Anyone done a horsebox chassis swap from a Cargo?

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cyberhorse

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I am looking for some advice regarding the potential cost of swapping an existing box onto a new chassis. The box is in excellent condition and needs nothing doing, but the Cargo cab is rotting away. The latest MOT assessment is that is will need at least £1000 of welding to get it through and a new exhaust. I am starting to wonder if it is sensible to throw yet more dead money at a J reg cab. However on balance I think the swap on our box will be difficult and expensive as it has skirts, a luton and a cut through. I am also not sure we'll get a modern lorry that fits as the cargo is such an old model. Has anyone found a chassis that works OK for replacing a cargo or will everything have to be significantly altered at considerable expense?

Any recommendations of commercial vehicle companies that can do this would be very welcome.
 
Friend moved an H reg Cargo box onto a 3 year old DAF chassis cab with cuthrough and Luton and side bars (not skirts) with no problems. Paid £10k as I recall for the DAF and a grand or so to transfer the box and create cutthrough and front flap to allow tilt of cab.
 
most body,s will swap to most chassis with a bit of tweaking, remember all the skirts and so forth are connected to the body. The cut through is not much more than knocking the back window out. Another option would be to re-cab!
 
A re cab is just where they unbolt the cab from the chassis and replace it. I think you would struggle with an old shape cargo as they have not made them for so long. Just remember the chassis is in reality two bits of steel that the axles,engine, cab and body are all bolted to!
 
OK, thanks for that, I doubt the recab is going to be a viable option given the age of the truck. I will be chatting to our mechanic tonight as he has stripped it all out so we can go and look at the state of it (not looking forward to that). He has said they have some Renaults coming in we could get cheap, but I was strongly advised to avoid these when I originally bought my box. The best prices seem to be on the Mercedes Altego 815s and Ivecos due to the sheer number of ex-fleets around. If anyone runs either of these I'd be grateful to know what you think of them.
 
You have to remember that now Renault is exactly the same as Volvo apart from the badge. Personally i would take the Renault every time over the Iveco and Daf over all of the above in 7.5 tonne category.
 
We were advised against the renault when we bought the box as they said it would be mechanically poor. However the boxes in our budget were all on the much older chassis so I doubt these would have been the same as the ones you mention. I will look at the renault if they are the same as volvo as obviously the volvo brand has a very good reputation!
 
Hi I am just in the process of putting my key land daf onto a new leyland as lorry coach built and to good not to pur on new one, very hard work !!!
 
I think ours would be far to complicated for us to attempt ourselves. It is a fully coachbuilt box with skirts, luton and cut through. Waiting to hear back form the mechanic in case it is welded to the chassis which then becomes way more involved. Good luck with yours!

We have been offered potential option on '53 plate Renault midlams which are ex-brewery trucks for approx £2750 which are coming in. These I think have adapted suspension systems due to the load they have carried - not sure if this is good or bad? Others that are around are Mercedes Atego 815s and Ivecos. My OH likes MANs but they are more scarce and expensive so probably not an option. I don't want to spend so much on the chassis that we can't get a decent job done of putting it all back together. My OH has put a limit of £5-6k on the whole thing (so already decided to do without the re-spray for a while).
 
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