Trailers in car parks.

Fruitcake

Fruitcake

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Just wondered how people deal with the issue of people blocking trailer ramps in car parks.

I trailered to go for a ride yesterday and, when I returned to the car park, someone had parked right behind the rear ramp of my trailer so I couldn’t open it. Luckily, I had my mum with me so she was able to hold the horse while I moved the car and trailer but I did start to think about what would’ve happened if I’d been by myself.

The car park certainly wasn’t full and there was plenty of room for the car to have parked elsewhere. I’m assuming they didn’t realise that the rear ramp needed to open. Would a sign or sticker on the back door help, do you think? I tend to leave the ramps closed so they’re not in the way but now I’m not sure if leaving them open would be a better idea.

Is this a problem others have had?. How do you get ‘round it?.
 
We had this a lot when we parked up for hunting. We just used to leave the ramp down. People ignore stickers we found!
 
We get this all the time and its so frustrating, Im never sure whether people genuinely dont understand how a horse gets into a trailer of whether they just dont give a t**s! Our local forest has a horse trail and one specific parking area for trailers and lorries, however it is also free to park in for anyone else. More than once Ive got back to my lorry and been unable to either tie up or drop the side ramp :( Fortunately my boy is pretty easy and I just grab the next passing body to hold him for me whilst I pull forward, usually across whatever has blocked me in so that when they come back they have to flipping well wait for me. In your shoes I would leave the ramp down, I cant do that as mines a van conversion and if I leave the ramp down anyone could get into the back section so not very secure. Most folk who park there with trailers or lorries with lockable living just leave them open, even then Ive seen cars so close to the ramp you would think they were auditioning for a remake of that film with the minis!! I think a sign would just get ignored tbh, those who dont think about where they park wont bother to read it :(
 
‘Unless you want my ramp dropped on your bonnet, please don’t park behind me’ is one sign I’ve seen.

Leaving the ramp down is a good idea, but you’ll still get some idiot parking at the bottom of it.
 
I don't think people either think or care. Probably just think it's not their problem or something if they notice what they're doing at all.

Stick on horse shoe graphics across the bonnet (like a cartoon horse has walked across it) and a note. Not actual damage just an inconvenience and a point made. Lol
 
It's always a tricky one, we used to try and park so there wasn't space behind us it feels odd to leave the ramp down to me but I know plenty who do.

People mostly ignore signs, I used to take one with me as people would park right up in front of the horse gate for our off road riding (only way in and out, fully fenced, kissing gate for pedestrians) it didn't always work.
 
I have put cones ( we bought them)next to my side ramp to indicate I needed space to load. There was plenty of space in the car park. When I returned the cones had been moved and someone had parked so close that their car door on that side wouldn’t open. People are sometimes just plain awkward.
I now try and park by a fence with enough room to open my ramp. I expect one day there will be a motorbike parked there!
 
amymay said:
‘Unless you want my ramp dropped on your bonnet, please don’t park behind me’ is one sign I’ve seen.

Leaving the ramp down is a good idea, but you’ll still get some idiot parking at the bottom of it.
Click to expand...

This!!
I went to the beach a few weeks ago in my 7.5ton lorry, I went to the quietest part of the beach where there was an absolute ton of parking spaces, locked my living area, left the ramp down. When I got back to the lorry someone had parked over the end of my ramp. So not only could I not load my horse, I also couldn’t shut the ramp.

Reason? Horses shouldn’t be on the beach....
 
I hadn’t thought about the cones. I might give that a go. I also really like the “Unless you want my ramp dropped on you’re bonnet...” sticker idea 😆 but not sure I have the guts to pull it off.

I do wonder if people don’t understand how trailer ramps work. On a couple of occasions, at the riding school I go to for lessons, I’ve had mothers waiting to collect kids from the car park, say to me, “Do need me to move? Can he not go in the front way?”
 
People block the back of ambulances so they can't get patients in and out, so it seems unlikely they're going to give a stuff about blocking a horse box. Perhaps dropping the ramp onto their bonnet isn't such a terrible idea, or at least leaving them something for the roses once you've managed to get sorted.
 
people just dont think about others these days. i have bad hips and need to have my door open wide to get in and out easily, the car park can be empty and some idiot will park so close to my drivers door that i cant get in without being in a great deal of pain, i must admit i let my door crash on to theirs and always feel tempted to have a little scratch with my key(i dont) .....i now always park on an end so so one can park so close....so i doesnt surprise me that numptys park and block trailer doors.... i could sort of understand if the car park was full but if not there is no excuse....
 
Give that other equestrians do it on competition lorry parks ..... I recently returned to my 3.5t to find that a stranger had PUT UP MY RAMP in order to fit her trailer in between my and the next lorry. Wtf?! MY horse is not traffic safe and dancing through the lorry park is unpleasant at the best of times for her - after classes, we run straight back to her box and load, always. Thankfully the driver wasn't far, and I told her firmly to move. She reversed, then another passerby opened the ramp again for me. As I loaded, I heard the "CRASH" of the other driver reversing her trailer straight into another parked vehicle. I stayed away from that argument, even though I heard it mentioned several times, that it was "that lady" (me)'s fault because I had made her move.

(apologies - I realise that just turned into a personal rant! Nonetheless, if equestrians don't care about each other, the general public are even more ignorant!)
 
Bs_mum said:
This!!
I went to the beach a few weeks ago in my 7.5ton lorry, I went to the quietest part of the beach where there was an absolute ton of parking spaces, locked my living area, left the ramp down. When I got back to the lorry someone had parked over the end of my ramp. So not only could I not load my horse, I also couldn’t shut the ramp.

Reason? Horses shouldn’t be on the beach....
Click to expand...

Did you post some photographs on social media? If it were me, I might have sent them to the press too.
 
I once went to the supermarket with my sister driving there was 10 acres of empty parking (she lives in America) she drove in and parked between the only two cars in the car park who were also parked with just the one space between them. I just shook my head in disbeief as everyone struggled to get out her big truck with about 4 inches of door room
 
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