Community Forums

HappyCamper7 · 08-17-2015, 07:10 PM

My wife is itching to go camping with her horses. Do any of you have experience towing a horse trailer? I think that it should be able to handle the weight ok but I am wondering about the turning radius and the potential choppiness of the ride for the horses. Thanks.

wstrace3 · 08-17-2015, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyCamper7

My wife is itching to go camping with her horses. Do any of you have experience towing a horse trailer? I think that it should be able to handle the weight ok but I am wondering about the turning radius and the potential choppiness of the ride for the horses. Thanks.

All depends on what the loaded trailer weighs. I tow a 4900 lb jeep with no problems.

Does the trailer have brakes ??

RVRandy · 08-18-2015, 01:26 AM

I tow a 27' covered race car trailer. With the car inside, it weighs a little over 7,000 pounds. The Palazzo pulls it just fine though you are in the slow lane on any steep, long climbs. I live in Colorado so I have even towed up the passes, engine temp and tranny temp has never been an issue, always stayed cool. Since you are probably towing at lower elevations you will have a little more power to get you over the hills.

My single biggest issue with towing with the Palazzo are the brakes. They are marginal at best. I have a trailer brake controller installed and the car trailer is new with good functioning trailer brakes. I used to drive OTR tractor trailers and I can tell you that a fully load big rig will stop in a much shorter distance than the Palazzo pulling a trailer. I had car pull off the shoulder of the highway in front of me when I was doing about 65 mph. I was standing on the brakes with both feet, the trailer was fully locked up, and I just managed to miss creaming the car. The cab was immediately filled with the stink of burning brakes, so I know they are working. Freightliner has checked the adjustment and says everything is fine.

Use your engine brake, keep your speed down and learn to stab the brakes intermittently on long down grades versus riding them for extended periods. Otherwise they will heat up rapidly and start to fade. Learn to give yourself tons of stopping room and in town, watch for "stale" traffic lights that change just as you are approaching the intersection.

For the life of me, I don't know why Thor went with drum brakes instead of disc. All Freightliner chassis' have offered disc brakes as an upgrade for years. If you test drive the Jayco rig that is the same size/weight as the Palazzo (albeit front engine vs rear), it has disc brakes and there is no comparison.

The ride should be fairly smooth. The Palazzo rear air suspension is self leveling and it doesnt seem to bounce very much.

HappyCamper7 · 08-18-2015, 04:07 AM

Thanks for your comments. The trailer does have brakes. The loaded trailer will weigh around 6,000 pounds.

jondrew55 · 08-18-2015, 05:39 AM

Just out of curiosity what about the diesel exhaust getting into the trailer? How is that on the animals? Not really sure if that would be any different than for a car or truck doing the towing.

RKNOLA · 08-18-2015, 11:24 AM

We have a friend that does professional barrel racing all over the country. She won't ever pull her horses with a motorhome because the bouncy ride is rough on the horses. (Some of the longer MH's it isn't as much of a problem but the Palazzo's 35 ft makes it more bouncy). Also on the Palazzo the brakes stop a little choppy which might toss your horses around a little too much.
I would also suggest adding the air horns to your motorhome. (Various Palazzo owners have posted about adding the air horn is the "Palazzo Mods" thread). Those air horns make a world of difference in traffic when it comes to letting other drivers know you are there!

wschaub · 08-18-2015, 11:42 AM

We have a 3 horse Sundowner goose neck trailer that has a small living quarters retrofitted into the dressing room. it only cost about 12k or so used I think.

I have seen others camped out at the trail rides successfully tow a small 2 horse trailer with a giant class A though. Personally that would make me nervous and I think the LQ horse trailers are just overall more convenient if you have a nice pickup to haul them (and if you own horses you likely do)

RVRandy · 08-19-2015, 06:42 AM

I cant imagine towing with the MH being an issue for the horses. The Palazzo has a 6.7 Cummins with rear exhaust, just like several hundred thousand Dodge pickups that tow horse trailers every day. You can always buy an inexpensive C02 logging detector and put it up front where their heads would normally be. Test drive it around town and on the highway to see if there are even any detectable levels of dangerous exhaust.

My covered car trailer is a 27' double axle unit, roughly equivalent to the 3 horse trailer I had back when I owned pasture ornaments.

At the very front of the current trailer there is a work bench with drawers and cabinets below/above and toolboxes on the work surface. Our last race was in Hastings, Nebraska. When I was buttoning down the car before heading for home (Denver area) and I accidentally left my 1/3 full plastic cup of Coke sitting on the workbench. 8 1/2 hours later when we arrived in Denver, it was still sitting in the same spot with a few small splashes on the work surface. So it couldnt have bounced that much.

Lay on your master bed while someone else drives the rig to see how much it bounces. Depending on the length of the trailer tongue it will also mitigate some of the movement. It is probably impacted a lot more by the suspension of the trailer itself and how smooth it is.

My Palazzo brakes are not jerky, they're pretty smooth as long as the brake controller for the trailer is properly adjusted. They just take a looong time to stop so slow down a bit a give yourself plenty of safety margin.