Some horse owners readily decided that their pickup or SUV are good enough to use for towing a horse trailer, by banking on the tow vehicle’s rating and capability. Most horse owners who did so found out too late that it wasn’t as simple as they thought. Experts say that horse trailer towing accidents happen because it’s a specialized task that cannot be carried out by just any vehicle and any driver.

 

While dealers of SUVs or pickups would guarantee that what they are offering can haul anything, even elephants, they cannot guarantee safety. The problem is that they get to find out about this only when they are already driving the vehicle and towing the horse trailer along freeways or up and down hill roads.

What Towing Experts Say about Towing Horse Trailers

There’s a great deal of difference between hauling horses and cargo like a camper or boat, because with the former, the driver is dealing with live load. Horses tend to shift position while inside the moving trailer, which means the tow vehicle has to have the capability to manage the weight shifts while moving.

An underpowered vehicle driven by a less experienced driver can create an unsafe situation because the weight-shifts of the heavy load could interfere with the movement of the tow vehicle. The results could be disastrous if the load becomes in control of the navigation. That is why both driver and tow vehicle must be capable of stopping the horse trailer from controlling the situation in any kind of terrain.

Other Important Factors to Consider when Transporting Live Horses

Towing a horse trailer requires more than just banking on the manufacturer’s tow rating of the tow vehicle. While an SUV or pickup is rated as capable of towing the total weight of the horse trailer and everything in it, other factors must be taken into consideration.

The following key elements also determine the safety of transporting live horses by way of a horse trailer:

  • The size and style of the horse trailer.
  • The rating of the hitch to use in pulling the horse trailer
  • Number of horses to haul;
  • The distance of the travel;
  • The topography, including the altitude of the area to travel

The Type of Towing Service to Call In Case of Road Mishaps

The type of towing service to call is important, even for a simple road mishap as a flat tire or blown engine. It’s important to call a towing company that has the know-how and the right heavy duty towing towing equipment to use in providing road assistance.

Towing companies also have distinctions on what they can provide as towing services. Some take on light duty towing only, usually involving hauling of abandoned and/or illegally parked vehicles and accident recovery jobs.

Some others render to heavy duty towing services as they have different types of towing vehicles and flatbed trailers for hauling; from vans, boats, campers, box trucks, RVs or motorhomes and other heavy weight vehicles like semi-trailers, tractors, garbage trucks, and the likes. Their tow trucks usually have configurations for tackling medium to heavy towing jobs using boom lifts, gooseneck hitches and/ or low-profile utility trailers.