Help me buy a horse trailer

December 28, 2006 7:33 AM

Talk to me about horse trailers. I need to buy a horse trailer before horse show season starts in the spring. I'm interested in advice / recommendations from anybody that has a horse and/or trailer.

What I'm leaning towards is a two horse bumper pull with a dressing room. I have a Durango with a HEMI as a tow vehicle. Ideally, I'd like to buy used, however the used market looks very thin, and these things don't seem to depreciate like I thought they would. New trailers of the two horse bumper pull with a dressing room variety appear to retail new for between $10K and $15K.

A related question if you have bought a trailer recently. How much of a discount off of list is reasonable from a trailer dealer? The numbers above are list price, and I would guess discounting is similar to the automotive or RV market.

posted by COD to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

Make sure that your horse(s) are willing to get into whatever trailer you buy. My niece had a horse who would not go into a step-up trailer. They found this out when they went to pick him up at the stable 300 miles away. Fortunately, they were able to cobble together a ramp so they could get him home.
posted by jlkr at 9:03 AM on December 28, 2006

I was going to caution on watching your towing rating on a light duty truck but the Hemi Durango's tow rating of 8,950 lb (7,400 with the 3.55 axle) assuming you have the trailer tow package seems to have capacity to spare if you don't go crazy on the weight of the trailer and other than horse payload. I did stumble across a set of articles while looking for the towing rating of your truck that look helpful.

The dry ratings published by RV trailer manufactures can be very misleading. They often only publish the weight of the stripper model without any options (or even a full tank of water). It is a good idea to take your fully loaded trailer and truck (with a full tank of gas) to a scale just to see what your actual weights are before departing on your first trip.

Trailer tires usually get dangerously checked from sun/ozone and other weathering way before the tread wears down. When buying a used trailer budget for a complete set of tires and a new brake battery unless you know both are less than three years old. You can check the year of manufacture of a tire by looking at the date code imprinted on the side wall.
posted by Mitheral at 10:39 AM on December 28, 2006

Good point on the tires. I bought the Durango knowing I'd be buying a horse and trailer soon after. We bought the horse this fall, and I towed around a leased horse to the shows last year so I have a little experience towing. My Durango has a tow rating of 7500 - I don't have the lower gear ratio that gets you to 8950. However, the trailer will weigh about 3000 - the horse is 900, so I'm fine towing with the HEMI.
posted by COD at 11:46 AM on December 28, 2006

My sister went for a two horse ramped slant load with a dressing room. She chose slant load so the horse could have a wider area when trying to get in and more even weight with a single horse. The ramp just makes life easier on you and the horse.
posted by arruns at 12:18 PM on December 28, 2006