Box on a budget

[Cowpony]

In terms of what to look for, I personally wanted a full partition - so one that goes within a few inches of the floor. Seen a lot of injuries from horses going under a partition which stops a couple of feet from the floor. Also I wanted a collapsible breast bar and a slightly bigger living than I had in my first lorry. I added reversing and horse cameras when I bought it, but if you're on a budget you're unlikely to get that.

 

[RachelFerd]

Just a note - I had found one, had a 1500 payload, was old but well-loved, and then I checked the ULEZ/LEZ implications - a fee of £300 a day!
I may just have to come to terms with the fact I'm TOO BROKE to own a reasonable horsebox.

It definitely won't have had a 1500 payload unless it was made of papier mache

 

[sarahmac77]

It definitely won't have had a 1500 payload unless it was made of papier mache

I knew that’s be picked up. It was a typo. It was 1200 but I couldn’t be arsed to edit it.

 

[Xmasha]

Why dont you just hire one when you need it?

 

[Kaylum]

if your looking at 3.5 as well as the payload you need to look at the height and the length. My friend has been looking and has been to see a couple and there is no way her 16.3hh would fit in some of the ones she has seen. The others she has seen at around £8k have been total death traps. Lorrys that size are generally pony boxes.

One of them was a scam, another one someone had bought as she saw it advertised and then a week later was readvertised by the person who bought it, was cheap so had problems.

 

[Sail_away]

I did know someone who bought a 3.5t on your budget but it’s tiny, she uses it to take her little Connemara out. I don’t think it would physically fit a big horse in. And to be honest she says it’s a pain, expensive to run and is thinking of selling it.
I think the running costs of an old 3.5t are probably comparable to just hiring a box when you want to go out. It’s what, £70 for self hire? So you could get around 15 trips a year for what you’d have to budget to get a 3.5t past it’s MOT. Obviously not cost effective if you want to be out competing every weekend, but then again there’s no purchase price, MOT or breakages to worry about.

 

[Birker2020]

I agree with the others on weight constraints for 3.5t's. I personally don't think 2x 16.2hh plus driver, water, fuel etc would work. I had a bit of a surprise when my 15.3hh horse went on a weighbridge too. He weight-tapes at 574kg, but was 696kg on the weighbridge. Admittedly he's built like a brick privy but I did assume the margin of error for tapes was lower than 20%!

Blimey my 17.1hh WB was under 696KG on her last weigh in at the vets. Weight tapes are not very accurate at all.

 

[sarahmac77]

Why dont you just hire one when you need it?

For flexibility. Deciding to go for a hack somewhere that morning. Or a beach ride. To do something most weekends...
Just, to be able to get about without being beholden to someone.
Also it's about £100 a day round here.

 

[Annagain]

It's not necessarily the end of your dream. Depending on your licence, you could uprate most 3.5Ts to 3.9T fairly easily with some different springs and a bit of paperwork. Whether even that will be enough and whether you want the extra expense (once it's over 3.5T it needs plating rather than just an MOT) to occasionally take a friend is another matter but it would mean you don't have to drive anything bigger but could still fit the two on. There used to be a good little website called Travel Two with older boxes and a lot of info on uprating but I'm not sure if they're still going. Might be worth a google.

 

[milliepops]

travel two are excellent, mine was an ex-travel two box which came available when the previous owner wanted to trade up for a newer model. Their stock was way out of my budget and tends to move very fast, but they were extremely helpful when I spoke to them.

 

[RachelFerd]

Travel Two were very helpful when I spoke to them years ago when I was buying an older 3.5 tonne. I bought a slightly off-brand Racemaster box in the end, not through them but through their advice. But the 3.5 tonne had to go when travelling two horses was required. I'd honestly suggest that taking your C1 makes so much sense - it opens you up to lots of different lorries up to 7,5 tonne and also means you can look at 3.5 tonnes with the option of uprating to 3.9 to get that payload you need. Plus the training was actually super helpful and has made me a better medium-sized vehicle driver than I was before! The bigger boxes on a tight budget are far better value though, because of the barrier to entry with driving licences.

 

[Hallo2012]

by trying to squeeze every last kg out of payload it ends up a GRP shell on wheels-no reinforcement,which at 7 stone 11 i could bend some of these sorts of body work.....so imagine what a car skidding in to the back would do to your horse.......

i only have to travel 1 x 380kg pony and mine is fully reinforced as safety not spared for kg.

echo all other advice to do your LGV

 

[Sprig]

In your position I would definitely hire, even if you do long term hire for the months you think you will use it most. It will almost certainly cost you less overall and you know that the lorry will be safe.