horse box owners

china

china

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i have lots of questions
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im 18, and im saving up to get a horse box next year, nothing speacial, something around £3000, something that will take prince and have room to put all my stuff, and a living is an added bonus if i go away over night. been having a look on horsemart and found a couple of nice ones. il post a link to show the sort im looking for. now i have no idea on the cost of running a lorry and wont buy one unless i can afford the running. i have a small car (ford ka) so everything is prety cheap to run there.
how much are they roughly to tax, id be looking at getting 3.5 tonnes.
insurance- who do you insure it with. and is it really expensive.
and would m.o.ts etc be the same price as a car assuming there nothing wrong with it. £35 or something like that. ( i know the likleyhood of it passing every time is very unlikley
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but u can always wish!)
on most of them i says can be driven on normal car licence any age, is this always true??
choc chip ice cream if you get this far
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That one is a 7.5 tonne and can't be driven on your normal car licence. It says non HGV but that means 7.5t or under. I guess upkeep will depend on the lorry and how much you need doing to it. I've just spent £500 on mine having the exhaust fixed, a leak in the cooling system fixed and the roof was leaking
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Its due it's plating in October as well!

Insurance shouldn't be too much as it won't be doing a lot of miles, best to have a go on some of the online quoting things with some details of something for sale. Mot is the same or similar to a car I think (Mine is 4.5t so is different).
 
MOT about £80, you need a class 7 MOT and only some garages are equipped.

Insurance and breakdown about £300 for the year but then I'm alot older than you.
 
ahh didnt notice it was that big. my selective vision taking over
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iv just entered a comp on loose women for £15,000 so il hopefully win that and get myself a little renault!
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my friend has just spent alot on her box getting things fixed :S
do normal car insurance places insure boxes?
 
If your budget is £3,000 you will be buying yourself a lot of trouble and expense. A vehicle within that price range is likely to be very old and if you can still get parts for it then you will probably have high servicing and maintenance expenses to keep it on the road and getting it through an MOT. Also a 3.5 ton vehicle will not allow much payload for the horse, passengers and extras and it is very easy to go over weight.

My advice would be to invest the money on taking your HGV Test and then you can buy a larger commercial vehicle.

Alternatively hope you win the competition and save more money to buy a newer vehicle.

Whatever you buy get it checked out and inspected by a qualified horsebox mechanic so that both the mechanics and the container are checked out.
 
as owlie says, you won't get much horsebox for £3k. you wouldn't get much car for £3k, so to expect a good tidy reliable vehicle capable of carrying horses safely is quite a lot to ask.
tbh i would look at getting a good solid trailer and upgrading your car to something that can tow safely.
from bitter experience, 'plating' (MOT for lorries) is almost invariable expensive, even with new-ish lorries. it costs me hundreds every year, without fail, and my lorry is only a few years old and cost a lot!
hope you win the competition!
 
Good luck with the competition! I took my towing test last week as can't afford a decent 3.5T lorry, 3k is my budget also, I noticed a lot of ads say "can be driven on a car license" which is misleading, as they mean people who passed their test before 1997 who can drive over 3.5T but under 7.5T we (people who passed after 1997) can't tow a trailer over a certain weight or drive anything above 3.5T!! Not fair! I'd say either do the lorry test which is quite expensive or do the trailer test?
 
Remember that keeping a lorry roadworthy is not just about having it checked over before an MOT.Lorrys need what is termed preventative maintenance.This means being checked regularly throughout the year for developing safety faults . A LIGHTLY used horsebox should be checked over by a professional mechanic,AT LEAST every 3 months.If you cant afford this or arnt prepared to do this you shouldnt own one.
 
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