Choosing Between two Lorries - Which One?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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I'm currently looking to purchase my first lorry and have found two very different ones for the same sort of price.

Lorry 1 is a Mercedes, the oldest (H reg :o ) of the 2 with high mileage (over 200000km) but looks to be exactly what I want (size wise and condition). I haven't viewed it yet but have seen plenty of pictures and had an inspection done on it which it passed without any problems. It's a compact 7.5ton with plenty of payload, it's the type that I could buy and not have to do anything with it, it's ready to go.

(I will be viewing it tomorrow so will get a better feel for it then and it may help me make the decision)

Lorry 2 is a DAF, we heard of it by chance as it isn't actually advertised (or even ready to sell yet). It's a N reg and has only done 55000km. It is in a very rough state so it was hard to get a real feel for it but it would be tidied up and given a new paint job (I could choose the colour) and skirts before I purchased it. Size wise it seems a bit bigger then I would have liked but the living on it is quite small. The horse area is bigger then lorry 1 and although I'd want to smarten it up (paint job, partitions and gates) it is more or less usable. The living is completely empty so that is something I would have to do my self.

So would you go for an older lorry with high mileage that seems to be exactly what I want or would you go for the newer one with much lower mileage that I could potentially make into something that I want although may not feel overly comfortable about the size (but would probably be able to sell it on easier then the older one if I didn't get on with it)?
 
I would always opt for a newer chasis/engine but saying that there are some very nice older lorries which have been lovingly maintained over the years.

Drive them both and you may make a decision which you prefer and get a mechanics view on both of them and then see what shows up and consider their selling price

You can always do up the inside/living to your liking of the newer lorry in your own time. The things that matter are in my opinion will the horses fit size and weight wise, is the lorry safe and sound to carry your horses, and how sound is the lorry mechanically, is the ramp easy to put up on your own? Rest is cosmetic and/or for rider comfort.

At the minute it is a buyers market so be cool!
 
To be honest mileage means nothing on a 7.5t lorry. They're not like cars or 3.5t wagons.
We're selling our v reg Coachbuilt Leyland Daf, and although the mileage seems high at 240,000km/150,000m, our lorry is an ex Tuffnels fleet lorry. When in fleet these lorries have to be serviced by law every 6 weeks, and worn parts replaced.
I would be more dubious of a low mileage lorry with no history as lorries don't like sitting around being idle.
To be honest I've heard Mercedes don't give the best of rides for the horse. We've only ever had Dafs,'and never had mechanical issues with this one or the last one. Our very good mechanic thinks they're preferable too.
Maybe you need to look at a few more, and at the very least dig out the history of the wagons from a servicing perspective. Good luck in your quest :)
 
Definately don't make a decision until you have driven them both and had a good look round them - high mileage is not an issue with a horsebox - lorries are built to do mega miles - mine has done over 400,000km and runs really well - I had a commercial engineer look over it.
 
I'm biased towards DAFs but as previous poster said; try both and then make up your mind.
I bought my current Daf Roadrunner with extremely low mileage even though it was quite old but it had been used as a railway lorry delivering supplies to weekend workers only. During the week it was undercover and serviced very regularly. It's now 21 years old and still going strong!
 
Thanks for the replys, I thought you'd all say I was mad to consider the older one over the newer one!

The newer one isn't in any condition to drive at that moment so it really would be a case of waiting for them to start work on it and then going from there. I don't want to miss out on the older lorry though as it seems to be exactly what I want. I'm quite specific in that I want nothing over 20ft long so there are not that many out there that suit my budget.

We'll view the older one tomorrow and go from there :)
 
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