Gooseneck Trailer: Hauling Cattle and Show Equipment

[jspring]

Could be a dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway.  When hauling cattle and show equipment (chute, blowers, show box, stall sides, etc...) to shows do you prefer to put the cattle up front and equipment on the back over the axels or vice versa?  We have a (new to us) Eby 24" trailer with 2 interior sliders and 1 standard escape door on side (not the nice fold down side door with ramp.)

Thanks and please be kind to my dumb question.   

 

 

[GoWyo]

Have a 24' with 4' tack room in the front.  Some equipment goes in the tack room, but grooming chute, show box, generator, flatbed garden wagon and fan cage go in the rear.  We put cattle in the front compartment.  In an emergency, I could get jump cattle out the side door, but we do not have the ramp set up.  If budget was not a concern, I would custom order with a side door with ramp. 

Main reason to put equipment in the back is because it is easier to keep the front bedded deep with shavings and cedar and it is difficult to run equipment all the way to the front with 6" of bedding in the trailer.  Therefore, cattle go up front where the better bedding is and then close the center gate and load equipment.  When we get to the show, it only takes a couple of minutes to unload the rear compartment and get the cattle out.

 

[dimebag]

I put the show equipment up front for two reasons , in case of an emergency we can get the cattle out quickly and so the cattle don't have to stand in the trailer once we get to the show while we unload the equipment .

 

[chambero]

Tack up front, cattle on back for us.  We get all tack in 8' compartment up front.  We usually haul 4-5 hd to prospect shows

 

[ferkj]

Tack up front for us also.  The chute and panels go outside on hangers we had custom made so only thing big to load is show box and generator. The trailer we have now has a side ramp but the old one didn't so had a local fab shop make one that we could hook on a bracket under side door to make loading much easier.  If you go that route be sure its long enough so it's not too steep when hooked up and also some kind of traction on it. Diamond plate gets very slippery when wet. We used a piece of rubber conveyor belt fastened to it.

 

[Cyfarmer]

We typically put the cattle in the front, equipment in the rear.  Multiple reasons 1)Ride is smoother on the cattle if they are in the front compartment - if they are in the back they are directly over the axels, and have the potential to take more 'jarring' and bouncing - keep a teeter totter in mind - the center doesn't move much does it?  2) bedding easier to keep up front, and not drag out 3) we also have an EBY 24' with an adjustable sliding roll gate in the front and I typically like to keep them in closer and will adjust the gate to minimize space for the calves - my theory is on corners, and turns they don't have seatbelts and the less space they have, the less moving they will do and get beat up less.
That's my theory anyway.
CyFarmer

 

[cowboylaw]

We have 30' Eby.  If it's a long haul we put take up front and roll gate up to tack.  Cattle on back.  Trailer has triples so it doesn't bounce like double axles.  After a long haul we like to get the cattle off, usually plenty of time to unload tack.  However if we're only going an hour or two, we load take in back and calves up front to get tack off quick to set up.