3.5t Horsebox advice please!!!

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RachelMcTimoney

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Very excited, i am allowed to look for a 3.5t horsebox for my 15.3 horse. I have two other horses but they never travel so it will be primarily for this one horse.

As a complete novice in anything to do with vehicles any recommendations on what type of van makes best/biggest conversion? Any experiences? There seems to be loads of renaults...not sure they look that substantial as others though such as mercedes??

I would like rear facing. Pref no older than 4-5 years have around 16k to spend but obviously cheaper the better!

any advice gratefully recieved!
 
My personal advice is to buy a 7.5 tonne. They are more sturdy and have living. I personally think they are better for re-sale too.

This is just my opinion and what I prefer. I did have a 3.5 tonne and it did me well, but my 7.5 is much easier.
 
Hi

We have a 3.5 ton and it is brilliant! much cheaper to maintain, as it is still classed as a van not a lorry, so it goes to our normal mechanics, it is cheaper to insure, cheaper to run by far and I find it much more reliable than the larger boxes. it carries 2 very large (at least 17hh horses) rear facing, it has never not started in the 5 years we have had it! Its fab little runner for us as we rarely have to stay over at events, i suppose if you needed to do very long distances and stay over regulary at events etc then you would want something with living but for what i use it for it's fine. Also you have a larger re-sale market, as you can drive it on a car liscence, you don't even need to pass a test to drive it as you do with a 7.5ton if you passed your test after 1997.

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it's a renault master, what i like about it too is that it has a little window from the drivers seat directly into the horse area so you can talk to horsey when you're driving along!!!
 
its a lorry like one though not the actual converted van shaped ones as I think they do seem a little bit unstable... although saying that my friend had one converted especially for her and she swears by it...
 
they're great for one horse or 2 ponies, but although height wise and space wise you can fit 2 17hh in, it would be well overweight. payload is normally about 1.1tonnes - take off 100kg for driver and tack and you're left with a tonne for the horses, water, passengers etc - definitely not enough for 2 big horses.
 
The renault masters are the lowest chasis so are the most stable than the other vans that can be used such as the nissan... Vauxhall movanos are now made by the same people as the renault masters so are pretty much identical, although i think renault masters are the best well known van as horsebox so maybe a bit easier to sell on. This thing people say about them being unstable is rubbish, my mare travels really well in ours, it feels nice and stable and they travel really well rear facing. We have used 2 hire renault masters too (different coach builder) and these were also very stable. However yes agree with star, be carefull with payloads and they can be easily overweight. BUT tbh ive seen SOOOO many people overloading 7.5 tonners so i dont think this is just a problem in little lorries!
 
The 3.5 tonne Renault Master conversions are rear facing. I have one and its great, very stable and substantial, whilst being easy to drive and maintain and easy on fuel. I got it from here http://www.northernhorseboxes.co.uk/ If you go to the Past Customers link on the list on the left, mine is the jade green one.
 
I'd definitely have a 3.5t over a 7.5t - in fact I'm currently selling my 7.5t so I can buy a Renault Master 3.5ter! The ride in the Renault Masters is so much more stable than a 7.5ter because the centre of gravity is so much lower. Plus they are a lot quieter, much cheaper to run and maintain and don't require starting up every single bloomin day to avoid the battery going flat. Although my 7.5t is a lovely wagon I can't wait to see the back of it - far too expensive to keep on the road! The payload thing is just as relevant to both size of wagons, generally the payload in a Renault Master is about 1250kg - plenty for one horse and loads of gear or two horses and take it easy on the equipment. On the continent the Renault Masters are payload rated at 4.1t not 3.5t so mechanically they're quite capable of carrying more weight it's just not legal to do so.
 
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The payload thing is just as relevant to both size of wagons, generally the payload in a Renault Master is about 1250kg - plenty for one horse and loads of gear or two horses and take it easy on the equipment. On the continent the Renault Masters are payload rated at 4.1t not 3.5t so mechanically they're quite capable of carrying more weight it's just not legal to do so.

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i wouldn't say the payload was that much usually, in the ones i've looked at. most are around 1.1tonnes. the ones in the link above are van conversions which normally have a more generous payload and these only have a 1 tonne payload. also, most people under-estimate their horses weight. your average 16.2hh weighs over 600kg, so definitely not enough payload to take 2 of those and a driver, let alone tack, water, passengers etc. yes, the vehicles are capable of carrying more, but there are more and more spot weight checks being done and i wouldn't want to get caught overweight.
 
I think it depends on who's done the conversion. If you look at the Three Counties van conversions they have a payload of 1350kg. The advantage weight wise of the 3.5t boxes are that because they generally don't have living that keeps their weight down. 7.5t wagons with lots of living pushes their weight up - hence very few 7.5t wagons advertised as being 3 horse wagons can actually carry 3 horses legally.
 
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