Trailering in the Heat

A few weeks back I wrote about my little electrical problem with my horse trailer; my lights quit working. I ended up plugging my trailer into a second receptacle that got me there and back even if it did look a bit ghetto.

Short term solution, but it worked.

Draping my trailer plug over my tailgate was not a long term solution, so I hauled my truck and trailer down to Pensingers, a local store that services RVs. Since these guys work by the hour, I decided to get my full hour(s)' worth by throwing in a second job.

From Cool Horse in Amarillo, Texas

I have to say that it never occurred to me to install fans in my trailer even though I live in one of the hottest places in the country. I actually saw fans like these on another blogger's page, but I can't remember who it was. If you recently traveled to Montana or Wyoming to visit a friend on a ranch, please speak up as this was your idea.

$34.90 a fan.

My trainer is married to an electrician, so I asked him about installing some fans in my horse trailer. He did some Google searching and landed on these fans from Coolhorse. They were only $34.90 each with $8.00 shipping.

The guys at Pensingers were more than happy to install the fans that I brought. I walked Fernando through my trailer and explained where I wanted them. Since I already have interior lights above the sliding windows, the wiring was already there which made the job pretty easy - says the person whose only job was to swipe her credit card.

New fans.

My interior lights turn on with an outside switch, so we put the fans on the same switch. The lights also have an on/off button which you can see at the top of the light box. Since I rarely need those lights, I simply turned each one off, so that when I turn on the fans using the outside switch, the lights won't come on, but the fans will. 

At least some air is moving.

Even with my drop down windows open, the roof vents open, and the tail windows open, it gets hot in my trailer, especially when we're stuck in traffic or waiting for a light. Since they're only twelve volt fans, they only create a small amount of circulation, but it's enough to be felt.

I figure any extra air I can get moving in there is better than none. Speedy alone can heat up that area pretty quickly. It's doubly sticky when both boys are in there.

The fans are fairly quiet, but you know horses. Speedy loads with no prompting from me, but he'll always notice that something is new.
I contemplated how to introduce him to the fans. I wasn't sure whether to load him with the fans running or turn the fans on after he was already in there. Surprise!

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Speedy's fan.

The day before we left for RAAC, I decided I had better do a practice run. I tied him to the trailer and then started up my truck. With the engine going, I hit the switch for the fans. It was actually hard to hear them. I walked Speedy to the door and asked him to load like always. He didn't even look at the fans until he was inside. He put his nose up to the far one and had a peek out the window. And that was it. I love it when things turn out to be non-issues.

Pensingers made quick work of my plug issue as well. As I suspected, there was simply a bad connection which the service department repaired. My final bill ended up being $142.50 for labor (plus $77.98 for the fans). It was a bit of a bill, but now I know the plug is working, and the fans were installed correctly. Had we tried to do it ourselves, we would have probably short circuited everything and then had an even larger bill.

Back in business.

Money well spent, I think.

RAAC news coming in a few days ... I go back to work today, so it's going to take me a few days to write up how the show went.