# Share Your Nerve Wracking Trailer Stories!



## livelovelaughride (Sep 13, 2011)

This goes back to 2014 when I bought my trailer from Northwest Trailers in WA State. I wanted the Circle J Runabout because it was aluminum and our truck at the time was the Ford Sportrak with the towing package. 
I drove south to Renton where I'd bought said trailer on a statutory holiday in BC. The dealer did some work on the truck and made sure everything was in great order. I had brought a friend with me to ride shotgun because I had never driven a horse trailer on the roads, never mind highway, before. 

So the purchase is made, and I am hoping to get a feel of driving this rig before we head back to the US Canada border. I thought maybe I would find a schoolyard or big parking lot to drive around in. Nope. I had to commit to driving North on the arterials then hitting Hwy 5 N. I was a ball of nerves. The first half hour all I saw was two white lines and white knuckles. I don't think I blinked in that first half hour. I don't remember driving through Seattle! After awhile I started to relax - even being in the slow lane and having vehicles merge wasn't too bad. An hour and a half later we pulled off the highway for a bathroom break, and as I was checking on the trailer I heard a hissing sound. Yep. A punctured tire! I called the dealer and they made arrangements to have the tire repaired nearby. The service station was able to use that ramp aid device, yay we were on the way to the border. But first, we needed gas. It was very frustrating to pull up at a gas station and being forced to manuever around other vehicles...and seeing the gas pump too short by 8 inches and trying again to back the trailer up to reach it....Finally we got to the border to declare my trailer and pay the taxes etc was another 2.5 hours in line due to the holiday traffic. 

Now to get the second to last ferry to Vancouver Island which puts us back on our home turf around 10PM. I can't drive the trailer to the barn. I thought I would park it in our residential neighborhood in our wooded cul de sac that has no street lights. I actually thought I could park it or back it up along the side of the road. Haha I realized how futile that was the moment I entered our pitch black neck of the woods near our cottage. I drove the rig out to another lit street that happened to have a church parking lot. Whew. I parked the truck and trailer there and left a note on the windshield. Then because I forgot to bring a flashlight I had to bush whack my way home through the forest path by feel, another 15 minutes. 

All that driving really gave me confidence in handling the trailer on the road...its taken a few years for my mouth to stop being dry when I transport my horse though! Thankfully I have not had any nerve wracking stories involving horse transport but I've heard a few.


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## Luna’s rider (Jan 23, 2021)

I don’t have a trailer story but wanted to say that Vancouver Island is such a wonderful place! You’re lucky to call it home


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## Zimalia22 (Jun 15, 2021)

We were coming home from a show in Oregon. It was one of those vacumn black nights, and raining hard. We were traveling with a couple friends of ours, and one has a flat tire on his trailer. There's no place to get off, and naturally it was on the road side.
So we dug up all the flashlights we had, and everyone has 4 ways flashing, and standing out in the rain shining flashlights so drivers could see we couldn't get off the road any farther than we had. Didn't help the flat was on an 8 horse trailer fully loaded.
But other than getting soaked to the bone, things went well and we all made it home safely.


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

We saw this cute little grey arab sticking it's head out a window going down the highway on one of our road trips years ago. Sometimes the horse had it's head out even more than this. I don't think that's a good idea myself. We always leave the bars up if we open the window and put fly masks on to protect the horses eyes from debris.


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## Txshecat0423 (May 27, 2020)

I was coming home from a weekend rodeo trip, only one horse in the 3H GN trailer (which was an oddity for me, normally I took two). I’m cruising along at posted speeds, and the people in the left hand lane start honking and pointing to the rear of my trailer. I looked in the mirror on the passenger side and there is smoke coming from the right rear tire on the trailer area.
With no warning, I then see my entire right rear trailer tire PASSING me on the shoulder of I-10 near Houston. Not tread from the tire, the entire tire - rim and all. Luckily I did not panic, but was able to exit the highway and pull into a vacant construction lot shortly after exiting. My traveling partners were about 45 minutes behind me and I was only about 45 minutes from home, so I called my husband to come help and waited on my traveling buddies. My husband was able to strap the axle up on that side and we actually found the tire and rim. I made my husband drive the trailer home and he got it safely home, driving it on three tires! I drove his little truck and followed him. 

I don’t ever want to have that happen again. I’m sure the look on my face as my own trailer tire passed me on the road was priceless! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Getting a flat on a super hot day! My friend was hauling my trailer with her truck, 3 horses, 3 kids. I was in the car behind her. We unloaded the horses, got that that flat changed in record time, then my friend started to get sick from the heat! All us helped her to a drainage ditch on the edge of a hay field. After a few minutes, she was good to go again. Had me really scared for her before that!


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

This did not happen to me, but a friend when I lived in Texas. Their mare had foaled and they were taking mare and foal to get re-bred on the first heat. They were cruising along on a flat hot highway in Texas when the driver felt the trailer was just not pulling right. They pulled over to check, and the trailer had become unhitched. He was pulling it only by the safety chains and the hooks both were stretched and bent so far that there was only a quarter inch of hook before it let go.


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