Re: Towing thoughts

["Tom Harais" <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Chris:

> On top of that, the suckers move around.

You ain't lieing! BTDT. 1000 lbs of horse flesh shifting it's weight from
left to right because it's mad that it has to be in the trailer transmits
right into the tow vehicle as wild swinging, even on my buddy's 3/4 ton
Suburban. And horses will do this just to let you know thier tired of
standing back there in that windy trailer. Or they'll start nipping each
other and then they all get to jumping around.

But you also forgot to point out that with horses, the weight is up high;
their body heigth compared to say a car on a trailer where the cars center
of weight is only a couple of feet above the trailer, a horse's is more
like four or five feet above the trailer.

On top of that, horse are live animals and you need to be more carefull.
When I had that accident, one of the horses hit the center bar in the
trailer so hard that it broke loose from it's welds. You don't want horses
falling down or getting banged around inside the trailer. It's not good for
thier health and borders on cruelty.

Perhaps you can be the one to tell me: Even with large, 4 horse trailers, I
always see just a bumper hitch rather than a class III or IV receive hitch
on the tow vehicle. AND, I never see equalizer bars. This doesn't make
sense to me considering that four horses and a trailer could easily go
6,000 to 10,000 lbs depending on size and construction of trailer, amount
of feed and tack your carrying as well as size of horses. That's wheight
right in the heavy duty class III or IV range WITH EQUALIZER required! But
I see simple bumper hitches on 1/2 ton pickups towing this type of rig all
the time.

Tom H.