Trailer Types

There are many types of trailers made with various materials and configured in many ways. It is a personal preference which type you use as each has advantages and disadvantages. If money were no object, I would get the longest trailer attached with a fifth wheel to a truck, the most powerful engine, the most number of axles (and their brakes) and the most comfortable cab – if money were no object.

Steel, aluminum, wood and fiberglass are the materials used. Some are attached to trucks with a bumper hitch, a chassis hitch, a pickup bed hitch or a fifth wheel attached to the truck frame. There are also integrated vehicles with stalls and no separation between the truck and trailer.

The size ranges from 1 horse up to 15 or more horses. Some split the horse trailers with horse stalls and living quarters that include all the comforts of home. Others have sealed tack and equipment areas.

Some ship horses all facing forward, some split them both forward and backward, some only face backward, some stand at an angle to the trailer (slant load) and some ship in square box stalls.

Some only have loading doors in the back, some only on the side, and some have both. Some have built-in ramps that fold or slide under the belly of the trailer. Some have no ramp where the horse “steps up” into the trailer.

The bottom line is that you have choices. If it were up to me, I would buy a tractor-semitrailer combination, as seen in these images, with heating, air conditioning, and running water throughout the trailer. The driver said the trailer cost $350,000 without the truck. We all can dream.

Trailering

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