Cob Jockey

I have a reminder on my calendar to wash and wax my trailer once a year in September. September is always a beautiful month here, very little rain and decent temps (though this year - ugh - we haven't had a good rain since June and my pastures are literally dying, so I would take some less beautiful weather, please and thank you).

Hank showing off my hay field, which is naturally in better shape than the pastures since it's not fenced and doesn't get grazed.

Buuuuut in 2022 and 2023 I just...didn't. Depression, not showing much, blah blah blah. So anyway, there was 3 years' worth of...stuff...to chisel off this trailer.

I'm happy to report that Wash Wax All still did the trick even with it being extra dirty. I washed and waxed the whole thing with 2 gallons of water and six towels. I do also have wash mitts on extension poles, but I mostly only used those on the roof. I didn't find that it saved me much time, and I do like getting up close and personal with the trailer skin once a year, so that I can closely inspect any new rock chips, etc.

 

In some places, I started with the slightly stronger Wash All from the same company, which contains stronger degreasers and doesn't contain wax. Mostly, this was just because I was lazy and didn't want to have to scrub that hard. Then I followed it with Wash Wax All to give it that protective wax coating.

A fairly obvious before/after of the skin on the nose

 

Really, it felt good to take care of it. I still adore this trailer. I've had it 7 years next month, and it's been nothing but good to me. I also took the opportunity to spray UV protectant on the rubber seals, and silicone lube on the window tracks.

Before

 

After

 

It's also just one of those chores that makes my brain itch, seeing that dirty trailer sitting there every time I walk to the manure pile, feeling that little twinge "You should be doing this and you're not." A lot of things around the farm are like that for me, which is why I'm grateful that my boarders have agreed to a fall clean-up day later this month, when we're going to knock out the "need to get to that" chores all at once.

7 years old and you can still see your reflection in the paint. My work here is done.

Two weekends ago, barnmate Leah and I took Connor and her baby Pyro out to Brown County for a quick trail ride with friends and fellow Castleberry Cob owners Nic and Haley. It was the last cool day before the weather was to turn sharply warmer and more humid.

Half Castleberry Cob half WB Castleberrys Rockette pictured on the left

Under threat of storms, we had to be quick. It ended up being a muddy one, about an hour long, which was more than enough for how hard the horses had to work in some spots.

As with a lot of things in life, Connor has earned the right to do whatever he wants in certain situations, such as out on the trail. I let him pick his own way down the trail, which typically meant the driest route he could find, which made everyone laugh.

Connor was making everyone laugh with his usual impatience on the trail. Once you get this pony going, he does not want to stop. Period. And if you stop, he will let you know he's unhappy. It's one of those weird personality quirks that I absolutely would have dealt with ten years ago if he was for sale, but he's not, so I didn't.

Related: even after nearly an hour on sloppy, tricky trails, he would still try to trot to go faster every so often and I'd have to growl at him. Dude is just cocky enough on trails now to be bolder than he needs to be, lol.

Once again, we were left wondering why we don't do this more often when it's just an easy half hour haul from the farm! We'll see how long before we go back out there. Hopefully not long!

 

Confession time: I may take excellent care of the outside of my horse trailer, but I don't always do the inside.

Six months worth of bug splatters, blegh

But I took the week off work last week, and the weather was gorgeous, and for the first time in months I have at least a 3 week break before I'm hauling anywhere again, and I just said you know what, it's time for a deep clean.

I firmly believe that if I take care of it, it'll take care of me and Connor.

Step 1 was pulling my mats. Another confession: I don't pull my mats that often. It's a pain in the butt, this trailer is only four years old, and I do visual inspections from below. The floors are still in good condition:

There's just some discoloration under his pee spot:

And at the combination poop spot/place where the design of my trailer allows water inside. I've talked to my trailer wizard and there's nothing I can do about it, so I just keep an eye on the floor underneath, which is pretty easy since it's at the end.

Step 2 was carefully pressure washing the inside and outside. I don't really like to pressure wash my trailer because of the risk of damaging the gel coat on the fiberglass roof especially, or ripping caulk away, but it definitely was necessary this time.

That's all I had time for on Day 1, and it took me maybe an hour and a half. The next day, I came back out and did Wash Wax All on the entire interior, or Wash All followed by Wash Wax All where the stains were really bad.

After on the left, before (well, after pressure washing) on the right

And I followed that up with Meguiar's Natural Shine Protectant on all of the non-floor black parts. Not only does it make them shiny and protect against UV damage, but it also contains Scotchgard and SHOULD make it easier to clean poop off in the future. We'll see, I haven't used it in the trailer before.

No filter, all shine.

Once the inside was done, I started the outside. Just the standard Wash Wax All on the sides and roof, which weren't too bad. Then I also did a different kind of UV rubber protectant on the rubber gaskets around the windows and doors, and the tires.

I can hardly believe it, but these tires are due for replacement before next year's show season. Trailer tires must be replaced every 5 years on the dot, even if the tread depth is fine, because rubber gets stiffer and starts to crack over time, which increases your risk of a blowout significantly at 5+ years.

The nose, though, will have to wait on my next AeroCosmetics order. I'm fresh out of Scrubbers, and I didn't realize how much easier they make getting bugs off the nose! 

I've actually started keeping track of the miles I've put on this trailer since my last service in April, because I know I'm going to creep up on my service intervals faster than usual with all the towing I've done this year. Believe it or not, since April 1 of this year I've put over 4,500 miles on it! We're already halfway to my next bearing repack in five months, lol. Not that I'm going to continue this torrid pace of towing since show season is over, but it goes to show you the miles creep up quickly. All the more reason to take good care of it!

Since I was not getting a new truck, since I paid my old one off, and since I was getting my deposit back from the dealer, the only logical thing to do with that money was go on a shopping spree for some stuff I've wanted for a very long time but couldn't pull the trigger on.

Up first, the Shocker Hitch. Oh man, I have wanted this for years.

There are two ways force is transmitted to the trailer and the horse while towing: from the ground and from the truck. The trailer's suspension dampens the ground transfer, but there's nothing to dampen the force transmitted from the truck via the relatively fixed all-metal hitch, so all that force gets sent straight back to the trailer and to your horse. And we haven't even discussed the effect that force has going the opposite direction, with the trailer creating forces that are sent back to your truck's frame and to the driver.

Note that the right arrow is bi-directional - I mostly talk about the effect the truck has on the trailer in this post because I'm mostly doing this for Connor's comfort, but in reality both vehicles are transmitting force between each other. The Shocker Hitch neutralizes most of the bi-directional arrow forces.

The Shocker Hitch has an airbag in it to dampen the force coming from the truck to the trailer and vice versa. It's been out for a long time, and RV'ers report being able to leave things out on their counters while towing after getting a Shocker Hitch and finding that it hasn't moved at all when they get to their destination, it smooths out the ride that much.

First, I had to get my current hitch cut off of my truck, because the dealer sold it to me a year ago with a locking hitch pin on it and didn't have the key. Sigh.

Barn husbands with complete metalworking shops in their garage are the best

Initial thoughts? This thing is HEAVY. And big. I'm one of those that leaves my hitch on all the time, but that won't be possible with this. It weighs over 40lbs!

I took the ball and its platform off to put it on the truck to save some weight, and that made it manageable.

My next thoughts were OMG this doesn't work with my truck, because the metal platform above the air bag was touching my safety chain attachment area. So I emailed pictures to Shockerhitch, and THREE MINUTES LATER a nice North Dakot'n gentleman called me and told me it looked just fine, and also answered my other questions. Great customer service!

This is not in the instructions, but even after deflating the airbag, I had to clamp the airbag down to get it all the way in.

You put it on with the airbag completely deflated, and then you hitch up (ideally loaded, although I did not make Connor stand on the trailer while I aired it up) and inflate it until this green thing is just baaaaaaaaaarely smushed. Like 1/8".

 

You have to adjust the airbag for each trailer/load weight that you carry. Since this process is kind of a pain in the ass, I asked the nice North Dakot'n (hopefully you're reading that in a ND accent) gentleman if I could just leave the red thing on my truck the whole show season, and he said yes, but I need to buy a grease gun (that's an actual thing, TIL) and keep it lubricated and ideally dry. But I got the impression he'd rather I take it off the truck between uses.

I chose a drop hitch because I have a pretty tall truck, but they have a lot of different styles of couplers

But onto the fun stuff: how was it to haul with? In a word, absolutely freaking amazing. I have a newer half ton and the World's Tiniest Horse Trailer. I am not even close to undertrucked, and the fact that the trailer has a shorter wheelbase than the truck means it's stable as can be and tows like a dream. But there are always shakes and shimmies from the trailer, and all of that was neutralized with this hitch.

Picture going over a short bridge on a country road, where the truck first goes over one joint, then the trailer, then they immediately go over the second joint which causes like a whip crack effect on the driver (and the horse, I would assume). All of that was smoothed out. Wavy country roads: smooth. Concrete roads with expansion joint cracks: smooth. 

 

The truck rode better with the trailer and the airbag than it does without the trailer, and I have a top trim truck with a magnetic suspension, so it's no slouch when it comes to ride quality! The trailer weighted down my back end just enough to take the stiffness out of the truck suspension without any of the jerking, which made the ride quality fantastic for the driver. And presumably better for the horse as well.

While I'm bummed I'm not getting a bigger truck, I do have to admit I love this rig

And the most unexpected thing? Not only did it neutralize forces from the truck to the trailer, it also neutralized forces the opposite direction, like Connor spinning around in the trailer and pawing at stop signs. I felt absolutely nothing. Which was a bit unnerving and will make me feel better about having a trailer camera, but it also has to mean the ride is SO much smoother for the horse, so I'll take it.

Oh, since I now actually care if this hitch gets stolen, I replaced the locking hitch pin with a locking hitch pin that also has a backup cotter pin, so if one or the other fails, the hitch pin has backup. Two thumbs up!

Since Connor will be spending more hours on the trailer this summer than ever before, I hope he appreciates this ride upgrade! If it made his ride even half as nice as it made mine, he sure will.

Bottom line: It's expensive, but reduces wear on your tow vehicle and gives your horse a smoother ride, so what's not to love?

What: Shocker Air Receiver Hitch

Sizes: 12k capacity or 16k capacity. Also available for gooseneck and in a WD hitch configuration

Price: I paid $459.99 for my configuration

Where: shockerhitch.com

My next truck (same truck I have now, just 15 years newer) is going to come with a factory-installed trailer tire pressure monitoring system, which I'm going to refer to as T-TPMS. 

Someday, someday.

But I'm still 2-4 years away from that truck being in my price range used, so I started looking into aftermarket T-TPMS systems.  Why would you want a T-TPMS system? 

1. It does real-time tire pressure alerting, so no more walking around the trailer with a tire gauge checking them all before you leave (although you should still double-check the accuracy of the T-TPMS every once in a while)
2. It does real-time temperature alerting.  Because tires tend to heat up before they blow, in theory you should be able to pull over before it blows your fender off (not that I have any experience with that...)
3. You can catch a slow leak early by watching it as you drive down the road.

I ended up buying this from Amazon, which comes with the main unit, four valve stem sensors, and two extra button batteries for those sensors, for $40. 


Installation was stupid easy.  Turn off the main unit.  Unscrew and remove your valve stem caps, screw the sensor caps on (paying attention to the front/rear left/right markings on them).  Turn on main unit.  Done.


If you're worried about theft they include four locking rings, but if you use those you have to have a specialized wrench with you at all times (to get the sensors off to air up your tires), and that seemed more risky than someone stealing sensors that are useless without the main unit so...I didn't.

It also says to check for leaks by spraying soapy water over the valve stems after installation.  I didn't.  Living on the edge.  No leaks so far.

The main unit is both solar powered and also charges via micro USB.  They include adhesive because it's designed to be mounted to your dashboard where the sun can charge it.  Because my truck already has a TPMS and I'm only going to use this when the trailer is hooked up, I chose to stash it in a storage compartment and not mount it.


The screen is customizable, and when I said this thing alerts you to low temp/high pressure, it ALERTS you.  It is LOUD.  Even if you're jamming out in the truck cab, you won't miss it if there's a problem with the trailer's tires.

Blue is PSI, green is temperature.  For those of you in metric countries, both are customizable.

Bottom line: $40 for mitigating tire problems while hauling?  Everyone should have one of these things!  There's no excuse not to.

Next up on my spring trailer maintenance list was to polish the fenders and install the fender trim.  I don't think it mattered, but I wanted to install the fender trim over clean and polished fenders rather than dirty fenders.

Spoiler alert: turned out awesome

My weapon of choice:

If you have a scratched stainless steel sink, you can use this there too.

I also used a giant foam ball on a drill bit for the polishing:






I applied the mag polish using a microfiber cloth, and then depending on how close I was to the trailer wall, I either continued to polish using the cloth (turning it to new sections as the section I was using got black) or used the PowerBall to buff it.  I was honestly happier with the cloth results than the PowerBall personally.

Some recommendations if you do this:

- Have a HUGE stack of microfiber towels with you.  You'll thank me.
- If you use the PowerBall, turn the speed on the drill way up. 
- Wear old clothes.  It did come out of my nice winter coat but I was sweating bullets, this stuff gets everywhere and turns everything it touches a nice silver or black.

 After it was good and shiny, I installed the new rubber fender trim:

Basically a mirror!

I measured my fenders and ordered this rubber trim from the Horse Trailer Accessory Store (non-affiliate link).  It's sold in quantities of one foot and it took 20 feet to do my two fenders.

(Side note: This is the second time I've ordered from the Horse Trailer Accessory Store, and they've been amazing both times.  Fast shipping, and they've take a lot of time to answer questions for me both over the phone and email.)

Installation was easy: line up the trim with the edge of the fender, push/pull up until you hear a click, then give it a few whacks with a rubber mallet to really set it.  

Did I need to do this?  No.  Is it a good idea?  Yes.  Stuff happens with horses, and $35 for fender trim is cheaper than a vet bill for a sliced leg.

And now the fenders are done!  Still to come on the trailer maintenance list: cleaning the inside walls, cleaning the non-floor rubber surfaces,  UV protectants and waxing the exterior.

You may remember that my trailer began life as The Raffle Trailer:


I can't fault them for trying to get free advertising, but I would have taken those red letters off myself if the raffle winner hadn't done it before she even listed the trailer.






But when you remove vinyl decals like that, you're often left with "ghost letters":




If you google "How to remove ghost letters from trailer" you'll get a lot of responses, from using a heat gun (risky) to a razor blade (also risky) to Goo Gone (will take your paint off), to using a rubber wheel attachment on a drill (works but takes finesse).

When I stumbled upon Aero Cosmetics Wash Wax All, I noticed they had a product called "SafeSolv" which was listed as an "All Purpose Citrus Solvent.  Removes tar, oil, hydraulic fluid, adhesives and gum"


At $11.95, I figured it was worth a shot.  I threw one in my cart along with the recommended-but-not-necessary Aero Cosmetics bug scrubber, a paint-safe non-abrasive reusable scrubber designed to remove bug guts from the front end of an airplane.


I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but with almost no effort whatsoever, the SafeSolv just melted off the ghost letters:

I'M MELLLLTINGGG! - the ghost letters, probably

I sprayed it on and impatiently started scrubbing immediately, and the letters just melted off effortlessly.  If it felt like the scrubbing required elbow grease to remove the letters, I hadn't used enough SpraySolv.  Another spritz took them right off.  Like Wash Wax All, you then take a dry rag and wipe the surface down until it's dry to finish.

The ghost letters are gone!

It didn't say I had to do this, but I followed it up with Wash Wax All, just to get all the acidic citrus compounds off my paint.

The big gotcha with this stuff is that it WILL take your standard vinyl decals off too, because it's designed to dissolve adhesives on contact.  If you want to keep your vinyl decals, don't get SafeSolv on them.  I got a tiny bit on the tail end of the wispy decals in the photo above and it immediately started peeling back.  Good to know for when these poorly applied decals eventually fail and I have to remove them all (thanks, Shadow)


I'm keeping it in the house because it's also supposed to remove: "Chewing Gum, Grease, Stickers, Labels, Tape Residue, Oil, Blood, Lipstick, Mascara, Shoe polish, Crayon" so yeah, I think I'll put the rest of the bottle to good use!



What: Aero Cosmetics SafeSolv and Scrubber Pad
Quantity/Price: Various quantities available for both.  I paid $11.95 for 8oz of SafeSolv and $9.95 for one Scrubber and handle
Where to buy: Amazon or the Aero Cosmetics website