Looking to upgrade to a gooseneck with livingquarters- something around 12 ft shortwall. Got a couple of questions;

How much ground clearance is there on a 26-28 ft. long trailer? Any hangup problems getting in and out of fields or campsites?

Does all of the plumbing/tanks hang down underneath the floor? Any chance of tearing all of that off?

Thanks for any info!

I weighed these same questions this spring. I use my trailer A LOT in the mountains. Rarely at the fair grounds. So I was very interested in what I could drag into the forest. I bought a 3 horse LQ that is 24' long in the box. My old  3 horse with dressing room was 19.4'. I do feel the difference.

I notice that the new trailer definitely cuts the corners. I have to swing a little wider on all corners. I suspect this will be a problem in some of the tighter camp grounds.  It also limits which gas pumps I can pull into. I've been careful to watch the trailer tires in my mirrors as I drive down forest service roads. So far I've been able to navigate the roads. Swinging wide to miss the occassional rock or rut on the road. I've not had any problem dragging my trailer bumper. But I've avoided a few places I took my older trailer. Just because I suspect it would drag. 

Differnt manufactures of trailers hold the bottom higher off the road.  Some want to make it easier for horses to load. There is also a difference in how far back the trailer tires are set.  The farther back the less overhang.  The less overhang the less chance of a "Teeter Totter" effect dragging the bumper. But you get more weight on the Hitch.

A friend of mine had the dealer "LIFT" his trailer an additional 2" to help with clearance on his large Sundowner. His endurance horses are plenty athletic to jump up the extra 2". So there are some options to improve clearances.

As far as the tanks. I've had no problems dragging them.  But the gravel on dirt roads has broken off both CAPS that covered the outlets for the Black & Grey Water tanks. I suspect I will have to get some sort of splash guard to put behind my tires so they don't kick up rocks and damage anything else.

That may be a problem. I have the same truck and I had to go down to the original stock size tires. I had taller ones on (to help fill in the "gap" in the wheel wells). The stock tires give me about 10 inches of clearance on the gooseneck to the bed of my truck. We do a lot of "off road" camping and need all the clearance we can get. Been close a couple times, but never hit anything yet. You may have to take out your 5" blocks. If you are ordering a new trailer, they may be able to compensate there. Good luck!

Thanks all for the good info...

Went to my closest dealer today to check things out. He is a Bison dealer  with 5-6 LQ units on the lot. Direct measured the trailers, and they have 18 in road clearance just forward of the axle, and the holding tanks are midway forward of the axle with only 9 inches road clearance!   Must be good for Interstate highway travel only! Salesman tells me Bison factory will NOT do suspension lifts. Too bad, trailer seems to be a good bang for the buck, although I could see daylight looking down at the sidewall/floor junction, and the rear doors showed sunlight thru the seam at the top. When I mentioned it, salesman said in one breath that he had never heard of the Bison roof leak problems, and 5 minutes later says Bison now has upgraded to a one piece 'leakproof' aluminum roof.

Got a chance to check out the hitch and ball height situation on my Dodge, and it looks like I can get it hitched up OK, just don't know how much clearance to the bed there will be- don't have a gooseneck hitch yet...Gotta keep pluggin' away!