Anyone got a 'van' horsebox?

Having driven these vans a bit (not horsebox ones) with a load in the back i have to say i wouldnt want a horse of any real size in one! They drive well on a straight but arent great on corners and arent really designed to carry a load with such a high centre of gravity as a horse

I'd put one or both of my 11hh ponies in one of these but not a horse
 
Have got a coachbuilt & have happily taken a hefty 17.2 in it - with room for him to move.
Also carted my (then) 16.2 & now regularly 15hh's in it & no probs. The weight I have to hand is 1280 tho, despite the box being a solid built affair, but I still will not take more than 1 horse & a smaller pony in it, totalling around 1000 max & then kit has to go by car. Usually its just me & 1 fuzzy tho.

Driven a friends van-type and it rolled far too much for my liking & that was with a 15.2MW in who stood cheerfully.
 
Yes I have a renault master and love it. As others have said I wouldnt want anything big in it (my 14.2hh is fine) I transported my friends 16hh this morning and tbh she was a bit big height wise. You also wouldnt get away with 2 x 16.2 weightwise
 
Ive got one, very similar to the ad you put in your post. I love it but I wouldnt travel 2 horses in it tbh. Ive no doubt they would "fit" but unless you had no diesel, no people and no stuff you'd almost certainly be overweight. My 14.2 highland is fine, he travels really sweetly in it, I can also fit my 11hd pony in next to him and be comfortably legal with all the kit but I wouldnt put a bigger pony in with him. If its just you and 1 horse youll be fine, lovely to drive and easy to manage on your own.
 
Prefer them with a grille to stop horse jumping 'forwards' into the back bit. Seen that accident a few times, and it isn't pleasant. Apart from that, I like them. Bering in mind, like them for no bigger than 15h, as they do seem 'confined'.
 
Redmone, off here, has a very similar one for her pony. Its great. We have walked my 17h hunter up to it for a laugh, but wouldn't dare walk him up the ramp for fear of bending it!

Great for smaller ponies, but definitely wouldn't carry anything over 14.2, and even at 14.2 I would only put one in.

I agree about the grill - I have known of equines jumping over once or twice.
 
I travel my 16 hand in one, tons of room, very stable, no roll or wallow and does not struggle at all. I have also taken friends pony as well and will be again tomorrow, very roomy and copes easily. For those saying they wouldn't put anything but a pony in a van conversion, take a look at the dimensions, they are the same as an Ifor 505, I had my reservations and used to say I would never travel a horse in one but they are great and I have a camera in horse area so can see how happy mine is in there. But..... I had mine converted myself I would hesitate buying a pre- converted one as you need to make sure its done properly, strong bulkhead, strong ramp etc.
 
I am not overweight as mine has 1300 capacity and believe me mine is safe, all reinforced and big double back doors for emergency exit but... Each to their own !
 
i have seen one which a person puts a 17'2 in plus a 14 hand pony, he does by some miracle fit, they are probably very close on weight though and he looks very snug! (too snug really!)
i have seen some very shoddy quality conversion, you really need to be weary of the floor strength. also engine quality! my friend had a really old conversion which i frankly didn't trust, it broke down often and struggled up any slight hill even with one horse in. again the weight is also very tight. that's why in the end i did my trailer test, as cheaper to get a reliable 4x4 and be legal on weights.
 
My 16h mare weighs 650k (middleweight type who we thought weighed less til we had her on a weighbridge), so if you add a pony to that, plus hay, water, tack and humans, you would be quite likely overweight IMO.
 
Only cheaper if you don't do a lot of work miles, I have an older Peugeot 206 now for work and I am saving about £100 a month on fuel due to having van conversion and not needing to tow. I sourced the van myself and visited the chap converting to see every stage of his conversions before giving him the go ahead. Mine is a 57 plate with 90k miles, a lot being offered are really old or very high mileage.
 
I have one and love it. I have 2 x 14.2hhs and a payload of 1200kg so can just about travel them both.

I was very sceptical about these types of horseboxes, but having sold my older coach built one far quicker than anticpated, was the only option at the time.The plan was to keep it for a few months until I could find something I preferred but 5 yrs on I still have it.

It is easy to drive, cheap to run and all the horses I have had in it have travelled well. It does not have the sway like the transit/iveco 3.5t conversions and feels very stable. (Have had a ford transit so feel justified in making the comparison!)

I would not put larger horses in it, and be very careful if buying a pre converted - mine came from Three Counties and was built very well, fully reinforced, but there are some dodgy conversions out there.
 
Thanks for the feedback all. Sounds OK if you're going for one from someone reputable?

But would need something else for a 16.2? It's probably the only thing I could ever realistically save up for to afford!
 
I have one, but only travel one horse at a time in it. The big horse is a good 16.1hh TB and travels fine in it - in fact when I got her she was very stressy loading and travelling, sweating up and fretting, but in this one she is completely fine. I have the partition a bit wider for her. I've had to travel her quite a lot several hundred miles to vet hospitals and she has always been very calm when I've got her anywhere. But I agree that I wouldn't want to travel two horses in it unless both under about 14hh. We loaded mine up with a full tank of fuel, put haynets, water, buckets, driver etc in, that we would have when travelling (basically everything apart from the horse) and took it to a weighbridge and had 980kg of payload still, so I think that my payload is probably about 1180, when weighed like the manufacturers like to do, with no fuel, no spare wheel and totally empty!
 
We hired one when we picked up our young arab as we thought it would be safer than the trailer for a nervous youngster. We wanted to hate it. We wanted to think it was awful and flimsy. But it was amazing. It powered up and down the hills far better than our landy and trailer. It handled like a car, even when laden. It did twice the mpg of our landy. It gave the young horse such a smooth ride. So we bought one. I also wouldn't want to put anything enormous in it but if you've got ponies or araby types they're brill. Make sure you get an emergency exit fitted though. ps They can tow 2.5 tonnes too.
 
Ive towed trailers for 30 odd years thinking i didnt want a lorry and all the expense. Young horse , competitive spirit kicking in and i found hitching the trailer constantly was driving me nuts Bit the bullet and bought a Renault Master conversion, its not young but professionally and beautifully converted. Horses all load and travel beautifully, cheap to run, hardly uses any fuel, drives easily and very comfortably. I love it. None of mine are over 15 hands, but I love the freedom it gives me, I can easily cope on my own. It is a very safe one tho, all areas reinforced and absolutely no way they could get over into the living bit due to the height of the partitions and the fact that there is a movable dividing partition which also swings over the top , leaving enough room for a head but nothing more. I wouldnt go back to a trailer now, tho considering upgrading in a year or 2 to a 5.5 tonner, purely to give more people room
 
I have one. Pros - great for people competing on their own with one smallish horse, you can sleep in the cab overnight (if you're short), lots of power, lots of storage, easy to drive and everyone can drive it on a car license.

Cons - you have to creep round roundabouts (but otherwise horses do travel well), hay seeds get everywhere from haynets into the bit at the back, watch the payload, the battery can be drained by alarm or immobilisor so get an isolator fitted, get loads of windows and a fan or they're an oven in summer and watch out for cheap/ dodgy conversions because there are loads about.
 
I don't dispute that they're great for small equines. Every time Redmone comes to our yard I say I wish that my big horses would fit in a box like that!!
 
I love my van but I only use it as a pony box. If I was looking to travel a 16.2 I would probably look at changing my car and getting a trailer (which I am considering anyway because I am finding the running costs (particularly when it comes to repairs) hard to justify) or getting a larger lorry. Depending on how often you wish to use the transport each year it may work out more economical to hire a box, once you've added it all up I think it is worth considering.

And ditto the comments regarding the quality of the conversion - I went to see the most shocking conversion which had little more than Kingspan insulation separating the horse's backside from the cab and had refridgerator insulation on the ceiling which brought the head room so low that anything taller than about 13.2 wouldn't be able to put it's head up. Unsurprising the people were selling it (non-horsey parents who had clearly been ripped off) said their 15hh wouldn't load in it anymore.
 
I've got one like this- ours is a Renault Master conversion, it has side and rear loading doors with ramps (so can lead in from back and out side door). It's basically an Ifor Williams trailer on the inside- it has the exact same layout and furnishings of a trailer, just placed inside a van!

It's been used to ferry around a 16.3 and 15.1 locally, both fit well and there is still room at the rear to put saddles etc. I think ours is longer than the Vauxhall which is how we've got a big horse in lengthways. The 16.3 is bit snug with head height (the 15.1 is fine), but it would be the same in a trailer, plus we don't go far and he travels well so it's fine.

It's really simple to drive and i like that i can look back from the passenger seat, through the window, and see the horses and keep an eye on them. :)
 
Star26 you seem to be missing the whole point of why people are saying you shouldn't carry big horses in them - its the payload. The difference between one of these vans and an Ifor 505 is not the size, its what tows it.. What is the payload for your van and what weight are your horses, humans, tack, water, haylage and fuel etc? Its the difference between the van being able to stop successfully in an emergency and you and the horse getting hurt/killed..!!!
 
Honey08- OP asked what people thought of them, i simply answered with my thoughts having owned one for about a year.

The payload on mine is (from memory) about 1250kg which is fine for our tb's. The company who i bought it from said it could take two 16.2HH horses, however i wouldn't advise this. I think it's best suited to carry two smaller ones really. I think ours is quite unique with the two doors, i've never seen one exactly the same- if anyone else has one like this i'd love to see some pics!

When viewing van-conversions, make sure you get someone who is really clued-up (on these sorts of things) to go with you, as there are some very dodgy ones out there!

Also ditto sidewaysonacob about the battery draining- isolators are the way to go! :)

P.s- The downside of owning a van is that family and friends will recruit you for all sorts of things! I have helped people move house, transported jumps for friends, delivered firewood etc, the list is endless!! lol
 
Honey08 said:
I don't dispute that they're great for small equines. Every time Redmone comes to our yard I say I wish that my big horses would fit in a box like that!!
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hahahaha thanks Honey! And I wish your biggest horse would fit in my van and come home with mini RM!!!

I feel about mine pretty much what everyone else has said.

Pros - convenient, easy to drive (unless you count me crashing mine into Honey's gate the first time we visited ***blush***), powerful, great storage, comfortable, ponies seem to like travelling in them. Mine is a very easy box for a person of short stature *cough* like me, and even daughter can do everything (eg the ramp, partition etc..) other than drive it.

Cons - is always going to be the weight. Dolly is 12.2hh. I'd planned to be able to take Dolly and "next pony" together places in my van. Now I realise "next pony" won't be under 14hh, that may be a little touch and go. No worries at all on headroom (mine's a high-top) - but weight inc passengers and tack.......not sure, I'd have to weigh bridge it.

Other main "con" is the contraversial partition between horse area and jockey area. Mine is not full solid one. It is sort of pony's shoulder height, with a jockey door. Doesn't bother me one jot with Dolly as she is the world's best pony to travel! But for "next pony" I'd want to be 100% sure it was good to travel before I risked it rearing up and getting over the partition. Ideally before then, I'll take it to the horsebox doctor and have it replaced with a full one.

In summary, I think these are great for small ponies but not suitable for more than one pony of any reasonable size.

Just my two pennys worth!!! :-)
 
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