daxaloosa-mobile 1999 super bee 2 horse walk-through trailer

in april 1999, I realized that if I really wanted to get serious with dax and eventing, then I would need a better trailer. not only for the shows themselves, for someplace of my own to keep my stuff, to change my clothes and to cart the horse back and forth, but also for schooling so that I could get to the best trainer whether they were near or far.

I started my search in may or so, and it took me two months just to settle on a design. I have a 302cc ford bronco (1995) with a class III hitch, which is plenty powerful to pull a trailer but I was worried about the wheelbase being too short for safety with a longer trailer. everything that I looked at was over 13' long because I really wanted and needed a tack room at minimum. at that length, even the aluminum trailers were over 5,000 lbs and I didn't want to pull that much weight if I didn't have to.

I started looking at steel trailers and found some innovative designs that were able to fit a reasonable tack area into a 10' long trailer. at this length, most of the trailers were only around 3,0000 lbs. I finally settled on a super bee two-horse walk-through trailer, purchased essentially over the Internet, through a dealer by the name of ted lewis of walnut creek trailers in shelbyville, tennessee. (URL : http://www.attentionhorses.com/)

ted lewis is an incredibly nice man and has a lovely tennessee walker farm. my kids had a great time playing with his daughters while we closed up our business; the girls loved her horse cookie. walnut creek farm is just about 50 miles southeast of nashville. I saved about $1,000 by going to TN to pick up my trailer myself and managed to make a fun camping trip out of it for the girls in the process! (camping pix will be online soon)

I have had the trailer now for about a month and just love it. the design is perfect; this is the only trailer that I looked at with a manger/tack room/walk-through design like this one. in through the walk-through door are two saddle racks, on on each side and four bridle racks, two on each side. above each saddle rack is a 3/4 manger with an inner walk-through door between which leads to the stalls. it is really convenient and seems to add a lot of space to the trailer.

it has a 7' long stall length (an extra foot for my spotted luxery-lover), 7' tall inside, and 6' wide (3' per stall). the nose is 4' long and holds all of my tack easily, a medium-sized tack box and my shovel, pick and broom stacked on top. dax walks right in; I leave the front door open and swing the divider to one side. he has tons of room. I bought the optional full-sized ramp with removable tail curtains and fully-enclosed sides (with sliding windows)

once the trailer was decided upon and purchased, I turned my attention to my hitch. I decided that with my short wheel-base, it would be in my best interest to part with the extra $1,000 and get my truck fortified and my hitch upgraded to a weight-distribution type. it took me a month to get prices, study features and understand truck upgrade issues in order to get exactly the right item.

I settled on adding a transmission cooler and heavy-duty shocks to my Bronco, and then purchased a $300.00 weight-distribution kit + $50.00 2.5" ball + $35.00 to install the kit + $60.00 to mount the brackets on the trailer. at this point, it is still not exactly right so I have to return to the hitch place once more this coming weekend to get it finalized. I discovered that safe trailering is definitely a science and not a task to be taken lightly!

view the trailer photo album!

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