Ever had a puncture on your trailer??....

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Wellhousegambler

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... If so what did you do? Have you got a spare? Do you know how to fit it in the event of a puncture?

I only ask because I was travelling with a friend of mine over the weekend and her pony, and we suffered the dreaded puncture! Being typical females we had no idea how to fit a spare tyre, nor did we want to unload the pony in order to do so ( It was a fairly busy road with a 40mph speed limit in force). Thankfully having phoned the mother or the hubby , as is often the case, we found out that there was a SOS tyre repair kit in the boot of the truck. BRILLIANT STUFF!!! Popped the fluid into the tyre and used the compressor to re- inflate, just plugged it straight into the cigarette lighter, absolute life saver!!! Would definitely recommend! For anyone interested it was an ebay purchase and fairly easy to find ( yellow packaging).
 
That's some really useful info. I will try & get some. I had a flat tyre on the trailer once & had to phone home for someone to come & help. I don't think it's safe to leave the horse in while you jack up a trailer, what do others think ?
 
You can get a specific horse trailer jack which you either drive the front wheel onto or reverse the hind one on depending on which one has the puncture to lift it off the ground. (remember to loosen the wheel nuts a bit first.... that was my stupid error lol) but its really a lot easier than changing one on a car I've found :-)
 
yes I can change a puncture :D really useful skill for us ladies to learn (although also probably quite a few blokes who cant) when I got my old rice to do up it needed new tyres, so with my bf explaining it first I learned to jack, take them off and back on. I have a spare on the side and feel confident if one did go flat I would actually be able to change it. I now also have my own bottle jack that is strong enough to lift my heavy trailer safely- wasn't that expensive, £30 at Halfords and a tyre pump that plugs in cigarette light in car.
 
I can change a trailer tyre I have a plastic drive on jack in the trailer the spanner thingy and a decent spare but last time it happened I just called the AA it was easier.
 
Had to change one the other day. It was just low not totally flat. As we had arrived at a show the horse was taken out while I did it. I used the car jack and nut remover thingy. Main problem I had was that the trailer was too high for the jack so had to lower one of the back stabilisers and place the jack under that.
 
And out of interest those of you who did change your tyre, did you unload your horses first? I think that in theory you should, due to weight and distribution, also if your horse had a bit of a hissy fit ( as mine often does when I leave her in a static trailer) you could potentially endanger yourself if the jack slipped. but I just wondered how many people do unload?
 
Yes, had a nail through the tyre, trailer was empty though. Spare wheel is in cupboard, plus one of those bottles of tyre repair, and a jack and tools.
It would depend if it was safe to unload horses whether I would take them out of not, i.e on the motorway would obviously be a no, somewhere quiet and out of the way, yes.
 
Once had a puncture in a contraflow on the M6. The road had been dug up and there was no where to pull onto the side and I had a lorry right up behind me and I had to limp on until I could pull through the cones onto the hard shoulder. By then the flat tyre was shredded and the other one on that side was pretty hot. I was fortunate that the workmen on the motorway helped me change the wheel and get on my way but it scared me and was one of the things that put me off travelling long distances to shows.
 
Yes... annoying!!

I have a breeze block in back of car for this very purpose. Drive whichever side has the puncture onto the breeze block (obviously not the punctured one) and it acts like a jack. I only do this if the horse is in the trailer and we can't get him out i.e. on side of motorway.

Otherwise I use the jack which is in my car and do it that way.
 
Never mind changing a trailer wheel - you shouldn't drive a car unless you can change a wheel!!!

I've had three trailer punctures in the last 10 years, all on dual carriageways, two of them on my own. All three changed and on my way within 10mins each. Have never unloaded horses.

1) Have the right tools - a long handled brace will get the wheel nuts off easily.
2) Check tyre pressures regularly - do you even know what they should be? Most should be much higher than car tyre pressures. Don't forget to check the spare too - no point in having a flat spare!
3) Walk round and look at/kick your tyres once the horse is loaded EVERY TIME you set off, including when leaving shows etc. You may well have driven over a nail driving into the show and the tyre has deflated whilst you've been competing. Drive that back out onto the motorway and it's an accident waiting to happen.
 
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