Horsebox on a budget

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Dunpony

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Which is more important when buying a box with a small budget, low mileage or newer chassis?
What mileage would be tooo high for you? 300k?
TIA
 
I was encouraged to go older with low mileage with my puny budget, and bought a mk1 Renault master. There's no electrics to go wrong and it's been a great little box ? I've passed my hgv now so it needs to go but it was the right choice for me.
 
Totallly agree - older body with lower mileage, if rust is not an issue.

My new (old!) Renault master Mk 1 3.5 t is an L reg, but only 123,000 miles (diesel). My garage love it as so basic very little to go wrong and easy to maintain. The only issue is parts can be harder to come by...…...
 
Neither mileage nor chassis. Look for a good maintenance history and inspect the vehicle or get someone who knows about the vehicles to inspect them.
 
I agree with Hack4fun, the mileage on a 7.5 ton lorry is immaterial if it has been maintained well. These vehicles, in their former life, were designed to travel many miles every day & do numerous drops. You get more problems when they are changed into horseboxes and they stand for weeks on end waiting to be used. You have to take the overall view when looking at a horsebox with no particular thing being more important than anything else.The lorry I bought 3 years ago had done 400000 kms (about 250000 miles) which didn't bother me as it was regularly serviced & drove extremely well. The bodywork was good, sound chassis & floor in horse area & a payload of 2.2 tons. The horsebox was aluminium (Tristar) and since buying it it hasn't missed a beat & has sailed through 3 tests. I've had it serviced & I've replaced rear tyres as the sun had got to them & although they had plenty of tread the tread was laminating off the tyre (Remoulds) I put new on to replace them. Oh, the lorry is a 180hp MAN so plenty of power & goes really smoothly.

When looking at older lorries check the cab out, many have heavy rusting, the old DAF45 in particular. Look for a lorry with plenty of horse power. My first was a 130hp which was very sluggish & climbing a hill with a couple of horses on board was an embarrassment, go for a minimum of 150hp. Speak with a lorry mechanic regarding the availability of parts for the older vehicle, it's important. Also consider the ULW, many lorries sacrifice ULW for loads of living with cooker, fridge etc. All this looks nice but do you really need it if you aren't going to stay away shows & you need the ULW to accomadate your horse/s, tack & driver & passengers. Good Luck in your search, don't buy the first one you see unless it's great, there are loads out there to choose from.
 
Was really lucky we bought a 2004 lorry with only 127k genuine as checked the MOTS on the clock for just under £4,000 full history and a new ramp think it is an older horsebox on the back but it is sound if a little tatty inside
 
I bought a low mileage 5t lorry as a doer upper (wish I hadn't). Got it fairly cheap and locally. Its a 2001 ex london council bin lorry, its only don't 57000km (about 35000 miles) engine doesn't miss a beat can stand for ages and still starts everytime. Its a iveco daily.
We spent ages rubbing down the chassis and wax-oiled it. We repainted it. It was fun and exciting getting our first lorry up together ready for the show season. We always had trailers before.
The welding and MOT cost us about £1200, got it home and my other half was doing something underneath and spotted a bit of wood worm in the floor of the horse area - we then got down and both had a proper look. :eek: We're going to have to pull the whole floor up and start again. It looks like someone has laid a new marine ply (think that's the name of it) floor over the top of the original planks. We had it inspected when we first bought it, but I guess the bloke was having an 'off' day or just missed it like we did. But we now have 'cheap' lorry sat in the yard which we can't use and no transport. I've spent around £5k on it which I really didn't have to spare (I'm not sure many do). I'm now saving for a new floor or a new body - I which I'd never sold the old Equitrek trailer.

So In my case low mileage and full service history means nothing. You really need to look at the whole picture.
 
dorsetladette said:
I bought a low mileage 5t lorry as a doer upper (wish I hadn't). Got it fairly cheap and locally. Its a 2001 ex london council bin lorry, its only don't 57000km (about 35000 miles) engine doesn't miss a beat can stand for ages and still starts everytime. Its a iveco daily.
We spent ages rubbing down the chassis and wax-oiled it. We repainted it. It was fun and exciting getting our first lorry up together ready for the show season. We always had trailers before.
The welding and MOT cost us about £1200, got it home and my other half was doing something underneath and spotted a bit of wood worm in the floor of the horse area - we then got down and both had a proper look. :eek: We're going to have to pull the whole floor up and start again. It looks like someone has laid a new marine ply (think that's the name of it) floor over the top of the original planks. We had it inspected when we first bought it, but I guess the bloke was having an 'off' day or just missed it like we did. But we now have 'cheap' lorry sat in the yard which we can't use and no transport. I've spent around £5k on it which I really didn't have to spare (I'm not sure many do). I'm now saving for a new floor or a new body - I which I'd never sold the old Equitrek trailer.

So In my case low mileage and full service history means nothing. You really need to look at the whole picture.
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A new floor is an easy DIY job. I've done 2 in trailers now. Same principle just a bigger area. You can buy either hardwood planks, phenolic ply or aluminum planks and fit it yourself. I always try and replace like with like, so if yours had planks originally I'd go for that. Usually costs me less than £200 for a trailer floor inc screws and drill bits etc, so it wont break the bank. And the most fun bit of doing up trailers is ripping the floor out!
 
Haha! taking the floor out of my little box was difficult :p But I agree with the principle LW. It was not a daunting task, just tricky to get the glue up and the old granulated rubber that was fixed to the wood was sooooo heavy o_O
was nice to see the original van floor was in tip top condition though. I wouldn't be put off by needing to replace a floor again, but it would be annoying to find it was a job that needed doing that you hadn't expected.
 
300k not high for a 7.5 lorry as long as has been looked after, if from a recognised transporter should have been regularly services and have full records. This is more important than cheaper lower mileage which might cost more in the end! Good makes are DAF and MAN some Ivecos can have problems with rust. Running costs of bigger lorries may be more but cheaper to buy. 3,5 cheaper to run but may not last as long unless an original coach built such as a racing box.
 
Mine well over 400,000 km on it whent we bought it ten years ago as a truck to convert. It is a 7.5 tonne one and presumably had spent its time going up and down the motorways. The chassis was in really good condition - unfortuately two years of doing county shows on very wet summer ground being towed in and out quite regularly meant it wasn't quite so smart a bit later but it is still pretty good. OH is a mechanic and whilst he tries to do as few horsesboxes as possible, he says they drive very differently even the same makes so ensure it drives well - does it pull well up a hill. A friend has a similar lorry (same age, same engine) and it doesn't pull up a hill anything like as well as ours does partly because the living is built of heavy fittings. Ours has had a lot of work done over time but OH likes to do things right but even so it still manages to find new things to need replacing on a regular basis!
 
Leo Walker said:
A new floor is an easy DIY job. I've done 2 in trailers now. Same principle just a bigger area. You can buy either hardwood planks, phenolic ply or aluminum planks and fit it yourself. I always try and replace like with like, so if yours had planks originally I'd go for that. Usually costs me less than £200 for a trailer floor inc screws and drill bits etc, so it wont break the bank. And the most fun bit of doing up trailers is ripping the floor out!
Click to expand...

I'd do a trailer floor again in a heart beat.

My lorry is like a shrunk 7.5t with living in the front third and a partition wall across the middle. It all looks a bit technical to me. Other half planning on taking the horse area floor out and then welding a cross member (sounds rude) across where the join would be and then lay a new floor in the rear.

While he is working his magic I will be treating the wood worm in the living floor so it doesn't infect the new floor.
 
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