[gottagrey]

Title pretty much sums it up. A friend of mine has a 20-odd year old GN. The shell covering the front under the GN is rusted and now some of the wooden floor boards are exposed. I've suggested to him that it should be checked out and repaired. He's balked and thinks it's fine "just the outside) the inside is fine. I tried to explain to him that you don't want to have the floor boards go w/ a horse on it..., Granted its NOMYB, but he's got some nice horses. Any words of wisdom I can pass along thanks.

[BuddyRoo]

Well, what did it for my BO was the fact that my horse loaded in fine, rode 5 miles, got off shaking. Then refused to get back in but hopped right into another trailer moments later.

Not kidding. THat's what did it.

Can you have him pull the mats and look at the floor? Take it in for inspection?

[wendy]

don't you have to get your trailers inspected for safety there?

[gottagrey]

State doesn't require annual inspection only if you buy - same w/ cars; and my horse isn't going on this trailer - took a seminar about safety and bad flooring was brought up - needless to say that's why I'm concerned. thanks.

[ReSomething]

Tell him if he's going to haul his horses in that he'd better make sure to carry a pistol in case one falls though and needs euth'd..

I realize that's almost too harsh but in my life's experience dealing with crappy trucks and crappy cars and crappy trailers, and the people that own them including myself, they tend not to get fixed until they fail and MUST be fixed.

[gottagrey]

Tell him if he's going to haul his horses in that he'd better make sure to carry a pistol in case one falls though and needs euth'd..

I realize that's almost too harsh but in my life's experience dealing with crappy trucks and crappy cars and crappy trailers, and the people that own them including myself, they tend not to get fixed until they fail and MUST be fixed.

Actually ReSomething that's pretty much what he needs to hear/read; i'm going to print out your post for him thanks

[cowboymom]

We have a 20 year old steel trailer that doesn't look like much but it's functionally sound, very sound. We have a wood floor with our own mats on top; I'm trying to picture what you mean about the wood floor being "exposed".

I think I would just be careful that you're not confusing "ugly" with "unsafe".... Ours is safe and sturdy but it doesn't look brand new. The paint can be chipping and the rig may not be brand new but that doesn't mean it's "crap".

If someone tried to do an intervention on us about our horse trailer I'd be pissed off.

[DancingArabian]

I'm sure you could google the internet and find incidents of horse trailer accidents where the floor broke.. harsh but might give him a wakeup call.

[ReSomething]

I think OP is saying that the metal in the front of the horse enclosure is rusted away and the flooring no longer has support - ie you can see it from the outside. IMHO that's past ugly and into unsafe, especially if whatever caused the rusting is happening to the cross members under the trailer too, or if you get that one horse that manages to shove their foot forward through the rusted up area.

[Shine]

My trailer is going in to have the floor replaced and DH's DD was bound and determined to borrow it. I explained that is was not safe until it was repaired. She went behind my back to ask her father and told him she only needed to "just a short distance". I was livid. I ended up bringing it to the shop a couple months early - out of sight out of mind. And she ended up being very ugly about not being able to use it. Well, that is too dam bad. I'm not going to have a preventable accident on my conscience.