"they don't make cars that can pull a trailer" -- why would you want a car when you can have a small truck and a small trailer.
I personally don't want to drive/own a truck of any size. I want my stuff protected inside the vehicle, I want to sleep inside the vehicle, not in a truck bed, and I want comfortable seating for passengers and dogs. So I kept my small SUV and bought a Brenderup. Everyone knows the B's are light-weight, but many people do not know why these funky-looking trailers are different from American two-horse trailers. The difference is that they are specifically designed to be pulled by a car. In Europe where they originated more than 60 years ago, there aren't trucks, so they got creative with the engineering. Besides the tongue weight being 1/3 of a comparable American 2-horse, the Bs do not use electric brakes like American trailers. They use Inertia brakes, so the trailer never pushes the tow vehicle, and stopping with a full loaded trailer feels no different than without any trailer.
I have the largest model, Baron (only model with decent tack room), and it is touted to be able to tow a couple of 18-h horses with a car. I got to test their advertisement during the recent fire evacuations when I used my 6 cyl. small Jimmy SUV, to tow a load of two 18-h dressage? horses (from high-dollar Middle Ranch). Went half hour on freeway, then down some steep, winding roads to their destination ~ no problem with speed, handling or braking! You could not even fit two 18-h horses in an American slantload, let alone pulled them 35 miles with a car as a tow vehicle. Granted, the B's are expensive and funky looking, but there is a reason for it.
Terry
"May the Horse be with You"
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:32:11 -0700 Subject: Re: [RC] Equestrian culture may be fading into the sunset-California From: richardson.carla@xxxxxxxxx To: merryben@xxxxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Exactly.
And for the comment that it's too bad "they don't make cars that can pull a trailer" -- why would you want a car when you can have a small truck and a small trailer. You can still pull a 2 horse trailer with a small truck, like a F-150. You don't "have to have" a 1 ton dually diesel and a LQ trailer.
Not so long ago most people pulled light trailers with light trucks, that was the norm, not the exception, like it is now.
