Horsebox build.....our story!

Excellent news! Bar the horse damage...
They are a lovely well thought out box! We see the family out often on the circuit and it’s clear a great deal of thought goes into each box...

Think my missus could do less damage with a set of hooves...

Spooky how the mysterious damage fairy attacks our lorry overnight...:(

When pointing out the damage and asking how certain bits have been ripped off i’m met with ‘it wasn’t me’ .....probably more often than the other famous quote..’new shoes? No don’t be stupid i’ve had these ages....’

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Due to the forum deleting all the previous images have had a request to highlight how the tilt cab / living area separate and then seal...

We made 2 H frames which have to be measured exactly the same size. One is bolted to the back of the cab and the pod which makes the whole thing rigid and stops the pod flexing. The second bolts to the back half of the lorry.
On the back half you captive weld some large nuts but plan where these are going to be carefully.

When the cab is flat the two half’s of the H frames meet perfectly. You bolt both half’s together effectively making the cab and rear body one rigid unit. Two of the bolts will be accessed from the inside of the pod and two from inside the living area behind the cab area... hence the bolts go in different directions...
The pod bolts go backwards...the living bolts go forwards... hence you need to plan carefully where these will be... because to tilt the cab in the future you need to get easy access to the bolts..!! Mine are in the rear recesses of the pod and the bottom ones are under the bench seats in the living..

You do need to plan it because you do need to work out what will go where subsequently...like water heaters, batteries etc...

The seals are traditional rubber seals which are affixed between the two H frames... this will stop water ingress between the body and the tilt cab!

The first photo shows the pod and side ears fitted to the cab. It is imperative that these are all square and lined up. The first H frame is then bolted to the cab forming the front half...
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Sorry but this forum has got harder to use now!

The next photo shows the rear half of the lorry where the second H frame is bolted and becomes an integral to the body... when the cab is lowered both H frames meet together and can be bolted via the captive welded nuts...
Hence the cab and the rear body now become one complete rigid unit!
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Step alarm.....!!

Well peeps quick update....sorry for those people who now can’t see the earlier pictures.. I can re do any specifically if asked...

But for all those contemplating a build or updating their boxes consider a step alarm...what I hear you say? Other than those rich people who own an Oakley or Lehel....
I had’nt heard of one either... until last weekend when a number of people said subsequently..’don’t you have a step alarm?’ Thanks for telling me now...this was after my wife, albeit it being 5am and trying to manoeuvre a lorry around the yard prior to an early start ripped the yard gatepost off by trying to squeeze a Mercedes truck through a hole which was two foot smaller than her!

Fortunately little damage to the truck..alas the gatepost faired worse...

So a really really simple buzzer (really really really loud) has been now wired up in the cab... quick bonnet type switch (wired to earth) has been set up so that when the step is down the switch completes the circuit.. the power to the buzzer has been taken from an ignition feed...

Simple to do and easy to wire...as she tries to start the truck with the step down she is now deafened with a buzzer as a gentle reminder...she won’t be doing that again!

Quick and easy solution and hopefully an idea for a few others with their lorries!
 
Farmer Chalk said:
Step alarm.....!!

Well peeps quick update....sorry for those people who now can’t see the earlier pictures.. I can re do any specifically if asked...

But for all those contemplating a build or updating their boxes consider a step alarm...what I hear you say? Other than those rich people who own an Oakley or Lehel....
I had’nt heard of one either... until last weekend when a number of people said subsequently..’don’t you have a step alarm?’ Thanks for telling me now...this was after my wife, albeit it being 5am and trying to manoeuvre a lorry around the yard prior to an early start ripped the yard gatepost off by trying to squeeze a Mercedes truck through a hole which was two foot smaller than her!

Fortunately little damage to the truck..alas the gatepost faired worse...

So a really really simple buzzer (really really really loud) has been now wired up in the cab... quick bonnet type switch (wired to earth) has been set up so that when the step is down the switch completes the circuit.. the power to the buzzer has been taken from an ignition feed...

Simple to do and easy to wire...as she tries to start the truck with the step down she is now deafened with a buzzer as a gentle reminder...she won’t be doing that again!

Quick and easy solution and hopefully an idea for a few others with their lorries!
Click to expand...


Ha Ha, we had one on the work's lorries after one of the wagons suffered a similar fate on a lamp post!
 
Farmer Chalk said:
Step alarm.....!!

Well peeps quick update....sorry for those people who now can’t see the earlier pictures.. I can re do any specifically if asked...

But for all those contemplating a build or updating their boxes consider a step alarm...what I hear you say? Other than those rich people who own an Oakley or Lehel....
I had’nt heard of one either... until last weekend when a number of people said subsequently..’don’t you have a step alarm?’ Thanks for telling me now...this was after my wife, albeit it being 5am and trying to manoeuvre a lorry around the yard prior to an early start ripped the yard gatepost off by trying to squeeze a Mercedes truck through a hole which was two foot smaller than her!

Fortunately little damage to the truck..alas the gatepost faired worse...

So a really really simple buzzer (really really really loud) has been now wired up in the cab... quick bonnet type switch (wired to earth) has been set up so that when the step is down the switch completes the circuit.. the power to the buzzer has been taken from an ignition feed...

Simple to do and easy to wire...as she tries to start the truck with the step down she is now deafened with a buzzer as a gentle reminder...she won’t be doing that again!

Quick and easy solution and hopefully an idea for a few others with their lorries!
Click to expand...
A friend of mine did exactly this after driving his lorry out of its covered yard, taking one of the main posts with him!
 
A very common predicament!
I’m guilty of steps down and getting jammed on an ornamental brick mounting block.

..... you only do it once 😊
 
Had a few people ask for some of the further original photos so have reduced the image size and will repost them...
The first was the original lorry as we bought it...a water bottle delivery lorry!502E666C-8488-4F3C-ADE6-26AFCC9339A8.jpeg0A4F75F4-0074-4CC4-A414-22EB48846D5F.jpeg
 
This month’s update...
Bit of light preparation ready for its test later this week... always dreaded and more threatened expense...just put four new tyres across the rear axle...the old ones although still having plenty of tread but the sidewalls were starting to show their age with a few cracks appearing...this is unfortunately the consequence of being parked for long periods of time...

Shopping around found 4 new ones for £950... although this sounds expensive when you see how big the tyres are I think it’s quite good value! Car tyres can cost more!

Lorry was in exalted company earlier this month and went to see the Queen.. had a full week stay at the Royal Windsor Horse Show...

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It’s was certainly been busy now...it survived 7 days at RWHS and performed admirably...slightly daunting arriving between the huge Hungarian lorries, the Army, and the Omanies.... some of the lorries from the Continent were just huge!
Drat I missed the washing machine and separate tumble dryer in our build! Lol!

Still the horse enjoyed spending the week in such Royal company!

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Thanks... the main reason for the thread was to understand why boxes are so so expensive... but that you can do it cheaper and have a lot of fun if you use the forum to help know what was needed, what people would do differently, source bits from the internet, and outsource some of the harder bits!
It is constantly being redesigned and updating things as we go but overall it was considerably cheaper and more rewarding than buying readybuilt!
 
Year Four Running Report...

Been contacted by a couple of forum members for updates and photos...apologies for those reading this for the first time...the original post appears not to have survived the IT experts at Horse and Hound who have corrupted and culled all of the images and most of the text...

Anyone brave who is considering building a box then please feel free to PM me and I will try and update the photos and repost them accordingly...

Anyway... back to the running report...

it‘s now 5 years since the start of our story and the truck has been plying the roads of Britain for the last 4 years now...

Overall she has been excellent with most of the work being the replacement of the nearside mirrors....apparently here in Kent we have special trees that move their branches and prey on passing Mercedes trucks...

Best one was when the truck returned from a mission with all three left hand mirrors missing...vicious these Sycamores...

Still it’s done wonders for my eBay profile as I have now reached the exulted status of preferred buyer and often receive bonus discounts from mirror salesmen!

Would I do it again? And what would I do differently? A question often asked.....
Probably not giving my daughter a donkey ride aged three could have potentially saved myself tens of thousands of pounds.... so if you have young children just say no and make up an excuse ..


Running a lorry does come with added costs.. the primary one being servicing and fuel but the benefits far exceed those costs..

Last Xmas we even took our horses to Norfolk to enjoy the break when staying with relatives...the added benefit of having taken our own additional accommodation with us allowed a big family get together!!

Overall the main expense over the last couple of years has been the cost of replacing the tyres...this was done mainly for age reasons rather than them wearing down but safety is paramount...these were approx £250 each and there’s four of them on the rear axle...

Servicing costs have been approximately £1200 per year which include the MOT testing and tacho calibration..

The most time consuming job has been trying to keep the dreaded tin worm at bay...rust is definately the biggest enemy of horse boxes and this summer I spent a couple of days back underneath the chassis repainting and protecting all of the outriggers underneath...I think the problem is exemplified by the low skirts on the box which traps the moisture... and even the dew will create dampness underneath...

Doing things differently? I think every Horsebox is a compromise to the ultimate...the bigger the lorry the more problem it is getting it in tight spaces or small yards...so overall I think ours works pretty well...yes I would like to have made a bigger box but logistics dictate otherwise...

I think the next box would have air conditioning for the driver...the horses have it but on a hot M25 the driver definately suffers...this is of course made worse by the fact that the lorry build encases the engine... previously before conversion, the heat and hot air escaped behind the cab and dissipated out in the atmosphere.
After the build the engine is enclosed by the rear body and the cab ears so the engine heat builds up and has nowhere to escape...hence it tries to come back up through the cab... sealing the cab and adding additional vents into the side ears has been a continual process and I think finally we have now sorted it ...

in short the lorry has been excellent and bar the mirrors is surviving well..I thoroughly recommend anyone biting the bullet and building their own!
 
Farmer Chalk you have inspired me and given me hope that we will have a lovely horsebox in the end.
Our Horsebox ownership journey has taken an interesting turn. After battling water ingress on the body for the last 9years we found a hole in the living floor. Having already replaced the floor in the horse area, we set to and stripped out the living, Ready for the OH to replace the floor. After one of those Friday night conversations with several glasses of wine we decided that it would be worth an update of the living and a bit of tidy up for the horses. Therefore, we progressed our stripping out into the horse area to find the GRP on the body resembled something akin to a soggy weetabix.. Further investigation we found that this was the whole side and part of the front box ! Lots of head scratching later we decided that it might be better to pension off the old girl, despite her still been machanically sound and purchase a new base vehicle with box. However, after a long chat with our garage, I won’t go into the detail, but we decided this would be a frying and fire scenario, so have decided to stick with the old girl !!
So the planning has started ! The box is stripped and removed from the back of the wagon so we can have a good look at wagon chassis ready for a clean back, sandblast and epoxy mastic coating to keep the rot worm away. When I have worked out how to post photos I will post a few.
 
Excellent news...we all need another project! Readers of this forum were the inspiration with some brilliant ideas And hopefully they will help out again!
Your postman is going to be very helpful during the build so make friends now..he delivered our box bit by bit..
also did wonders for my eBay and Amazon profiles! Use the internet for searching out those parts!
We need photos!
Good luck
 
Things on the horsebox refurb have moved forward a little this week, we have completely stripped the chassis down now removing all the brakes and lines, fuel tank and wiring harness etc.. So that we can get to her chassis clean back all of the rust and epoxy resin coating the chassis in the hope that we can give her another 20 years of life. We think we have now secured a wagon back to form the basis of the conversion, so a trip down south tomorrow to check it out. We have always found our old box quite high and I am trying to talk my long suffering other half into lowering the box on the chassis, this will entail removing the main chassis rails on the box and fixing the floor supports to the main wagon chassis. We will need to relocate the batteries and also re-pipe the fuel tank filler, along with a few other alterations. Has anyone else ever done this at all? I am wondering if there are any pit falls that we have not thought off that could stop this from working.

Still struggling with posting photos.. Will keep trying :)
 

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Exciting times! You’re certainly doing things the right way...get the basic chassis sorted and rust proofed... and change as many service items whilst you have easy access...

We had to move the battery trays and the air tanks around the chassis to get things to work...the chassis looks the perfect length and now is the time to start planning the length of the living versus horse area....
To get the folding step located correctly we had to move the air tanks forward and replace the battery tray to the other side...lots of chassis are pre drilled so it wasn’t too much of an issue...

To save some weight you could consider losing the steel cross beams and replacing them with aluminium ones, or maybe the new body already has them? What is imperative is that all the levels on the body chassis are true..you may need to shim the body in certain places Otherwise it may cause issues when it comes to making the rear ramp etc...

Great stuff and keep up the good work...you’re another day closer!!
 
A quick update the we have have the new box ready for the chassis once the work has been completed - and the long awaited lance for the wet sandblaster has now arrived so we can get on with sandblasting the old girl. :).
 

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Year 5 update...
well it’s been a bit of a bizarre year hasn’t it! With most of this last years events cancelled the mileage on the truck has been pretty minimal..
unfortunately keeping a truck on the road is still pretty expensive even if it’s not used!

We still have to MOT it and still have to have the tacho calibrated every two years.. tonight it is trepidation time as we have just dropped the truck down for it’s yearly MOT..and my only hope is that they find nothing too expensive ...

Upon my initial inspection I’ve had to change a few things.. the wiper blades were suffering and were an easy replacement but the period of lay up has done nothing for the brakes...
Both front discs had suffered with the wet weather which seemed incessant in the preceding months.. both had corroded and once used had left scored and damaged discs.
Another £500 in parts but you can never scrimp on safety...

Over the winter the snow and ice had also done it no favours..unfortunately it lives outside in all weathers and the frost had blown a couple of the under truck connectors from the main water tank to the pumps...hence during the quieter lockdown periods I was underneath the old girl servicing her waterworks..

Replacing the poly pipe connectors was really easy and I changed the water inlet pipes for one that is actually hidden under an integrated cover...it stops the mud and road dirt covering the inlet hoses...

Whilst I was under there I also created a proper drainage system so the kitchen sink and the shower unit now both can drain into a proper soil tank... I was always pretty embarrassed attending posh show grounds and decent yards only to dump our effluent all over their drives or hardstandings...not nice!
So hopefully we won’t be messy anymore! Or more importantly add to the mud bath that some lorry parks at big events seem to be!

Word of warning to all those running HGV’s... the new legislation is now in force regarding tyre ages. If your lorry tyres are older than ten years old irrespective of what condition or tread they still have they will fail the MOT! So be prepared for a big expense! Most tyres are circa £200-£300 each so check yours out or prepare prior to any test!
You can tell their age by four figures moulded into the sidewall...eg. 2414....this identifies when the tyre was manufactured and is standard across all makes...in this instance it shows this tyre was made on the 24th production week of 2014.

Anyway let you know how she does on the MOT in a few days...

Fingers crossed everyone!
 
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