Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I also have a SilverLite and have yet to find anyone besides myself, who has had any problems with theirs. Everyone seems to be happy.

 

I purchased mine at the advice of a friend who was very happy with hers. I have a 2004 Roper IV 3-horse LQ. Sturdily built and the welding is superb. I love the trailer and I love the accomodations.

 

However, I've had problems since the very first trip with "accessories." On the first trip a horse window shattered and the first pull to open a vent resulted in a broken handle. Silverlite immediately sent me three new windows and three new vents stating they'd had trouble with the vendors. They also sent me several reflector covers and a hubcap because one of my horses destroyed the reflector and I destroyed the hubcap. All free.

 

I went pretty much the first entire year without a working heater. It worked fine at home but when I got somewhere I actually needed it, it wouldn't light. Cold and elevation seemed to have an affect on it. But I could never proove that it didn't work. After taking it to a local RV repair place (Silverlite doesn't have their own) and paying for several hours at $100/hr for diagnostics (twice), I then made a phone call to a PG&E rep after the RV place said they'd "learned in school that LP gas is mixed differently for different elevations." The PG&E guy said "yeah, right ... all the same everywhere." The particular model in this trailer did not have an adjustment to regular the gas/oxygen intake. I spent most of 2004 with a Coleman tent heater and open windows until I finally convinced Silverlite they needed to send me a new heater before the warranty was out. This time they paid the RV place to install it. Or rather I paid, they reimbursed me. The "exploratory" stuff I had to pay for.

 

Next problem occurred immediately after the new heater was installed. Fuses kept blowing. So they sent me a new converter. Didn't fix the problem. Turned out that the wiring they used on the batteries just wasn't heavy enough and couldn't take it. So my husband replaced it all with heavy-duty stuff and put in a separate resettable fuse switch for the batteries. SilverLite has since fixed that problem on newer trailers.

 

The new heater works fine most of the time, but now when it has trouble lighting, the safety feature that allows it to only try four times to light doesn't work. I've woken up twice in the middle of the night to smell of gas and turned it off and opened the windows. Oh, which reminds me, the LP monitor used to go off constantly, even though we could find no reason so I'd removed the fuse in one of my nightly fits of no sleep. So that is now back in and working, obviously!

 

The latest thing to happen is the glass in the LQ door keeps slipping down out of the seal. One more thing for Jim to fix when he has time. That outta be by maybe, lessee, next year!

 

While I love my SilverLite, it was a lot of money to spend for something that I've had so many problems with. Ironically, with all the talk of refrigerator problems, I thought that would be the first to go. Knock on wood ... it hasn't given me any fits at all!

 

:) Jackie

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Susan Favro

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 9:05 PM

Subject: Re: [RC] [RC] Is there a "Consumer Reports" for horse trailers?

As a consumer I?d like to report in that I think SilverLite (out of Oregon) makes an incredible trailer. (www.silverlite.com) I?ve had a Silverlite 4-horse LQ since 2000 and have put 125,000+ miles on it (including a couple of hauls to Alaska). The trailer is rugged, durable, nicely appointed and oh so comfortable. The best part is the dealing with the Silverlite company. They have been super, responsive to questions, warranty issues, etc. I think that aspect has been the best part of ownership. It was great that after spending all that money, the company was still there saying, ?How can I help? What else can we do for you.?

 

?S
Susan Favro
Healthy As A Horse Network
?Innovative effective products for the conscientious horse owner?
Voice ? 406.864.8000
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