Almost-Disaster Trailer Lesson
| January 8, 2017 | Posted by Melinda under Equine Endurance, Trailer |
When I told my friend what had happened, her reply was “JFK. There it is, my worst nightmare.”
That sums up the incident perfectly, except by sheer luck everything turned out just fine and we can all learn a lesson without a huge tragedy.
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How scary. I’m glad ML was safely in the first stall and nothing bad happened.
So glad that worked out! Bugsy was in the back stall of a friend’s trailer and the latch failed – there were 2 cars behind us and nobody honked! Fortunately we drove past a friend’s ranch who saw and has good enough lungs that we heard her over the truck and the driver saw her in the mirror, while a guy was jumping in his truck to chase us down We stopped just before we went up a hill… Scary scary
eeeeeeeeek.
So glad that everybody is okay!
Merrylegs seems to be the near miss pony!
Now THAT is a scary idea.
So sorry you had such a scare! I try to check the nuts and bolts frequently – at least before each trip! If $ were no object I’d add a ramp for added security at the back of the trailer.
You BETCHA I’ll be carrying a wrench and checking bolts regularly now!!!! I need to inspect the trailer really well and identify other risk areas.
So food for thought…I actually had a ramp break on me. It was spring assisted and the hinge broke so that it lifted the ramp corner up above the level of the floor. I was away from home, with two horses, and a ramp that was really unsafe to both load and unload on to an no cell phone reception. That sorta put me off of ramps unless they are not integral to the closing the trailer (with that trailer if the ramp was down or off that part of the trailer was “open” ) and they need to hinge below the level of the trailer.
Not saying that having a ramp on top of the doors isn’t a good idea, but it’s so true that whatever will fail with horses will fail :(.
Glad it came out OK Mel. Also good suggestions here and will be checking our trailers for this type of fail safe. The two-horse we use for most events does indeed have a safety latch that is always use. Do also like the thought of using the divider latched for only one horse inside. Would have saved me some trouble last week when opened the back door and that was the signal for BG to come out before we were ready. Not good.
Hot damn. That’s a close call. I’d be shaking my head for weeks about getting as lucky as you did if that happened to me. How remarkably fortunate that it worked out in the manner it did.
So scary!! I have loads of irrational trailering fears myself, but I am really happy that it turned out to be okay in the end. I cannot believe that no one tried to let you know!! At least it all turned out okay!
Did you retrofit a hardware store sourced latch screwed onto the edge of the door? I can’t get a metal image formed as to the “right” style of latch.
Not yet – right now I’m just double checking the bolt and securing with the caribeaner before travel currently. As far as what type of latch…I was thinking something like this one, screwed on to the edge of the door, and the edge of the trailer where they meet. https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hardware-CD917-Plated-Latch/dp/B000GTCTJK