Making the Most of Animal Trailers

Take good care of your animals and your animal trailers

Making the most of animal trailers should be a high priority if you own one. Hopefully, the farm trailer was in good shape when you purchased it. If you purchased a used farm trailer or horse trailer, make sure everything is in good shape. This might mean replacing any defective floorboards, as well as making sure the braking and hitching systems are operating properly.

No matter whether you purchased animal trailers new or used, you should take the proper care of them so that your investment can last a long time. There are some things you should do every time you return from an outing with animals in their trailers. These tasks include:

1. Removing loose debris from floors of the animal trailers. This includes any loose straw you may have used for bedding as well as animal droppings.

2. Washing the inside of the trailer.

3. Cleaning the exterior of the trailer.

 

Check your animal trailers routinely

This includes the brakes, the trailer lights, the tires and the hitching system. You should perform a safety check each time you leave home with animals in tow as well as when you begin the return trip home.
Try: While its focus is on the safe use of a horse trailer, the article on trailer safety from Red Jeans Ink is applicable for all trailers for animals including pet trailers. You can monitor safety systems from the cab of your truck with sensors from Truck System Technologies. It carries sensors for animal trailers you pull with a pickup, as well as semi horse trailer sensors.

Learn how to load and unload animals on to your animal trailers

One well-placed kick by a rambunctious animal can do serious damage to a farm trailer, not to mention serious injury to you. Make sure you stay calm as you load the animals into the trailer. Use the gates built into the trailer to pen the animals for their safety, as well as yours. The gates can also keep the animals in one location in the trailer so their weight doesn't shift and cause the trailer to sway as you travel down the road.
Try: Colorado State University has an article on the safe handling of livestock that includes information on hauling animals on animal trailers. Rutgers Cooperative Extension offers tips on safe loading and unloading of horses on a horse trailer on its website. It also offer tips for safety inspection of the farm trailer.

Add comfort features to your animal trailers

Let your animals travel in a safer manner with accessories designed to protect their legs. You can also add accessories to your farm trailer so you can haul food for them as well.
Try: Discount-Mats.com has a selection of anti-shock mats you can customize for something as small as a dog trailer or as large as an aluminum horse trailer. Spirit Industries offers a product called HayRak that allows you to add its customized horse trailer parts to your new or used horse trailer to haul the horse’s hay.

 

• Animal urine is probably the worst enemy of any trailers for animals. It's important that you remove all traces of it to prevent any wood in the flooring of the trailer from rotting through.

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