpur]

@LCDR

And on the subject of conspicuity tapes, adding them or replacing them if they have faded will arguably reduce the odds of being hit. I have added and replaced mine several times over the years, and my advice is to not cheap out. Buy quality 3M conspicuity tape and not the thin generic stuff which some trailer manufacturers will use to cut cost.

If you have an older trailer and haven’t paid much attention to the reflective tape, compare it to a piece of new stuff. It does dim with time.

I agree.

[LCDR]

For decals like you want just search on Amazon. Enter “horse trailer decals” and there will be page after page of trailer decals to choose from.

[Bebe_Falcon1]

@Jarpur

https://cautionhorses.com/

As if there’s a website with the phrase cautionhorses right there in the URL! Thank you for this, I’m just not sure why it never showed up in my search results.

[Jarpur]

I’ve got Caution Horses, Please Stay Back, running horses, and the 3M tape on my trailer.

Don’t know how much the Caution Horses and Please Stay Back actually help with inconsiderate drivers, but they make me feel better.

[SBrentnall]

@Bebe_Falcon1

There are photos kicking around on Facebook of someone who used a garage organization system in their trailer, with metal rails along the long side of their trailer that they then hung mesh baskets from (at about head level) which is what I’d like to implement as I haven’t seen anything better out there (that’s not super-intrusive).

I did this with my Equi-Trek. Let me know if you have questions or want pics.