Forward v Rear facing for travelling?

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Annagain

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Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this? My horse is slightly dodgy travelling on my forward facing trailer. It's nothing major, the odd stumble if I don't take a left hand bend slowly enough - and I mean really slow - and he has to go on the left of the trailer. On my friend's rear facing trailer he is foot perfect.

I'm considering the move to a lorry and just doing a bit of window shopping / research. Ideally I would like a little 5T two horse with basic day living - nothing special, just a hob, sink and somewhere to sit/get changed in the rain. A 3.5T wouldn't give me enough payload but I don't need anything bigger than 5/6T and would be happier in a smaller vehicle. I've got an old style licence so fine to drive up to 7.5T.

Both mine and my share horse are big boys and quite long in the back so I don't really want herringbone as a smaller lorry like this wouldn't really have the width they need for that. Due to how my boy travels, I'd like a rear facing lorry, but other than the really expensive new lorries like the Alexanders they're almost impossible to find, 99% are forward facing or herringbone.
Some questions have sprung to mind - hoping someone can answer them for me!

Is there a reason why rear facing ones aren't really made?
Is it that they're not needed due to horses travelling better on lorries - even forward facing?
Is there something about the weight distribution that means rear facing isn't wise?
Would it be possible to convert either a forward facing (some seem to have ramps in a place that could allow this?) or herringbone one to rear facing and if so, would the cost of doing this be prohibitive?

I realise these questions might be a bit specialist, but I'd be grateful for any info/advice.
 
Have a look at the Bloomfields website. I'm doing quite a lot of looking into this myself at the moment, and I'm tempted enough by their site to go and see them. They specialise in 3.5t, but can upgrade to 4.5t and the horses are carried rear facing and in the middle i.e. between cab and living. They also appear to be a lot cheaper than Alexanders for a basic horsebox..
 
I have an Alexanders forwards facing 6.5 ton.
J who is a dodgy traveller in a IW 510 travels in it beautifully much better than in the 7.5 ton herringbone we had .
 
One of ours hated the herringbone lorry(7.5t) we had. She would, however travel with her bum on the left hand side rather than her head, so she did face slightly backwards.
I brought a forward facing box then, and she was ok.
Previously I had a rear facing. 3.5t, and she had never objected to that at all, so given a choice that would be my preference but bigger boxes that face backwards are hard to find, unless you have one built.
 
Our mare wouldn't travel on either side of the trailer, then we were advised to make sure that the tyre pressures were absolutely correct, which did help. We now travel her cross tied with full width breast and breech bars. Not much use if you need to travel two at a time, admittedly, but when we had the unequal tyre pressures it made a big difference to her ability to travel without trouble.
 
I have a rear facing 7.5 with unfitted living area but with a huge 2.5 tonne payload so they do exist but they are difficult to find. A lot of the rear facing ones are only 3.5 tonne. There are more front facing ones with side ramps in 6.5 or 7.5 tonnes

Peper harrow a good make to look at if you can find one second hand. I would avoid Alexander lorries like the plague after seeing one that my lorry chap showed me that was in for fixing all it's faults and that was a new lorry!

I kept an eye on places like centralengland horseboxes and ebay until I eventually found one. If you do find one, I would get it inspected and if you need a recommendation for that, pm me.
 
Thanks all, tyre pressures are fine on the trailer, he just doesn't balance particularly well on left hand corners. Now I know to go extra slow he's fine. The lorry would be because I want it not because he needs it!
 
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