Horsebox floor Rubber V EVA which is best?

[Springs]

Hi All,

I am in the process of converting a 7.5t box van into a horse box. The base floor in the horse section is being replaced with alloy planking from service metals.

I am looking to find out what others are using on the finished floors now as there seems to be the options of rubber matting or EVA matting, some options are plain edge finishes and others are interlocked. The EVA (24mm thick) is quite soft and may not recover from horses shoes etc, where as the rubber (19mm thick) is very heavy and will impact the load. Both are advertised as suitable for flooring.

Does anyone have any feedback on what they have used?

Thanks

 

[VRIN]

I have rubber - it is quite heavy to lift but does the job.

 

[milliepops]

I have the horsebox mats from Equimat (they do a discount over badminton , :wink3 they interlock, are about 1m square each and a lightweight mix of eva and rubber - I'm super chuffed with them. They are slightly softer than the stable EVA mats so the horses have good stability when travelling but they are standing up to use brilliantly. Easy to sweep out and I can quickly lift them up if I need to . I'd have them again in a heartbeat.

 

[Quigleyandme]

I bought a horsebox with Coat-X on the floor, ramp and half way up the walls of the horse container. It was a big selling point and a big reason why I bought from this manufacturer. It was slippery on the floor and abrasive on the walls. We put rubber mats on top of it and the horse was much happier.

 

[Farmer Chalk]

We have the heavy stable matting in ours so I can’t give advise on which is better though...
Are you having a living area and have you laid your floor yet? If you haven’t it’s an idea to leave an inch gap between the living floor area and the divide between the horse floor area... this way it stops any horse contaminant I.e. wee soaking in and ruining your living area...only a thought...

 

[Springs]

Thanks for the information. all very useful.

 

[Red-1]

I have had both, heavy rubber in the big wagons and lightweight EVA in my current 3.5.

The heavy rubber was stuck down and sealed as it was too heavy to regularly move. I felt confident to stud up in the wagon, and had no issues loading up between sections to get changed with studs in. They did mark the rubber, but not badly. I could wash out the rear of the wagon.

The new small box came with EVA. I did not initially like it, there has to be a gap for expansion, and the poo and pee gets down. Having said that, I have found it light and easy to lift, so if the horse pees or does a sloppy poo I always lift, wash and towel dry the floor (unless it is hot and sunny when it can air dry).

I also think it is more shock absorbing, so the journey may be less concussive on the joints.

I have not had studs on the EVA flooring. I suspect it could puncture and I can imagine the mat coming out of the box attached to the horse could cause something of a commotion.