People are asking me " Why do you want such a big trailer" and " I wouldn't want to pull that thing" and this and that… So, I thought that I'd take this post to explain a little bit for those that haven't been following along or for those that don't really know us.
Peg and I have had a "dream" to ride our horses in so many of the beautiful spots that this great Country and Canada has to offer for many years. Because of Work restraints of my previous job and the fact that we take care of 14 horses on our place made it hard for us to get away for any length of time.
Last year, We were able to get away from the farm and our jobs for 21 days to test the waters and see if the "dream" was truly doable. We planned and prepared for many months prior to our departure to Arizona in March. We met up with fellow Back Country Horsemen members Kelly Brooke Allen and Ron Stolp of BC and their friend Darrell Brown in Wickenburg out on BLM land where we camped and rode with our horses. We had the time of our lives.
So, Back to the original question, Why such a big trailer. As you can see from the photo above, an 8 foot camper would become a bit cramped living in it for 5-6 months a year with another person. The 4 horse trailer however was perfect for 2 horses to an extended trip. We used 2 stalls for storage in the horse trailer. That is the reason why we decided to go ahead with the 4 horse trailer. In the coming months you'll see how we transform this trailer into a home capable of living off of the grid and free of things that we've all become so dependent on in our lives.
This isn't for everyone we know. We've been researching Full time Rv living for a few years now and although we don't pretend to have all of the answers, We are confident that this is something that we both want to do. We did alot of shopping around for a Living Quarters (LQ) horse trailer that would be comfortable and within our budget and looked at many different models and manufacturers. We chose a Lakota Charger edition. Storage in the LQ was a paramount concern for both of us. The Lakota has lots of cabinets and it's light compared to other manufacturers.
Our model is a 15'6" Short wall model with a 6' slide out. The slide makes all of the difference in the world as far as room inside. Another feature that we really liked about this model is that it has a rear kitchen in it. The kitchen is equipped with a 3 burner stove with an oven, a micro wave oven and a large RV refrigerator.
We had the Air Conditioner removed when we ordered this form the factory and had 3 Fantastic fans installed instead. We plan to install 750 watts of Solar panels on the roof so we needed to have as much space available as we could. The panels when coupled with the upgraded battery bank, will produce enough energy to run anything that we plan on running. We will be able to live off of the grid with this trailer and not be dependant on electricity.
We understand that this trailer may not be able to go everywhere that We would like to travel with the horses but, It will be able to go to a lot of them. The thing that we had to stay focussed on was the fact that we would be in this trailer traveling for a minimum of 5-6 months yearly.
I hope you'll find this blog entertaining and educational and follow us as we live this dream...
A lot of your reasoning just puts into words the justification we used to go with the big trailer. Brenda and I full timed in our RV for a couple of years and did the snow bird thing for 6-7 months a year for a few more before we found Dogpound South. We like having the room and everywhere we go with our horses is not all sunshine and warm temps like here in Arizona so the extra room is great when the weather is a little inclement or after the sun and the thermometer head for the bottom.
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