Posted 2005-05-31 12:37 AM (#25860) Subject: Back country trailers
Expert
Posts: 2453 Location: Northern Utah
I don't rodeo or hang out at fairgrounds. I use my horses in the mountains. Elk/Deer hunting, pack trips into remote wilderness lakes, evening rides at the local mountains, etc. In other words, hauling my horses from my house to remote trail heads. Just how big a trailer is practical for this type of application? I've had a 3 horse gooseneck (19'6") box and it has worked well for 5 years. Only once have I dragged off and damaged the rear bumper of the trailer. I'm considering a bigger trailer with a weekender package ( 24' box), I have 3 daughters that are coming with me more often now and I want to give them a few more creature comforts than just a mattress in the GN to encourage them to keep coming. But I don't want a trailer that's too big to haul down a mountain road to the trailhead. Anybody with any experience care to comment?
Posted 2005-05-31 6:30 AM (#25867 - in reply to #25860) Subject: RE: Back country trailers
Member
Posts: 41 Location: n/a
I do not have a lot of expeience in this, but we go to mountains of Virginia and North Carolina occasionally with some friends. They have two trailers. A big one with a nice large living quarters, this trailer is used for everywhere. Then they have a smaller one for Cataloochee. It appears that the larger one is to long to travel up and down the narrow windy roads into Cataloochee... The longer trailer also can not get into all the camp sites in Virginia, so they always call ahead and reserve one of the three parking spaces the trailer will fit in. So, my only opinion on this subject is to look into the places you go to camp and the roads you travel, and make sure that whatever you buy can make it into all those small places you squeeze into...
Posted 2005-05-31 9:09 AM (#25879 - in reply to #25860) Subject: RE: Back country trailers
Regular
Posts: 53
Painted Horse - we do the same thing you do and my word of caution is - don't buy a used trailer. We found on the mountain roads, at least the ones you have to take to get to the trail heads, you need a trailer with lots of clearance. Not only between the gooseneck and your truck but also ground clearance. We just sold our 3H trailer that we raised 6 inches in the nose and 4 inches at the axle. We out grew the trailer otherwise we never would have gotten rid of it. I can't tell you how many people freaked out because we raised it - even had a 'jumper' person tell me the trailer was unsafe for horses to step up into! Gee, we ask our horse to jump over fences but we can't ask him to step into a trailer? I'm sure if you ride in the mountains you ask your horses to cross all sorts of obstacles and stepping up into a trailer is nothing. We never worried about bottoming out our trailer or crushing the truck bed. You'll have to figure out from the roads you travel what length you want - don't forget how easy it is to get into a spot that you need to back out of. If you get a weekender package just watch out for your clearance. Another option would be to keep the trailer you have and get a little wall tent. You can stay mighty warm in a wall tent with a little stove.
Back country trailers
