Horse Lorrys... Are lorry's under 3.5t really worth it?

5horses2dogsandacat

5horses2dogsandacat

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After talking to a horsebox hire company, it seems pretty pointless even looking at getting a lorry under 3.5t. Initially it sounds like a good idea getting something that someone my age, 24 can drive.

But after looking at the weight of each horse, tack, equipment and passengers and the cost of buying a lorry under 3.5t compared to going out and getting an HGV at around £1000, it seems you are far better to get the license.. That way your covered for life as far as what weights you can drive, you wont ever get caught out for being over limit, and some of the new -3.5t it seems safety is being compromised for weight...

Sorry if this has already been talked to death about.. :rolleyes: xxx
 
Personally I am with you on that. Unless you are only ever going to carry ponies or one horse then you are much better off going for something more than a 3.5T. But then I didn't have to take a test as I am OLD! Lol. Well, took my test pre 1997 anyway. my sister though passed her HGV test this year though - she's just 30 - so she can now drive our 7.5T. She could drive it accompanied up until April this year but then she had to get her HGV. I certainly would save up and take the test to be honest as you can get a decent 7.5T for about the same price if not less than a nice 3.5T and the cost of running them - tax, insurance etc - isn't much different. Plus, you get more room for your stuff and most horses prefer travelling herringbone style too. All pros for me!!
 
5horses2dogsandacat said:
After talking to a horsebox hire company, it seems pretty pointless even looking at getting a lorry under 3.5t. Initially it sounds like a good idea getting something that someone my age, 24 can drive.

But after looking at the weight of each horse, tack, equipment and passengers and the cost of buying a lorry under 3.5t compared to going out and getting an HGV at around £1000, it seems you are far better to get the license.. That way your covered for life as far as what weights you can drive, you wont ever get caught out for being over limit, and some of the new -3.5t it seems safety is being compromised for weight...

Sorry if this has already been talked to death about.. :rolleyes: xxx
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I think you answer your own question... Personal view the 3.5 ton boxes are good for studs and racing yards and other businesses as they dont need an O licence, but unless you are rich or to lazy to take the hgv test they are poor value and have a limited life as they are built on a cheap tradesmans van ....
 
perfect11s said:
I think you answer your own question... Personal view the 3.5 ton boxes are good for studs and racing yards and other businesses as they dont need an O licence, but unless you are rich or to lazy to take the hgv test they are poor value and have a limited life as they are built on a cheap tradesmans van ....
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lol!! Yep! I was sold my lorry (6.5t) being told I could drive it, bit niavely, a bit i mean very, I bought it only getting it home to realise I cant drive it after all.

Ive had it for sale for a while but the market is dead. Decided to hang on to it and get my HGV in the summer, driving it with L plates and my mum on board until then :D

xxx
 
Don't know if you're aware but afaik your mum can only supervise you if she's passed her c1 or c test - prepared to ge corrected though?

Bit of a pain tbh as I'm in the same position and can't drive my new 7.5T
 
blood_magik said:
Don't know if you're aware but afaik your mum can only supervise you if she's passed her c1 or c test - prepared to ge corrected though?

Bit of a pain tbh as I'm in the same position and can't drive my new 7.5T
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Yes this is right, but if the OP actually takes her HGV test via an HGV centre and passes, she can drive virtually anything herself! It just means that she won't be able to put L plates on and drive round practising due to the new rules.

But I think I'll stick with my 3.5t though.....I LOVE it!
 
blood_magik said:
Don't know if you're aware but afaik your mum can only supervise you if she's passed her c1 or c test - prepared to ge corrected though?

Bit of a pain tbh as I'm in the same position and can't drive my new 7.5T
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So my mum's 59 and I can't practise driving with her, even though she has a cat.c on her license, even in a 6.5t???
 
Not unless she took the actual cat c test no as an above poster said you used to be able to but that has sinced changed. Sorry. Fyi taking hgv doesnt take too long if you crack on 3-5 days training and test its just getting everything booked in that takes time. Things are very confusing tbh i have taken my cat c and want to drive my 7.5ton which only requires a catc1 licence so fine but i legally took my cat c test but on the back of my licence it says i cant actually drive over 7.5ton until im 21 your only allowed to drive over in training and test. Yet my instructor didnt know that and loads knows of U21s in over7.5ton lorries working! The supervision rule though as far as im aware is a definitive no you cant do it anymore!
 
What a load of bother!! lol

I know it shouldnt take too long to take but I want to hold out for the summer, uni is fuzzing my head up so much at the moment, I dont want to risk not being able to concentrate on my HGV 110%.. I cant afford to do it too many times!! lol

Guess mother will just have to learn to drive the beast till the summer.. I dont really want to sell it, its too good, even being an F reg its smart and good underneath :)
 
Look on the brightside - at least you know :) if you didnt and god forbid had an accident you would have been completely uninsured. It is a bit of faff but tbh I agree with it - maybe not for under 7.5tonnes but the idea of someone who has never driven a big lorry before trying to drive it themselves let alone teaching/supervising another non-hgv driver is scary enough. Big lorries are very different to cars.
 
5horses2dogsandacat said:
After talking to a horsebox hire company, it seems pretty pointless even looking at getting a lorry under 3.5t. Initially it sounds like a good idea getting something that someone my age, 24 can drive.

But after looking at the weight of each horse, tack, equipment and passengers and the cost of buying a lorry under 3.5t compared to going out and getting an HGV at around £1000, it seems you are far better to get the license.. That way your covered for life as far as what weights you can drive, you wont ever get caught out for being over limit, and some of the new -3.5t it seems safety is being compromised for weight...

Sorry if this has already been talked to death about.. :rolleyes: xxx
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For ME it is worth it. But I know how much the lorry weighs, I know how much I can haul and I am very careful to not overdo it. Mine is for short journeys. Parking is easy. Manoevering is easy. It doesn't cost me the earth to fuel.

But I'm only every hauling one small light weight horse / tack and me.
 
For me it would be worth it. Again id only be carrying me,maybe 1 friend and my 15.1hh ish... Would that make me overweight do you think? Im 19 but have been told i can drive a 3.5t on my license is that true?
 
SarahRicoh said:
For me it would be worth it. Again id only be carrying me,maybe 1 friend and my 15.1hh ish... Would that make me overweight do you think? Im 19 but have been told i can drive a 3.5t on my license is that true?
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Yes up to 3.5 ton on a car licence passed after 1997 up to 7.5 ton for a pass before 1997.....
 
3.5T isn't an option for me - we went for 7.5 as we have two big horses so we'd have been overweight without any tack or passengers :rolleyes:
I would do your c cat rather than c1 - it costs about the same (£900 for a 5 day course)
 
Even just carrying that you would have to be careful when you buy to make sure you know what payload you will need to be able to carry everything. But theoretically yes thats possible. Tot up yours and your friends weight add a little for clothing, 2 average handbags, the horses weight again add a decent amount just in case, a haynet, your bag of competition clothing, horses rugs travel kit, your tack, diesel/petrol, water if you want to carry any for horse, buckets and grooming equipment that you would take. Be generous in your estimations of how much things weigh as remember sometimes you may take a picnic etc and you want enough spare weight allowance that you dont have to worry about being overweight when you travel. I worked this out for my 7.5tonner and said to the builder I needed an absolute guaranteed lowest payload of 1.7tonnes on which if I was carrying my 2 horses 16hh+ I would still need to be careful with extras I put in. He achieved an over 1.9tonnes payload so I am absolutely delighted and entirely worry free regarding what kit I can pop in (working on the assumption 3 or 4 humans on board and 2 dogs). 3.5tonners are very good boxes for the relatively small 1 horse owner but just like with 7.5tonners you have to be very careful about your payload! :)
 
I love my 3.5ton lorry but only carry two ponies. Be careful who you buy from and check the mileage carefully with VOSA website. I got done with mine and had to drag the whole thing through the courts! The garage I bought it from now advertises in horse and hound.
 
blood_magik said:
I would do your c cat rather than c1 - it costs about the same (£900 for a 5 day course)
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Good point especially if the training school is using a 7.5 but some use a 5 tonne van
3.5 to 7.5 = C1

The drawback to this is that the medical must always be kept current
The plus is that you might opt to use it for a job


Taking and passing the B+E test so that you can use a large trailer with an apropriate towing vehicle will last for as long as the B (car) licence is valid - so basically for life and does not require medicals
 
ROG said:
Good point especially if the training school is using a 7.5 but some use a 5 tonne van
3.5 to 7.5 = C1

The drawback to this is that the medical must always be kept current
The plus is that you might opt to use it for a job


Taking and passing the B+E test so that you can use a large trailer with an apropriate towing vehicle will last for as long as the B (car) licence is valid - so basically for life and does not require medicals
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Sorry prob being a little blonde but C1 is an LGV and a C is HGV isnt it? As thats what im looking to do, my Cat . C xxx
 
If you do decide to go for a 3.5t make sure you get it on a weigh bridge before you part with the money. I didn't and got caught. Bought mine straight from the manufacturer and was told it had a payload of 1.2 tonnes. Stupidly I believed them. When I went to sell it, purchaser put it on weigh bridge and the payload was actually 800kg !!!! I now have a 7.5 t (cos I'm old) and it has a payload of 2.5t.
 
5horses2dogsandacat said:
Sorry prob being a little blonde but C1 is an LGV and a C is HGV isnt it? As thats what im looking to do, my Cat . C xxx
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HGV is no more - that ended in the 90s when we changed to the EU system of LGV

The UK was the only country to have HGV rules and I think - not sure - that a vehicle between 3.5 to 7.5 was HGV 4 ..... stand to be corrected

C1 is a subcategory of C which is why drivers can go direct from B to C
 
It's alright if you can drive bigger. I'm a type 1 diabetic and can't drive bigger than 3.5t ever :( and since my OH is diabetic aswell i either have to hirse transport with a driver or buy a 3.5t and only take one anywhere :( That is if the EU don't get their way and ban us from driving full stop :mad:
 
We went the other way. Had 7.5t lorries for years and both myself and OH passed our tests pre 97 so no issue driving them.
I got fed up of the expense of a 7.5t when 99% of the time we were only carying one 14.1hh welshie around so we downsized to 3.5t.
That said we looked around for quite a while at what was available and it was either too heavy (made of glassonite) or very poorly made so opted to build my own on an ali body. This way I know the strength is where its needed. I could use design to interlock parts for strength which saves weight but does increase production time and we have it exactely how we want, enclosed horse area with seperate grrom area so no chance of horse going over the top.
Added benefit was it cost a total of £7k to build and is now valued at £18.5k.

This is our baby
Picture039.jpg

Picture041.jpg

Picture046.jpg


And how it started out....
DSC05516.jpg
 
blood_magik said:
ROG - bit off topic but the training place I'm going to uses heavier lorries than that for cat c. the trainer told me it was 8T unladen.
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That's about right for an empty 18 tonne GVW cat C

Cat C1 is anything between 3.5 to 7.5 GVW

did you look at my last post and mix up cat C with cat C1 ?
 
Hello,
I did this and sold it again. Nice little box but like you I quickly realised that with two people, two ponies and the tack I was very very close to the weight limit. THe box I had had no living fitted - the guy at the weigh bridge told me if they have living of any sort fitted they'll likely be overweight with one average sized pony on board.

It was a lovely little box but I sold it in the end as quite apart from the legality of it I was concerned about the safety of the four legged's and I'm guessing here - are you insured if you're over weight??? I doubt it somehow ......just my thoughts.

Wouldn't a 5.5t be a compromise and safer
 
It's horses for courses and it depends on your needs and situation.

I have a 3.5t van conversion, and I love it. But I have one smallish horse and I mostly compete and hunt locally and on my own.

When I looked into horse transport options 2 years ago, it was the best option for me. Not everyone who drives a 3.5t is "too lazy" to do a lorry or trailer test as some posters have suggested. Sometimes it comes down to time and finances. 2 years ago I was living about 50 miles from the nearest training/testing facility. So, not so easy to do the test when you have to factor in time off work and travelling there and back every day.

It irks me when owners of larger lorries get so smug about weight limits and safety - an awful lot of larger lorries have very little payload and are probably often overloaded - especially the luxury ones with all the bells and whistles! And a lot of older lorries are pretty damn scary, poorly converted and poorly maintained.

The essential point is, that before parting with any money you need to consider carefully your own situation. How many horses do you want to carry, how far and how frequently? And what activities do you do? Hunting does not require carrying a lot of kit, eventing does! Do you have somewhere to park a large lorry? Do the costs of running a lorry and a small car work out better for you than the costs of running a 4x4 all the time.
 
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