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Northeast Iowa | We've had two Alum-Line livestock trailers over the years. The first one was a 7' x 21' in 1991 that didn't survive a 100 mph summer breeze one July. The second one replaced it in 1994 and is 7' x 23'. At the time, I don't think Alum-Line made any trailers in even lengths, perhaps to get around a patent that Featherlite had. So we went with a 21' to start with and then moved to a 23' later. That may be different now. The other thing that steered us toward an Alum-Line at the time was that we couldn't actually buy a Featherlite nearby, even though they are made right here in Cresco! The nearest dealer at that time was maybe 40 or 50 miles away. That has now changed and I can buy one in Cresco, but my 15-year-old Alum-Line still works quite well.
We've been very happy with our Alum-Line trailers features and durability. The list of options and/or designs is only limited by your imagination. We had them put the side access door on the driver's side of our first trailer in 1991, which they had never done before. We also had them split it horizontally into two doors so we could get in from outside, latch the bottom one and then swing the top one shut again while unloading livestock. I found that to be especially useful when snagging cow-calf pairs in cold weather so that I'd have an easy escape route out the front if the cow had serious objections to her calf being moved. We also had side flaps hinged so that we could easily open or close them during spring and fall when one day would be too hot to have them bolted on, but the next day would be too cold to leave them off. That may not be as big a concern with cattle as it was when we raised hogs, but it makes it a fairly waterproof environment in short order to haul or store seed corn compared to a Wilson.
The floor material has always been a breeze to clean. It has small grooves in it that run side to side, which means the easiest way to clean it is to scrape from one side of the trailer to the other instead of from the front of the trailer to the back door. The salesman at the time we got our first trailer told us to always bed it with sawdust instead of straw, because it would be much easier to clean and traction would be better. I still agree with his advice today.
Right off hand, I think the only repairs we've done over the years have been as a result of operator error and not product problems. Things like backing into chutes and catching rear door handles, forgetting to UNhook the chain to the door when securing it open to load and unload livestock, breaking the ice off of it after parking it under an eave trough in the winter and getting too close to a brake light with the big hammer used for the job and all kinds of other "WHAT was I thinking?" things like that.
Having said all of that, we also have two Featherlite steel flatbed trailers and I can't really complain abut them either. It may come down to how many extras you want on your trailer and how soon either company can get it to you for a given price.
Jeff
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Cattle trailer Question
