horsebox people....is this a high mileage?

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LittleMouse

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hiya x we are looking to buy a 2 horse van/box. have found one that sounds perfect. we have rung the women and she says is has done about 140,000 miles as she is a showjumper and so travels far, and it has also hired it out a few times. is this very high? we have never had a box before so i wouldnt know. would you buy a box with this mileage? it has been recently fully serviced and had everything that is needed fixed/tweeked or whatever they do hahah xx
thanks :)
 
That sounds fine, a lot do upto 600'000!! Although it may read in kilometres so don't be alarmed if you get in and it says double, she has just converted it to miles.
 
No No NO!

These 2 boxes are not horse boxes!!!

They are not lorry engines!

These are previously owned parcel delivery vehicles (dhl/city link) before they are converted to horse boxes

so treat as you would a car engine, so yes high mileage and would have been thrown around by drivers and temp drivers!

The words look carefully! Take along a good mechanic with you!

Lorry diesel engines are totally different!
 
foraday said:
No No NO!

These 2 boxes are not horse boxes!!!

They are not lorry engines!

These are previously owned parcel delivery vehicles (dhl/city link) before they are converted to horse boxes

so treat as you would a car engine, so yes high mileage and would have been thrown around by drivers and temp drivers!

The words look carefully! Take along a good mechanic with you!

Lorry diesel engines are totally different!
Click to expand...

Agreed, get it checked out by a good mechanic but on the plus side, commercial vehicles have to be checked regularly and well maintained.
 
if it is 3.5 tonnes then it does not need the same checks as a heavier vehicle. mine has done 1.3 million km's but is a long range distance truck. If it is transit/ sprinter type check what it has done in a previous life! Could have been anything from parcel delivery to Europe wide next day delivery van!
 
Not for a van, no. Correct servicing is more important as far as I'm concerned.
Our lowest mileage car has over 150,000 on the clock, the highest is over 220,000. That's on a petrol engine too :D

If it doesn't have a comprehensive service history, don't touch it-unless it's seriously cheap and you don't mind spending your weekends fixing your box instead of riding your horse ;):D
 
foraday said:
No No NO!

These 2 boxes are not horse boxes!!!

They are not lorry engines!

These are previously owned parcel delivery vehicles (dhl/city link) before they are converted to horse boxes

so treat as you would a car engine, so yes high mileage and would have been thrown around by drivers and temp drivers!

The words look carefully! Take along a good mechanic with you!

Lorry diesel engines are totally different!
Click to expand...


My mechanic assures me that a van size diesel engine should be perfectly happy to to at least 250,000 miles. Since most of us do about 3,000 a year with horses there's an absolute ton of life left in that engine as a horsebox unless it's a bad one. My V reg pickup truck has done 250,000 and is a much smaller engine, but it's difficult to tell it from a new one. I have friends who drive a Volvo estate that's done a lot more on than that on the original engine.
 
When I was looking I asked what mileage it had done etc but in reality what is shown probably isnt in the majority of cases the mileage. I learnt a lot with the help of a few members on here and one of theings I learnt was the tacho heads can and are often changed so the mileage wont be what its actually done. If you open the tacho head a sticker should be there to show the date and mileage before it was changed. I viewed one wagon with low mileage... but when I opened the tacho the sticker read over 300000km so it wasnt low mileage after all as this was before the mileage on the speedo. I also learnt that wagons as long as they are looked after are built to go on and on so basically to ignore the mileage. I often smile when I see wagons with low mileage of 46k or something. Yeh right lol.
 
I have a mercedes 3.5t sprinter diesel and its done 224000 miles (52 plate) - recently converted to a horsebox - was an ocado delivery vehicle -always been well looked after as part of the fleet. - been told by lots of people now that 224000 is nothing for a merc sprinter engine - may need a new engine at 600-700k miles!!!! - the body will die before engine! - i will do 5000 a year so even if i have it 10 yrs still only adding approx 50k! - it runs lovely. dont let high mileage on a recently converted vehicle worry you -

I would be more concerned about a low mileage horsebox - stood around doing nothing and everything seizing!
 
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