Trailer Maintenance: Detailing the Inside

Confession time: I may take excellent care of the outside of my horse trailer, but I don't always do the inside.

Six months worth of bug splatters, blegh

But I took the week off work last week, and the weather was gorgeous, and for the first time in months I have at least a 3 week break before I'm hauling anywhere again, and I just said you know what, it's time for a deep clean.

I firmly believe that if I take care of it, it'll take care of me and Connor.

Step 1 was pulling my mats. Another confession: I don't pull my mats that often. It's a pain in the butt, this trailer is only four years old, and I do visual inspections from below. The floors are still in good condition:

There's just some discoloration under his pee spot:

And at the combination poop spot/place where the design of my trailer allows water inside. I've talked to my trailer wizard and there's nothing I can do about it, so I just keep an eye on the floor underneath, which is pretty easy since it's at the end.

Step 2 was carefully pressure washing the inside and outside. I don't really like to pressure wash my trailer because of the risk of damaging the gel coat on the fiberglass roof especially, or ripping caulk away, but it definitely was necessary this time.

That's all I had time for on Day 1, and it took me maybe an hour and a half. The next day, I came back out and did Wash Wax All on the entire interior, or Wash All followed by Wash Wax All where the stains were really bad.

After on the left, before (well, after pressure washing) on the right

And I followed that up with Meguiar's Natural Shine Protectant on all of the non-floor black parts. Not only does it make them shiny and protect against UV damage, but it also contains Scotchgard and SHOULD make it easier to clean poop off in the future. We'll see, I haven't used it in the trailer before.

No filter, all shine.

Once the inside was done, I started the outside. Just the standard Wash Wax All on the sides and roof, which weren't too bad. Then I also did a different kind of UV rubber protectant on the rubber gaskets around the windows and doors, and the tires.

I can hardly believe it, but these tires are due for replacement before next year's show season. Trailer tires must be replaced every 5 years on the dot, even if the tread depth is fine, because rubber gets stiffer and starts to crack over time, which increases your risk of a blowout significantly at 5+ years.

The nose, though, will have to wait on my next AeroCosmetics order. I'm fresh out of Scrubbers, and I didn't realize how much easier they make getting bugs off the nose! 

I've actually started keeping track of the miles I've put on this trailer since my last service in April, because I know I'm going to creep up on my service intervals faster than usual with all the towing I've done this year. Believe it or not, since April 1 of this year I've put over 4,500 miles on it! We're already halfway to my next bearing repack in five months, lol. Not that I'm going to continue this torrid pace of towing since show season is over, but it goes to show you the miles creep up quickly. All the more reason to take good care of it!