Diamond D horse Trailers

[TPCDrafting]

Anybody know anything about these? I'm looking at buying a used '93 4 horse GN. It's all steel, fully enclosed. Has dressing room with a 3ft short wall. Has fold down feed windows, padded dividers and rear tack. It has 2-6k torsion axles and good tires. Doesn't look like it was used much, in fact I haven't seen a used trailer in this good of shape before. The paint is pretty good, some of the joints in the steel where the welds are, the paint is chipping off and some rust is showing. No cancer that I could see.



What I'm wondering, are these any good? Are they the cheapo brand? The asking price is $8250, is that high/low? Is there anywhere I can go to get book values on horse trailers?? I did go to a dealer site that has new Diamond D's like this one for $12-14k

Thanks for the help!

 

[WDaniels]

Don't really know what Diamond D's are like but for the price you said that they are asking for a 10 year old trailer, I would say that is to, to much. Lift the flooring and see what kind of bracing is under there. Might have to lift the wood if there is any wood and whatever else there is. Are the metal braces just angle iron? Is the metal underbracing corroded? I'm sure you as an owner of horses know this but I've see some pretty sharp horse people do some real stupid purchases.

Seeing as how you are from Wyo and fairly close to Canada, you can get some real good trailers up there. The exchange rate is in our favor right now.

Don't know if this helps or not. ( want a couple more hay burners? One might come with a wife tho)

WD

 

[TPCDrafting]

I pulled up mats and checked the deck. It all looks really good still, no rot or checking/splitting of any kind. The cross bracing is tube steel (square) and it looked fine, some surface rust, haven't seen many new trailers that didn't have a bit of that. Now thinking, that does seem a bit high for a 10 year old trailer. Maybe I can use that to my advantage. No thanks on the hay burners, 4 is more than enough already. We have 20 acres, barn, truck, 2 horse trailer and a small house. And our bed in the master is a matress on the floor, you can see where the priorities are around here.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Check the floor boards where they meet the wall. The ends of the boards typically are encapsulated in the side channels and will dryrot even if pressure treated. This can happen even if you wash the trailer out everytime you use it.



By the way, seven mares, two stallions, two colts, one filly and I ripped up both bathroom floors in the house to redo maybe three years ago, still have plywood floors. Go figure.

 

[WDaniels]

At least you guys have an excuse for having horses. One in PA and the other in Wyo. There you can ride them on decent ground, have nice places to ride and feed is cheap. No matter where I want to ride it's soft, muddy, mucky, boggie, and just over all lousy ground. Very few nice places to ride and feed is expensive. One tone of brome hay goes for anywere from 180. 00 per ton on plentiful years and close to 300 per ton on bad years. Timithoy is better than 300 per ton delivered up here.

Guess that make me not so smart, huh? Sure you guy don't want some more?

WD

 

[Steve Campbell]

Hey, QTRHRS...

maybe there is a use for the "used" diesel from filter changes. One could squirt it around those encapsulated board ends to stop that dry rot.



Only problem... it may be hard to get the horses in next time.



tpcdrafting... I have seen a few Diamond D's around here. they look like well built trailers, but I agree the price should/could be negotiated down.

 

[wyosteve]

TPC-- That is way high for a 10 yr. old trailer. I bought a new Titan 4 horse slant load with convertible tack room divider, but no fold down windows in 96 for $6400 and sold it 2 yrs. ago for $5500 in perfect shape with mats. You might want to check out the trailer sales place on I-25 by Johnson's Corner. They are selling new EXiss aluminum trailers for under $10k. BTW I now have an aluminum 4 horse and suggest that is the way to go if finances can swing it.

 

[TPCDrafting]

I've been doing my research on the net over the weekend. I would now not pay that for that trailer. If there is one thing I've learned about buying stuff is do the homework first. I emailed the manuf. of Diamond D and he told me that trailer is worth 5-6k at most. He said that trailer is now made by Featherlite and sell for around 10,600 new. Got the wife talked out of it for now, we'll keep looking. Went down to Murddocks (i-25 and Johnson's corner) on sat. His inventory of used should be listed as used up. We are looking at new as of this point. May have to draw a few more houses first. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Shows are good for saving bucks on new trailers, especially during the winter months when no one is buying.



WD, timouthy runs me maybe $70-$150 depending on weather and time of year. There are enough horses around so many farmers raise plenty of grasses to supply the demand. When bad weather ruins the local crop, a few of us bring in a truckload from where it is plentiful. I have more trouble running out of sawdust for the stalls.



What kind of trailer features does everyone like? I get by with a two horse BP, step up, slant load. When the money is there, I want to go with a 3-4 horse, GN of course. If I go 4 horse, I am thinking about head to head rather than slant. Side door with with ramp but I am still undecided about rear step or ramp.

 

[TPCDrafting]

We pay around 110-120 per ton for grass or alphalpha. We get both and mixe'm.



I've got a 2 horse straight load now. It's the warm blood size (7'-2" inside). I have a Percheron and he likes the extra room. Friends have a 5 horse gooseneck that's old and rusty. They've made many mods to it and I'd buy it except I think it only has a few years left on it. Besides that, it eats tires.



I'm looking for a GN, 4 horse slant, with a dressing room with 2'-3' short wall. Rear-tack or mid-tack, wife has allergies and doesn't want to sleep with the tack. Would like 7k axles, cuz with 3 regular horses (around 1k a piece) and the percheron who's around 1600 to 1700 alone, it makes for a pretty good load.

 

[Steve Campbell]

Stupid question...

What is a 2-3' short wall?

 

[TPCDrafting]

shortwall

Sorry, I've been learning all the trailer 'jargin' after a few days of research.

In a slant load horse trailer the dressing room in the front is somewhat trapazoidal in shape. The wall between where the horses are and the dressing room is diagonal to the side walls of the trailer. So the dressing room sides have a long wall (on the passenger side) and a short wall (on the drivers side). Many trailer manuf's use the length of the shortwall to depict the size of the dressing room.

 

[Steve Campbell]

Gotcha...

Thank you.