Trailers and motorways

Mike007 said:
Dont forget the anti snaking device, worth its weight in gold,and go to your local auto electrical shop. ( a specialist,not your local auto factors or...cringe.. Halfords) and get a really good set of rear lights ,and wire in a fog lamp. Rear fog lamps are compulsory but how many trailers have them? It doesnt get picked up because trailers arent MOT,d. Side marker lights are another good thing,not just reflectors.
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Thank you re. the anti-snake thingy, will add it to the list :)

We have the lights and an electrician standing by :D. There's all the usual lights, plus lights for the sides (side marker lights?), plus two reversing lights, plus front and rear fog lights. It's going to look like a Christmas tree! :eek::D
 
I would like to think that I'm a fairly experienced motorway trailer driver - in the summer I do 150-300 miles towing on motorways most weekends. I'd have a lorry if I could, but just can't afford one.

I would definitely say check your tyre pressures. Mine used to get done every time I left the yard (started from when I had a very slow puncture) but I've got a bit slack now and probably only do them once a month or before big journeys. We have a compressor so can top them up hassle-free any time. It's not always easy to get the air-line at fuel stations all the way round a trailer. Always check the pressure on your spare too!

Make sure you know how to change a wheel and can do so quickly and confidently - I have had to change a trailer wheel on several occasions over the years. I know it's illegal (and lethal!) to do so on motorways but if you have a slow puncture you may be able to get to the next services safely and do it there.

I had a blowout on the A64 duel-carriageway on the way to Bramham last year - quite scary, it sounded like we'd driven over a landmine - I pulled as far off the road as I could, sent my passenger back down the road a bit to signal to the other drivers to move into the outside lane (I was just round a bend unfortunately) and changed the wheel as quickly as I could. We were stopped for under 5 minutes in total.

Carry a breaker bar and sockets that fit your wheel nuts (not a cheapo one, they're useless - mine's a Snap-on one, but that's probably an unecessary luxury) then you can undo wheel nuts and tighten them correctly in a jiffy. When you next stop check the tension on the wheel nuts again.

My trailer is used at least once weekly all year round but beware the trailer that stands and does nothing for long periods at a time. Get the brakes checked yearly and change tyres every 3 years or so whether they look damaged or not. Check all lights before every journey.

I've never tried shutting the top doors as I like the air to go through, especially in the summer, but may try next time to see whether it improves the sucking effect. Also maintaining 58-60mph helps as you are just fractionally faster than the wagons (much faster than them on the M1 hills in South Yorks ;)) and you rarely get overtaken.

At the end of the day anyone can have an accident and it horrifies me to think of the consequences but I think that you can do a lot to increase your chances of a safe journey. If you can reduce your risks to those presented by the 'other b*ggers' then you've done all that you can.
 
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sparky1981 said:
This thread is freaking me out.We have recently bought a ivor 510 trailer and am abit worried about travelling it now!!
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Just make sure it's checked over by a profssional trailer person, have it serviced regularly, don't overlaod it, have a vehicle that is suitable to tow it, check the tyre pressures weekly, also check that the rubber isn't perishing - the tread can be okay due to the low number of miles, but the walls can crack.

Happy towing :D
 
On a motorway the police will not let you unload but vehicle will be recovered with animals on board to the nearest "safe" place to move into rescue vehicle, we were lucky (or unlucky) enough to break down on a motorway bridge and the police allowed us to unload and reload onto another vehicle before broken down lorry was recovered but they stopped ALL traffic on a dual carriageway while we did that!!
 
I too had towed on motorways for years with no problems, then was involved in an accident when a friend was towing. Caused by cross winds and a lorry getting too close behind us causing the trailer to snake and tip over. Our tow vehicle was in a landrover defender. Luckily both the horses and ourselves escaped with just cuts and bruises. My friend has since towed on the motorway, but now has stabilisers fitted, which she says helps greatly. I sold my trailer and bought a lorry, but im not happy getting stuck in the lorry ruts, so tend to avoid the motorway if possible now.
 
sparky1981 said:
We pull my 16.2hh with a nissan navara pick up. is this ok?
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I think the towing capacity of the Navarra is about 2600 kg.So two big horses would be close to top weight. You need to check so many things ,tyre pressures ,hitch height,regularly maintained brakes. The towing vehicle needs to be in good nick too. Slack in suspension bushes ,anti roll bars ,worn shock absobers ,might not matter so much without a trailer,but they all dramaticly add to the snaking effect. The sole purpose in life of an anti snaking device is to take the sting out of a situation where you might loose control.
 
A wheel sheared off my friends trailer when we were coming home on the M3 from an Event. We didn't feel a thing and would've been none the wiser if it weren't for the car behind us flashing, drawing alongside and waving at us to stop.

We limped off the motorway at the next exit and called a friend who came and collected the horse in a lorry.

Friends' trailer had had 2 blow-outs in the preceding weeks on the rear axle wheels... she
thought she was just unlucky with punctures, but now this.

She had just bought a new Range Rover. Turned out the tow bar was too high putting strain on the rear axle of the trailer as it was in effect tipping it backwards.

Scary :o(
 
Im a little bit amused well possibly shocked by some people I know they say oh we carnt afford a lorry, they then go out and buy a £30k+ 4x4 that costs a fortune to run, service and tax. and loses about half its value in 2 years then they go out and trade it in for another!!!! sorry it looks more like keeping up with the joneses than anything else ...
 
I've towed an Ifor 505 up and down the M6 (from the Midlands to Scotland) for about 10 years now with no problem. All about making sure the trailer is up to the job, decent towing vehicle (I had a Mitsubishi Shogun and now an Isuzu Trooper), and BEING AWARE OF TRAFFIC AROUND. Had more near misses without a trailer behind - some people just shouldn't be driving on any road, let alone a motorway. I don't have a new towing vehicles, as I can't afford one (as much as I would like to), even if I won the lottery and could afford a lorry I would still have my 4x4 and a trailer!
 
We have always had a Ifor williams trailer towed by an Isuzu Trooper and we have never once had any issue towing 2 horses up and down the M1 and M25 when I was at boarding school (400 mile trip). When home my mum would be taking us to competitions every week which involved using the M25, M40, M4. I never recall us snaking and if we have had to break suddenly it is because of other drivers being idiots!!

I do not know one person who has had an accident with a trailer and have not seen one either whereas as someone else has mentioned you see caravans, cars, lorries etc.

You need to be a confident driver and be aware of what is going on around you. Single carrigeways I think are more dangerous as people always want to get past you.
 
lizzie_liz said:
You need to be a confident driver and be aware of what is going on around you. Single carrigeways I think are more dangerous as people always want to get past you.
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Or see you coming as they're waiting to pull out of a side-raod, assume that you'll be doing 30mph-ish, pull out right in front of you only to find that you're doing 50mph leaving you to slam the brakes on as they fail to pull away fast enough.
 
perfect11s said:
Im a little bit amused well possibly shocked by some people I know they say oh we carnt afford a lorry, they then go out and buy a £30k+ 4x4 that costs a fortune to run, service and tax. and loses about half its value in 2 years then they go out and trade it in for another!!!! sorry it looks more like keeping up with the joneses than anything else ...
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I. Can't. Afford. A. Lorry.

My company car is a 4x4. I'm lucky I suppose in that respect, but I do need 4WD on occasions for my job. It only (!) cost £18,000 new, nothing like £30k and works its behind off doing 40,000 miles/year.

If I had to tax/plate/insure/maintain/fuel a lorry I would have to go out of competing. End Of.
 
oooh this is a horrid thread :( i have an equitrek and i had a snapped axle like lucemoose- i was on an A road and managed to pull into one of those lay by thngs- a lovely friend came to pick up horse and then mr recovery man came to pick trailer up!
i think that taking your horse travelling anywhere is laden with risk- so to say that you won't let them go in a trailer but will in a lorry is a bit strange to me- a lorry could just as easily have an accident if being driven sensibly. my friend had a lovely wagon- very new, very well maintained (her dad ran a haulage firm so they knew what they were doing) and one day she was driving down the M6, heard a wierd noise, pulled over on the hard shoulder and noticed lorry was on fire! they had to pull the horses off the lorry (whilst the traffic was still moving) and wait for the police/ firemen to come. fortunately the horses were very well behaved. the whole lorry was a complete shell in the end and the tyres all exploded as well- so i would much rather stick with my car and trailer thanks very much! i have trailer regularly serviced and drive sensibly and just hope that i'll be ok!
 
diggerbez said:
oooh this is a horrid thread :( i have an equitrek and i had a snapped axle like lucemoose- i was on an A road and managed to pull into one of those lay by thngs- a lovely friend came to pick up horse and then mr recovery man came to pick trailer up!
i think that taking your horse travelling anywhere is laden with risk- so to say that you won't let them go in a trailer but will in a lorry is a bit strange to me- a lorry could just as easily have an accident if being driven sensibly. my friend had a lovely wagon- very new, very well maintained (her dad ran a haulage firm so they knew what they were doing) and one day she was driving down the M6, heard a wierd noise, pulled over on the hard shoulder and noticed lorry was on fire! they had to pull the horses off the lorry (whilst the traffic was still moving) and wait for the police/ firemen to come. fortunately the horses were very well behaved. the whole lorry was a complete shell in the end and the tyres all exploded as well- so i would much rather stick with my car and trailer thanks very much! i have trailer regularly serviced and drive sensibly and just hope that i'll be ok!
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I have nightmares about big wagons with purely electric ramps. In a fire where the electrics blow first there is no way to get the ramp down :(
 
Gamebird said:
I. Can't. Afford. A. Lorry.

My company car is a 4x4. I'm lucky I suppose in that respect, but I do need 4WD on occasions for my job. It only (!) cost £18,000 new, nothing like £30k and works its behind off doing 40,000 miles/year.

If I had to tax/plate/insure/maintain/fuel a lorry I would have to go out of competing. End Of.
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yes ditto! i needed some transport so bought 4x4 as also needed a car- no way could i have afforded a lorry as well as a car. and i certainly wouldn't buy a cheap lorry. have had one of those- it was great when all i wanted to do was pootle off down to the local RC but it wouldn't have got me all over the country eventing like i do now! it also cost me a fortune every time it needed an MOT so was totally false economy. (i have an L200 and the tax is calculated as a van- so its super cheap compared to most 4x4s!! haha)
 
ladyt25 said:
Oh and Lucemoose - did that recovery truck put your trailer on their lorry with the horse still inside?? If so then that's shocking, they are NOT supposed to do that at all!
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Yes they did, thats why I signed a disclaimer. They had police support if necc. to close the entire section of the M4, so we could unload and reload on to a recovery horsebox, the horse is a doll and would have been fine. The other option was to have a rolling closure just so we could slowly tow to the services with lights at snails pace.

Unfortunately due to the APPALLING service I was given by my breakdown company, myself and the horse had been on the shoulder for over 2 hours before the HA came to rescue me and our priority was to get the horse off the M4 . Hence my willingness to load her onto the truck. The HA and recovery men were SO kind, at any point I could veto the load and get the motorway shut and they practically held my hand.

Because it was an Equitrek I had plenty of space for hay and water and she was quite content.

Someone asked about Navaras, the yellow car you can see on the shoulder is my Navara, one of my favourite vehicles to tow with.
:D
 
I always wonder what would happen to a horse in the end partition if someone drove up the back of my lorry. I think everything is as unsafe as each other. Its not you or your lorry, trailer that you have to worry about - its everyone else on the road.
 
We are farmers and use to towing 14ft stock trailers as well have IW506 and no probems lorry wouldn't do what we want as use horse trailer for sheepdog and duck demos all over midlands tows perfectely and the amount of times friends have been to start lorry and it wont never been without 4x4 to tow trialer we have 2 to choose from.
 
I would rather drive on dual carriageways and motorways than single track any day of the week, so much better for horse and me. As long as conditions are good I drive at 55 Mph so lorries don't overtake me. The main thing as others have said is to keep a very good distance between you and the vehicle in front, don't get close behind lorries and always be aware or road conditions in front and behind of you.
 
millitiger said:
I have towed 1000's and 1000's of miles up and down motorways and never had an issue.

imo accidents are caused by bad driving by the person towing or if someone crashes into you, it is likely they would crash into you regardless of what you are driving.

make sure you have a big enough and heavy enough 4x4 so you don't get sucked in by HGVs passing- we've never experienced that on the motorway but have a huge 4x4.
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Not necessarily true - our trailer flipped due to, we think a breaking system malfunction. We were travelling at roughly 40mph down a perfectly straight piece of road in excellent conditions and the resulting jack knife caused the trailer and car to flip. The trailer broke off rolled across the far side of the road and the car did 3 somersaults. The trailer was under two years old and had received more than the required services and checks. The car was a 6 month old Discovery and both were written off, we were extremely lucky to escape unhurt, the trailer looked like it had been crushed. The trailer came to rest on its side with the front pointing back up the road the way we'd come. The horse and pony had rolled over each other several times inside the trailer so they had reversed positions and both ended up lying on their sides on one side of the trailer under the partition and had to be rescued. They also had no serious injuries.
No one was at fault and had there been any other traffic on that area of the road at the time it would certainly have been fatal at the very least for the horses if not ourselves or any other drivers.
IMO the point of gravity in a trailer is too high and creates a pivot point which makes them very vulnerable to toppling over and intrinsically unsafe especially the newer light weight versions. After my experience I would rather not travel at all than put my horse in one. Although accidents can of course happen in a lorry you have a good deal more protection due to the positioning and construction. In a trailer your horses are level with and only separated from traffic doing high speeds by a few millimeters of aluminium.
 
AJN 1960 ,you make many good points. I am more than a bit suspicious of equitreck like trailers . The horse area is extended by raising it and going out over the wheels. Old fashioned heavy rice trailers kept the C of G low by positioning the horses betwean the wheels. I also find it very disturbing that i axle failures on these equitrecks seem to be cropping up.
 
I've had an accident on the motorway with a trailer, when the driver behind fell asleep at the wheel and drove into the back of us.

However, it didn't stop me towing, and certainly didn't stop me towing on the motorway. TBH I do prefer driving on the motorway to smaller roads, and accidents can happen on any sort of road.
 
Mike007 said:
AJN 1960 ,you make many good points. I am more than a bit suspicious of equitreck like trailers . The horse area is extended by raising it and going out over the wheels. Old fashioned heavy rice trailers kept the C of G low by positioning the horses betwean the wheels. I also find it very disturbing that i axle failures on these equitrecks seem to be cropping up.
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i think that its a well known problem on certain models that they have now sorted out. i've not had any probs with mine since the axles were replaced. still crap customer service tho ;)
 
diggerbez said:
i think that its a well known problem on certain models that they have now sorted out. i've not had any probs with mine since the axles were replaced. still crap customer service tho ;)
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yes maybe but as Mike points out it isnt such a good idea to have such a high center of gravity esp carrying a load that will shift, something like a old rice will be more stable as the wheel track is wider and lower than the body of the trailer...
 
dieseldog said:
I always wonder what would happen to a horse in the end partition if someone drove up the back of my lorry. I think everything is as unsafe as each other. Its not you or your lorry, trailer that you have to worry about - its everyone else on the road.
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If it was something like a car or van hitting the back of a 7.5 ton it wouldmost likely hit the lorry chassis or ride under untill they hit the back axle, might not be so good if it was another lorry but your horses would stand a better chance than other types of horse transport ...
 
supagran said:
I've towed an Ifor 505 up and down the M6 (from the Midlands to Scotland) for about 10 years now with no problem. All about making sure the trailer is up to the job, decent towing vehicle (I had a Mitsubishi Shogun and now an Isuzu Trooper), and BEING AWARE OF TRAFFIC AROUND. Had more near misses without a trailer behind - some people just shouldn't be driving on any road, let alone a motorway. I don't have a new towing vehicles, as I can't afford one (as much as I would like to), even if I won the lottery and could afford a lorry I would still have my 4x4 and a trailer!
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The accident I had, I was travelling about 50mph, in the inside lane, a lorry drove into the back of me and wrote off my trailer and landrover. The force was enough to twist the chassis on the landrover. The lorry driver had disconnected his limiter, (apparently very common), and had previously overtaken someone else who was doing 70mph. The tone of your post implies that provided the vehicle and trailer are well maintained and you drive carefully being fully aware of other drivers then accidents won't happen. Well it did to me, and I don't believe there is anything I could have done to avoid it, I do accept it would have happened had I been in a lorry, but my horse wouldn't have been thrown out of it.
 
If a lorry drives into the back of you whatever you are driving you are pretty much in trouble.

There are risks to every mode of transport, I choose to have a trailer and 4x4, I could sell both and buy instead a cheaper end of the market lorry, which imo is potentially a walking deathtrap. Far better to have a nearly new trailer, solid floors no rust etc and mechanically sound tow vehicle.

I prefer moterways to normal roads, long straight less stressful on the horse, and as long as I drive carefully e.g slow down on the down hills and tyre pressure is correct I have never had any problems . I have to drive better when I am towing two than one, with one you get away with a multitude of sins.

I also have driven lorrys, am always a lot more at edge driving them prefer my car and trailer any day.
 
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