BigGameHoundsmen.com

Conejos wrote:This is a very interesting topic. I always have wondered why I have never met a wealthy houndsmen. I think the only answer to this is that if a guy is wealthy he either worked hard for his money which means he don't have time for hounds or it was given to him which means messing around with hounds is way to much work! I also think you don't see alot of guys making a business out of training hounds or selling hounds because they all know we are poor and tight with our money. Great topic though! Its nice to have something to read on this site. Its been pretty slim pickens lately.

Not true a houndsmen I met years ago was in fact quit wealthy and self made. He owned a company building power lines. Remember one day him telling me how he bought 7,000 acres in NM completly fenced in and paid 2 million for it. Now it isn't the fact he paid that much it was the matter of fact way he said it, it was like he was talking about buying a cup of coffee. He had good hounds but his setup wasn't anything special.

July_hound- Broad sweeping statement there. I would disagree. But, thankfully we can all have an opinion!

Benny G- Man I'd love to see a picture of the setup. When I was refering to aluminum lasting, I was talking about the dog boxes; not so much horse trailers. You know, I used to run a ranch here where we were importing horses from the UK to America and then selling them. We had a handful of Aluminum trailers, some junk, in fact I'd say most were junk. Ya know, one brand that I fell in love with was Wilson Trailers. I don't own one now but when I feel like I can afford one, I'm gonna buy one. I used to drive to New York to the USDA quarantine to get horses and man oh man did the wilson haul like a dream. We were bringing in drafts and it handled the weight too. As a welder you'd know a lot more about those things than I would, but I sure liked those Wilson. Build like a brick shithouse (in my non-welder opinion)

I've thought how neat it would be to get a wilson, and get a real good fabricator to special rig the walk in tack portion of the front with dog boxes, water tanks, etc. Sure be nice I think, and like many things cool, it'll cost a pile o' money. Guess I'll keep pounding away at my business so one day i can have it But, again, when you get pics of that rig, throw them up in the dogbox sectiuon, sounds neat

Nah Brady,
It's sure NOT fancy. I bought a used gooseneck that is 6'x17' in the floor. After dragging it all over the country with 6 horses in it, it was in desperate need of some attention. I junked the floor, cut 3" off of the sides at the bottom to let the apples out, replaced the bottom 12" of the 1 1/2" uprights with 1/4" wall tubing, added an angle iron in between every angle iron already there, replaced the very back piece with a 3"x5"x3/8" tubing so that when the back of the trailer dragged it wouldn't tear up, then bolted in a nice new recycled rubber 2x6 tounge & groove floor, and lastly, threw away the old axles and replaced them with new torsion axles with a built in offset that sets the floor of the trailer about 22 inches off the ground. Some day I plan on covering it with a steel roof. If I can get my pickup to get enough traction, the trailer will come along. I couldn't imagine trying to pull of that kind of abuse with a sweet aluminum trailer.

Brady Davis wrote:July_hound- Broad sweeping statement there. I would disagree. But, thankfully we can all have an opinion!

Benny G wrote:Nah Brady,
It's sure NOT fancy. I bought a used gooseneck that is 6'x17' in the floor. After dragging it all over the country with 6 horses in it, it was in desperate need of some attention. I junked the floor, cut 3" off of the sides at the bottom to let the apples out, replaced the bottom 12" of the 1 1/2" uprights with 1/4" wall tubing, added an angle iron in between every angle iron already there, replaced the very back piece with a 3"x5"x3/8" tubing so that when the back of the trailer dragged it wouldn't tear up, then bolted in a nice new recycled rubber 2x6 tounge & groove floor, and lastly, threw away the old axles and replaced them with new torsion axles with a built in offset that sets the floor of the trailer about 22 inches off the ground. Some day I plan on covering it with a steel roof. If I can get my pickup to get enough traction, the trailer will come along. I couldn't imagine trying to pull of that kind of abuse with a sweet aluminum trailer.

Sounds like a tough as hell hunting rig...Good to have the skills to build it!