Three Things You Should Be Doing To Maintain Your Horse Trailer
Horse trailer maintenance may not be the first thing
on your mind when it comes to your horse. But, I ask you, what if your horse
colics and needs emergency transport to the veterinary hospital. Now, suddenly,
your trailer becomes very important.
However, this is also when trailer maintenance becomes
very important. After all, when you need to get your horse to the vet ASAP is
not when you want to discover a broken door, flat tire, or suspicious water
leak on your trailer.
So what should you be doing to maintain your trailer?
Here are three things:
Have
your bearings repacked every 12,000 miles or 12 months.
Bearings are probably the most overlooked part of trailer maintenance, likely because
we don’t see them. However, bearings are also the most insidious because once
they go, you are stuck. (Changing the tire will do nothing to help you.) To
prevent this and keep your bearings in optimal operating condition, the best
recommendation is to have them repacked every 12,000 miles or 12 months.
Have
your trailer’s floor inspected yearly. Sure you clean your
trailer out after every use, but years could go by before you lift the mats to
see what the floor really looks like. And unless you have an aluminum floor –
these are much more durable and don’t rust, mold, or mildew like wood and steel
– your floor has probably seen some damage. Why? Well, for one thing urine
wreaks havoc on a trailer floor, and when trapped under the mats doesn’t dissipate
easily. Also, any moisture, and I mean any, can start a mold, mildew, or rust
problem on your trailer’s floor. For these reasons, a trailer floor replacement
is probably the most common repair in aging trailers – all the more reason to
have yours inspected.
Have
all doors, latches, fasteners, and the hitch inspected yearly.
Do you want to find out that your trailer’s back door doesn’t latch correctly
after you finally got Mr. Never Loads Well into the trailer? Yea, me neither.
But when they need their trailer to work is usually exactly when people
discover it doesn’t. And guess what, there is usually nothing we can do. (I
don’t know about you, but I am not a trailer repairman). Not just does this
situation leave us in an unfortunate bind, it also reminds us that it could’ve
been prevented if we had only had the trailer checked out before we realized it
was broken.
For more information on keeping your trailer operating correctly or to ask a question about trailer repair, just visit us on Facebook.
For more information on keeping your trailer operating correctly or to ask a question about trailer repair, just visit us on Facebook.
Comments
Post a Comment