The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: janeh on September 21, 2017, 01:39:55 pm
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Hello,
I was wondering what size and make of livestock trailer people have. We are thinking of getting a sheep sized one as we only have a normal car to tow with (max 1 100kg).
We will get sheep first anyway. We wouldn't then be able to transport cattle if we decided on getting cattle later...but maybe that's a bridge to cross later as we would need a new car to get a bigger trailer.
Ifor Williams p6e/p7e are an option, also AD Morton trailers look ok too.
Best wishes,
Jane
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Ifor Williams P6 is a great starter trailer as long as you don't have huge numbers of sheep to carry. Also takes a couple of pigs to the abattoir and one large round bale of hay/straw. It is great that you can take the livestock roof off and use with high mesh sides to carry other stuff... so I would recommend that. If you are going for cattle at some point, you will need a 4x4 car to tow a cattle trailer anyway, as well as a taller trailer. I would have thought a well-looked after P6 will keep his value.
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Graham Edwards trailers are great. https://edwards-trailers.co.uk/
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Graham Edwards trailers are great. https://edwards-trailers.co.uk/ (https://edwards-trailers.co.uk/)
But expensive... compared to IWT's....
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Graham Edwards trailers are great. https://edwards-trailers.co.uk/ (https://edwards-trailers.co.uk/)
But expensive... compared to IWT's....
Better quality I have found.
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A lot of folk where you are now will use this (https://www.clhtrailers.com/catalogue/online/livestock-trailers/livestock-canopy-trailers-unbraked/) type. Takes 5 or 6 sheep very comfortably (more if they're wee primitive types), unbraked 750kgs so can be towed by younger folks. (Not sure of the exact rules, being in the older category myself ;)).
We had one ourselves when I was up in Cumbria, except as we didn't have the age issue we had the braked one, and a jockey wheel, and could use it to fetch a tonne of feed, too. I liked it much better than the Ifor Williams one, it's a very versatile design and very easy to use. (Though I wouldn't diss Ifor Williams at all, they're good trailers and have a good resale value.)
I can't recall whether ours was the exact make I've linked, but it looks identical. I can probably dig out an old email from when we bought ours if you want me to check. I'll need to wind up the old and now rather creaky laptop to do that,
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The IWT P6 is not just a livestock trailer, which is why we really liked it (and still use it round the holding to transport anything from chopped wood to muck, plus occasionally sheep (we now have a bigger IWT towed by the van).
It's the versatility that IMO really puts it ahead...
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The IWT P6 is not just a livestock trailer, which is why we really liked it (and still use it round the holding to transport anything from chopped wood to muck, plus occasionally sheep (we now have a bigger IWT towed by the van).
It's the versatility that IMO really puts it ahead...
I have carried a 4 wheeled horse carriage on my Graham Edwards, we have fitted a demountable winch to make loading it easier. Like the ifor the lid comes off which makes it a lot easier to power wash between jobs. Anyone tried powerwashing a small trailer with the lid on?
I started with an unbraked rice pig/sheep jobbie and decided to go large when trying to clean it out to ministry standards.
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Your vehicle is going to dictate the maximum you can tow at this stage. Do you need a trailer? For years we lent our small sheep trailer to a neighbour on the rare occasion he needed one. You can sometimes find a bargain on ebay or local seek and sell groups.
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Ifor Williams P6 is a great starter trailer as long as you don't have huge numbers of sheep to carry. Also takes a couple of pigs to the abattoir and one large round bale of hay/straw. It is great that you can take the livestock roof off and use with high mesh sides to carry other stuff.
^ What she said! :)
What I would add, especially if you don't have a 4x4, is get the wider 'floatation' tyres, plus the widest jockey wheel you can find. This will make it much easier to push around by hand in the field, without it getting stuck in the mud.
We've used ours to fetch some really heavy loads of wood from neighbouring fields, and it didn't sink at all, even when the landy well and truly did :innocent: .
For general use, I'd say the P7e is significantly more useful than the P6e. It's a little bit heavier, so can't take as much payload. However, you can get a sheet of ply in it at an angle, not to mention easier transport of hurdles, or an extra sheep or two :thumbsup: .
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The IWT P6 is not just a livestock trailer, which is why we really liked it (and still use it round the holding to transport anything from chopped wood to muck, plus occasionally sheep (we now have a bigger IWT towed by the van).
It's the versatility that IMO really puts it ahead...
Ditto the one I linked. It's a very versatile design, you can configure it in many ways. The inner door moves position or comes out, the lid comes off, the rear door is a ramp or door, the side panels drop and remove. That last meant we could take the lid off, have a tonne of feed dropped in, then put the lid back on and access the feed through the drop flaps at the side. Kept it dry and the rats didn't find it :). And saved enough money over a couple of winters to pay for the trailer :)
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How did the lid attach / detach on yours, Sally?
That's the one thing I don't like about the Ifor; the canopy attached with four bolts (one at each corner, funnily enough), and I find these really fiddly to align. It's not a problem if you only convert it to/from livestock mode once or twice a year, but for anything more frequent, it can be a right pain.
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I've got an Ifer Williams Pe7 which I am very happy with. Do remember to retract the prop stand though. Two or three times now I've inadvertently mole ploughed the field wh n I've driven off.
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How did the lid attach / detach on yours, Sally?
That's the one thing I don't like about the Ifor; the canopy attached with four bolts (one at each corner, funnily enough), and I find these really fiddly to align. It's not a problem if you only convert it to/from livestock mode once or twice a year, but for anything more frequent, it can be a right pain.
The canopy is on four legs, which slither into the corner posts and are bolted into place with captive bolts. It'd be a bit of a pain to do on your own, but is a breeze for two.
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Just to say that we have the CLH one that Sally has been describing. It is the only trailer we have had and I am sure the Ifor ones are great but we find it brilliant. We use it for pigs - the internal divider that has two positions is really useful if transporting to two locations or for making a smaller compartment. The top comes on and off really easily (with two people) and we use the trailer all the time for transporting straw, wood and getting general stuff. The only issue we had was that originally the two gates inside the back door/ramp could rattle off and fall inside the trailer during transit. When we contacted CLH they said there should have been pins to prevent this and offered to put them in but since we are long way from them we just drilled them ourselves. (They also provide replacement rear light parts quickly and cheaply ;))
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We had the same thing with the ramp side rails, could have drilled a hole and used K clips but we just used to take those with us in the boot of the pickup! :D
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Thanks a lot folks! Interesting to hear what others have. There are no bargains on e bay but good that the trailers keep their value well. What happened was..I went to Carrs Billington for some new willies and ended up ordering a Swaledale sheep trailer, which we now have. It's similar to a CLH trailer.
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Was watching with interest as we are looking at trailers. Better not take my wife to Carrs though, she may get the wrong idea. :roflanim: "I went to Carrs Billington for some new willies......"
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Eek!. I also get some wellys. It's autocorrect as I just typed the other spelling and it changed it again!
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Jane, we believe you :roflanim: :roflanim: All sorts of questions spring to mind but perhaps we wont go there :roflanim: :roflanim:
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Was watching with interest as we are looking at trailers. Better not take my wife to Carrs though, she may get the wrong idea. :roflanim: "I went to Carrs Billington for some new willies......"
Errm , while you're there...... :coat:
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I just thought it was intentional. The last two willies I've bought ended up coming home in the livestock trailer :innocent: .