Letting others borrow your trailer - pros and cons?

Meowy Catkin

Meowy Catkin

Meow!
Joined
19 July 2010
Messages
22,635
Visit site
I've been asked by a good friend if I will let her borrow my trailer. I've always said that I'd be happy to take her and her horse if I was going somewhere with one of mine, but she wants to completely borrow it (towing with her vehicle and without me being there). So far I've just said that I need to think about it and check the insurance etc...

Any thoughts?
 
I do loan my trailer to certain friends .
Good friends as in really close , people who do lots for me .
Otherwise I would say no.
 
What happens if the pony kicks s**** out of the sides though ? - happened to my YO, even though the pony was known to be a good traveller.
 
That's why I need to check the small print of the insurance. If it would be covered for damage in those circumstances, then I would be more inclined to say 'yes'. If it wouldn't be covered for damage, then I would say 'no'.

It's all hypothetical at the moment (she doesn't have a vehicle capable of towing it yet, but is planning on getting one and would do so even if I said 'no').


ETA - GS, this is one of the few people that I would be willing to say 'yes' to.
 
Last edited:
Entirely depends on your friend. Someone very kindly lent me their trailer and I returned it pressure washed inside and out and looking like new, with a couple of bottles of wine and a leg of lamb inside it.

I lent my trailer to someone and got it back still with the bedding they'd put down in it, complete with muck, and with the electric connector squashed and the cable nearly worn through where it had been dragging on the road.

The people who lent me their trailer have lent it to me since and everything has been fine. The people who borrowed mine have asked for it again and have been told "So sorry, no".
 
We lent ours to someone. They picked up a huge horse that damaged the floor. It is an older Rice box and the kicking and leaping around split the wood . We only carry ponies so the floor had never been a problem for us. We had to replace the floor and put a double skin in this time. They never paid a penny towards the repairs. The damage to the walls is still there as it isnt dangerous but I would never lend them a piece of baling twine now.
Hope your friend wouldnt behave like that, you dont want to have to claim on your insurance if you can help it so perhaps agree that she repairs any damage .
 
This is awkward. I always try to make sure that anyone likely to ask to borrow something is aware of my stance on this before they ask. I say 'I don't lend and I don't borrow'
 
No I don't lend my trailer out, I did once and even though I told them to put the bar up before you tie the horse they obviously didn't listen and trailer came back with a mangled tie ring. It's only a small thing I know but they are too expensive to give them to people who aren't knowledgable.
 
Someone wanted to borrow mine to go several hundreds of miles to collect an unbroken Hannoverian......I said it wouldn't fit but she borrowed thesame make/model off someone else!
 
I'd be happy to lend my trailer to close friends as a one off, but I'd be very wary of someone asking to borrow it as and when.

I would probably say no in all honesty.
 
When it comes to pros and cons, there basically aren't any pros! Not unless you had the trailer but no towing vehicle and they had the towing vehicle so then you could go to shows etc together without having to run a 4x4 as well as your usual car.
 
A friend once phoned me up very early morning to ask if they could borrow my trailer and my landrover as their lorry had broken down going to a competition and they really wanted to still go. I didn't think twice and said yes as I knew they would take great care of both and pay for any damage if needed. (my insurance covered them to drive the landrover and I've never insured trailers)

I've also asked another friend if I could borrow their trailer to take my horse to the vets when my trailer was out of action and my horse really had to go now. She didn't hesitate to say yes as again trusted me.

I wouldn't let just anybody I know borrow it but if they were a good friend I would.
 
I won't lend mine to anyone. If I did and their horse trashed it or they damaged it, you wouldn't ever get them to pay to put it right. There are bound to be insurance implications, and even if you did successfully claim, how would you get the excess out of them?

I once let someone practice loading their horse into my trailer and it trashed the front of it, ripped the mats generally made a right mess which they didn't put right. I got a slightly sheepish "oh, I'll get a quote for putting it right" and nothing materialised. So never again!
 
I have lent my trailer to my YO a couple of times as I know and trust her 100% and if it was anything less than perfect condition on return she would be falling over herself to make sure it was sorted. I did once lend my trailer many years ago to a friend who asked if they could borrow it to collect one of their cobs. No problem until I discovered after the event that said cob was a huge D stallion which was being bought and collected from the Royal Welsh show whilst they were up there showing their other stallions. I live in Kent so not only did my trailer do 500 miles but it was also left on the Royal Welsh showground unlocked for 3 days! In the event no damage was actually done but I was not best pleased!
 
I don't lend anyone anything - I have had years of things either not being returned or returned damaged and no one has ever offered to pay/replace them.

This can be anything from a trailer to my horse to ride, to a pair of gloves or a lunge line.

Call me grumpy but I pay for my stuff, take good care of it and look after it, therefore I just keep it for myself so I don't end up getting upset when someone ruins it, however accidental that may be.

ETS: I don't ask to borrow anything either for the same reasons :)
 
Last edited:
I used to have an old rice trailer which I didn't use very often which wasn't insured.
Yard owners husband (farmer) asked if he could borrow it which I agreed to.
He then proceeded to load a huge water container in the trailer and fill it with water. Going down a dual carriage way he managed to jack knife the trailer (overloaded) and turn it on its side.
Trailer was written off and when the police checked the trailer they found the brakes to be defective (remember I hadn't used it for some time).
I was prosecuted for allowing an unsafe trailer to be used. 3 points on my licence and £500 fine plus total loss of the trailer. I didn't get a penny from the farmer despite the fact that he claimed £250 from his insurance for the trailer.
Total cost to me was circa £1,300 plus increased cost on my car insurance due to points on my licence.
I will NEVER allow anyone to use any vehicle of mine again.
 
If they are buying a car to tow with then the extra cost of buying a trailer is minimal.

In an emergency I would tow for someone but no I would not lend it out, the only exception being my ex husband as he is the best person to tow anything and he would repair it if anything happened and give it the once over before he borrowed it.
 
Cheshire Chestnut said:
I don't lend anyone anything - I have had years of things either not being returned or returned damaged and no one has ever offered to pay/replace them.

This can be anything from a trailer to my horse to ride, to a pair of gloves or a lunge line.

Call me grumpy but I pay for my stuff, take good care of it and look after it, therefore I just keep it for myself so I don't end up getting upset when someone ruins it, however accidental that may be.

ETS: I don't ask to borrow anything either for the same reasons :)
Click to expand...


This - totally!!!
 
There are no pros to it.

If something happens and your trailer is damaged, best case scenario the borrower has manners and fixes it or pays for it to be fixed. This still leaves you with the inconvenience of getting quotes, finding somewhere to fix it, taking it there, having it off the road and out of action for YOU for however long it's damaged and at the menders, collecting it...etc etc.
And then at the end of that you may have a trailer that's devalued because of the nature of the damage and subsequent fix.

Worst case scenario your trailer is written off and you are out of pocket, like PM above.

Somewhere in between you have people you thought were your friends, screwing up your stuff and refusing to give you a penny towards fixing it, so you're left out of pocket and disappointed in your so-called friends.

I no longer lend mine. I would take someones horse to the vets in an emergency, of course. Non emergency situations, there are companies that make it their business to hire out trailers, I would point anyone asking in the direction of Google.

Last time I lent mine WAS the last time. I normally have the partition out as i'm most generally travelling a mare and foal, or a single horse, so I tend to leave it out and under cover.
Lender borrowed trailer, told me they had cleaned it all out and put the partition back under cover for me. Great I think, alls good :D
Next time I look at the partition, it's been beaten the crap out of and is bent out of shape, wont fit in the placings. Lender claims no knowledge of how this has happened *shrug* it was fine when they put it back.
I *should* have checked it for myself at the time but I didn't think a 'friend' would do this and not tell me about it, never mind lie to my face about it. Didn't enter my head. (eta mind you from what I learned of the lenders characters from this, I strongly suspect even if I'd checked immediately, there would have been no money forthcoming for fixing it).

My trailer was a significant purchase for me, lending it to people for FREE cost ME money. My view on it now is sorry no, I won't lend you my trailer but feel free to spend YOUR money hiring or buying your own. So I feel no guilt in just saying 'No'.
 
Last edited:
No. If the trailer gets trashed, who's going to pay for the damage? Is a friend really going to produce £600 for repairs in that case?

In emergency cases (immediate transportation to vet required), I would lend myself as driver with my trailer.
 
As others have said, I wouldn't expect to borrow someone's trailer unless it was an absolute veterinary-style emergency. There are professional hire companies and transport companies out there who are properly insured etc for the eventuality of casual use if you're not prepared to invest in your own transport. Sorry to sound harsh, but I think you either buy your own or pay to hire and asking for a freebie is cheeky IMHO.
 
I lend my trailer out to my husbands friends wife to take their daughter to shows, it comes back spotless, and if there were any problems they would pay to fix them because they are decent people.
 
You see when you lend something to a close friend it's not 'free ' as such it's part do a bigger picture of what they do for you and you for them it's about more than money.
The friend who borrows my trailer most came and cooked my supper many times when I was stuck in bed you can't always put a value on what friends do for each other .
 
Don't if you value your friendship.

I lent my brand new trailer to a couple who I thought were really good friends, they assured me that should anything go wrong they would cover it. Long story short they overturned it horses and people fine, trailer a write off my insurance wouldn't cover it and "friends" pleaded poverty and left me £2500 out of pocket. My mother had recently died so I didn't chase them through court but wish I had.
 
I don't lend my trailer to anyone, Experience has taught me that no-one looks after my stuff like I do and I could guarantee I'd get it back dirty and/or dented. I actually get very fed up when people ask to borrow it - that started literally the day we brought it home and before I'd even used it myself!
 
Goldenstar said:
You see when you lend something to a close friend it's not 'free ' as such it's part do a bigger picture of what they do for you and you for them it's about more than money.
The friend who borrows my trailer most came and cooked my supper many times when I was stuck in bed you can't always put a value on what friends do for each other .
Click to expand...

Agree with this, my husbands friend who I lend my trailer to does a lot for my husband and vise versa
 
Don't think there are any pros really for you OP, for the same reasons other posters have given. All we got too was the cons!! Even if the prospective borrower is a good friend it may be worth checking your insurance - and finding out you cannot let them do it! Taking them to shows would be so much less problematic in the long run.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top