Trailer Top Doors

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kiagirl

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My OH has just bought me a little trailer, it needs a bit of TLC to make it lovely and this includes the rear top doors.

He has asked if it really needs them or if he can remove them altogether. I wouldn't travel with them closed so the only thing they would be used for would be to keep the rain out when not in use but trailer will be kept in a barn? Looking at some older models they don't even have top doors?

So should I get him to fit new ones or take them off?

Thanks
 
Leave them on I forgot to shut the top doors of my IW last spring then could not use the trailer all summer when the swallows moved in !
I do occasionally close mine when travelling , if transporting foals I always close them also if you break down and where stuck for hours in the pouring rain you might be very glad to have them.
 
We will sometimes close one top door when travelling - especially if we only have one horse on board - when it is pouring with rain. Just to keep his back a little drier. Having top doors can also provide a little respite from driving rain at shows / hunts etc.
 
When I had a trailer I only travelled the horses with the top doors closed if I had a lengthy motorway journey, you know large artics obvertaking etc otherwise I left the top open. I used to close it up when it was parked up though to stop rain/birds etc getting in.
 
I have seen trailers without top doors, but we always store ours with them shut (although somehow the rain still gets in!). You need them if you are going to travel a horse/pony loose ever- when I bought my shetland the breeder told us how one person had travelled their shetland home loose with top doors open and straw bales around the edge for support, and (thankfully while stationary) the pony climbed up the straw bales and jumped out the back door- no idea how it wasn't killed! So we always shut our doors when the little ones on board!
 
Leave them on and always shut the far side one when travelling at the very least. A friend was bringing her two hunters up to stay with me on the motorway and a lorry's loose rope caught around her back door (which wasn't shut as her horses are good travellers) and almost tipped her over as it went past; not easy with a Rice trailer and Range Rover, they're a pretty sturdy combination. If it hadn't been for quick action from two other lorry drivers there would have been a very nasty accident through no fault of her own. Yes, it was a freaky accident but the whole point is to make things as safe as they can be from the very start.
 
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