Are horse boxes 'braked'?

velocette

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Hello

Starting to look into my options for a 4x4 to help through the winter and when I want to start travelling my horse next year.

Just for example I was looking at the Landrover Defender and it says it will tow 3.5t with a 'braked' trailer. I can't seem to see on websites for horse boxes if they are braked, is this standard?

I have never towed before and still need to do my trailer test, but don't want to buy the wrong car in the first place!!

p.s. I don't want abuse from this question about how 'stupid' I am, please I just want to know what a 'braked' trailer is.

thanks,

Vel x
 
Horse trailers have their own brakes and can be a maxium gross weight (including horses) of 3500 Kgs, unbraked trailers don't have brakes thus rely on the brakes of the car to stop the whole rig and can be a maximum of 750 kgs gross weight, but the maximum gross weight is not necessarily the towing capacity of the car, check with the manufacturers for spec.
I have a Land Rover Defender, these are one of the best if not the best towing vehicle on the road today and yes will tow a 3500 Kgs horse trailer. I tow an IW 510 trailer with a huge 17:3hh hunter inside and the Defender tows this easily.
However the downside is that the Defender is more a utility vehicle and only the newest ones have good heating. A LR Discovery will tow almost as well and is far more comfortable especially for passengers.
You need to decide what your requirements are, e.g if you only have one small pony a smaller 4x4 or estate car would be fine as the total weight of the trailer would be a lot less. Hope this helps!
 
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