Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
|
I hear ya about stressing livestock. Pretty common for them to lose weight the first week or so once they have been on a long (over 2 hour) trip in the heat. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you figure most of these breeds should be putting on 1.5-2 lbs/day. Yeah, we own or have access to a multitude of trailers.
Livestock trailers are aerodynamic nightmares. There is a lot that can be gained here. HOWEVER, they are assets that get the heck beat out of them, depreciate for a fixed number of years (usually 5), then get sold off. Nobody wants a trailer that somebody has done a bunch of aerodynamic "improvement" to. Sad, but true. I usually buy 2 to 3 year old trailers that have seen very little mileage, depreciate them, and sell them off.
If I were only hauling a small number of cattle a few times a year, I would go to town on setting up a trailer for fuel economy/livestock comfort. Unfortunately, that's not realistic to us with the way the IRS works, trailers wear, etc, etc. I frequently use other peoples trailers to haul as well, so not much I can do there.
I did find another gear vendor set for my vehicle that somebody bought and never installed (all the electronics and such as well) for $1500. Heading to Dallas tomorrow to take a look at it, but I expect I will buy it.