Safe Travels

SpringClean Your Trailer

Use these trailercleaning tips to provide a safe, comfortable environment for your traveling horse.

Article and Photos by Rebecca Gimenez, PhD

A well-maintained trailer is a safe trailer, and trailer maintenance starts with cleanliness.

As we head into spring, it’s time to get your trailer out of storage and give it a good cleaning. A well-maintained trailer is a safe trailer, and trailer maintenance starts with cleanliness.

Your trailer’s enemies are urine, wetness, and manure. As these substances break down, they corrode your trailer with rust (steel) and pitting (aluminum). Corrosion allows oxygen to get to the bare metal. Over time, an electrochemical reaction forms oxides that eventually can destroy the integrity of metal parts. Salt speeds up this process. Wetness leads to rot in wooden floors.

In the worst case, these corrosive substances can cause the metal framing—or even the metal floor itself—to fail under your horse’s weight. In the best case, they cause your trailer to lose value. Fight corrosion with detailed cleaning, then cover your trailer to keep it clean.

Interior Cleaning

To limit corrosion, remove all urine and manure from your trailer every time you use it. Keep a broom in your trailer, and sweep it out after you unload your horse. This is especially crucial if you use bedding materials, as they hold moisture on the floor.

Deep clean your trailer several times per year. You can do this at a car wash or at home. If you opt to go to a car wash, make sure your trailer will fit in the bay before you try to pull in. Also, make sure you can turn around when you’re done. If you wash your trailer at home, park in a shady location with the rear of the trailer slightly lower than the nose to encourage drainage. Then follow these steps. 1. Prepare your trailer. Unload everything so you can clean your entire trailer. Then sweep out your trailer. 2. Loosen mud. With a screwdriver, loosen dried

mud, manure, bedding, and other gunk. Pay special attention to feeders, hay racks, and waterers. 3. Vacuum. Vacuum out all the dry material you loosened in

Step 1. Pay special attention to cracks and corners. 4. Remove the mats. Take a picture of how the mats are laid in your trailer so you can put them back the same way. Then

remove the mats with C-clamps or an E-Z Grip Mat Mover Mats are very heavy—ask for help if you need it. 5. Wash the mats. Wash the mats with soap and water, and hang them up to dry. 6. Rinse out. Use a hose or a pressure washer to remove the rest of the loose dirt and scruff from the ceiling, walls, floors, ramps, and doors. 7. Scrub. With soapy water and brushes, scrub to remove the rest of the dirt. You may with to follow with a bleach solution to kill any microorganisms that might be lurking in the trailer, where they could affect sensitive respiratory systems. Finish with a final rinse. 8. Add neutralizer. Add a pH neutralizer or baking soda where the urine usually lands, and allow it to dry. 9. Clean surfaces. Use material-specific cleansers to clean painted surfaces, diamond plate, windows, etc. As you do, watch for hazards, such as rotting wood, jutting obstacles, or sharp metal that you can fix later. 10. Allow to dry. Allow the interior to dry as long as possible. 11. Replace the mats. Using the photo you took in Step 3. 12. Lubricate. Lubricate everything made from metal that moves, or opens and closes, such as ramps, hinges, doors, and gates.

Trailer-Cleaning Kit

■ Brooms ■ Screwdriver ■ Mat Handler ■ Vacuum

Cleaner ■ Camera/

Camera

Phone ■ Mat Clamp ■ Hose/Pressure Washer ■ Bucket ■ All-Purpose Soap ■ Rags ■ Bleach ■ Surface Cleaners ■ Brushes (small hand-scrub brush; 4-foot-handled and 8-foot-handled soft brushes) ■ PH Neutralizer Solution/

Baking Soda ■ Lubricant ■ Exterior Soap ■ Tire Cleaner ■ Trailer Wax ■ Wax Applicator

Exterior Cleaning

To clean the outside of your trailer, head to a commercial truck wash. Truck washes do a nice job and will even include an acid wash for aluminum trailers that will brighten the surface. (Tip: Call first to negotiate a price.) 1. Pre-rinse. With a hose or pressure wash, rinse off your trailer. 2. Scrub. Use soap designed for trailer exteriors, such as Zymol.

Use according to manufacturer’s To clean the outside of your trailer, head to a commercial truck wash. Truck washes do a nice job and will even include an acid wash for aluminum trailers that will brighten the surface. instructions. Scrub your trailer with brushes. Start at the top, and work down. 3. Clean surfaces. Use material-specific cleansers to clean painted surfaces, diamond plate, windows, etc. 4. Rinse. Rinse off your entire trailer. 5. Clean the wheels. Rinse out wheel wells, and wash the tires and wheels. 6. Wax. If you choose to wax your trailer, first let it dry in the shade. Then apply wax to appropriate surfaces per the manufacturer’s directions. USR

Rebecca Gimenez, PhD (animal physiology), is president and a primary instructor for Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue. A Major in the United States Army Reserve, she’s a decorated Iraq War veteran and a past Logistics Officer for the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Veterinary Medical Assistance Team. She’s an invited lecturer on animal-rescue topics around the world and a noted equine journalist.