Horsebox search!

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oldbaymare

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Hi
As my much loved horsebox is coming to the end of its days I'm on the hunt for a replacement. Where do people recommend for a bog standard but safe 7.5 ton box? I am struggling to find anything in the 15-20k price range that doesn't look like it will only do a few more years. I don't need flash living, I don't mind if horse area needs tarting up but I do need safe, rust free and a ramp I can manage alone! Am I being totally unrealistic with the budget? Any help or advice gratefully received x
 
You are not being unrealistic in what you are looking for. There are loads of boxes out there & certainly one that will suit you. There is no particular place to look that is better than some other place. There are plenty to look at on Facebook, two years ago I sold mine there & to be honest the buyer got a bargain, in fact they have it up for sale again on Facebook for £3500 more than they bought it off me for (I think they're being a little greedy though). So 2 years ago I looked all over the place for what I wanted, I wanted a Tristar or similar, stick sided traditional style box. I find that smooth sided ones with fancy paint jobs soon get scraped & scratched down narrow lanes. I also wanted a powerful engine, my last one was 130hp so a bit 'gutless' on hills. I looked at Central England Horseboxes, they were selling castly overpriced rubbish. Their photos on their website looked good but in reality they were tatty. Similarly Horsebox Seller had a lot of overpriced rubbish. They take in boxes from people & sell them for them & take a percentage I believe. I found my new box of all places on Ebay! It was a '53' plate MAN 7.5 ton Tristar. The box was totally alluminium so it had a payload of 2.2 tons. It had a very small living area which was big enough for sink & twin burner hob & slept 2 in the luton. With the payload it can legally carry 3 horses but I only carry 2. The engine was 180hp so loads of power & air suspension so I can lower the back down to decrease the gradient on the ramp. It was advertised on Ebay for £13000 & no one bought. It went on again for £12000 & again no mone bought. I'd seen it by wasn't ready to buy. When I'd sold mine I contacted the owner to see if he still had it. He said yes. I asked him what it would take to buy it & he told me he's had someone come & offer £10500 but he'd gone on holiday, not left a deposit & had not committed to it. I asked him if I could come & view it & it I was interested could I have it nif I bettered his offer. The guy agreed. I traveled to Hereford, saw the lorry & loved it. Great condition, loads of power, comfortable drive, even to stalls were alluminium. I offered him £100 over the price offered by the other guy & it was accepted. A week later it was at our yard. I've been very happy with it & it's gone through 2 tests now & passed without any problem. Just goes to show you can get a good lorry from anywhere you just have to be prepared to look & spend time on your computer. I was prepared to spend up to £18000 at the time but got what I wanted for £8000 less. You have a similar budget & so you will have a load of choice. Most sellers are pretty desperate to sell so be prepared to go in with a lower price & negotiate. Many have bought a newer lorry & are still trying to sell their old one & there can be a bargain to be had.
Good luck with the search, stick withi, spend time on your computer searching & you will find what you want & hopefully under budget.

Phil
 
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We went to Horsebox seller too! The advert we answered bore no relation to the truly awful vehicle it was attached to! Other rubbish vehicles there too, very expensive. Avoid it!!
THe next one will be a Thorpe Horsebox. They have a brilliant reputation.
 
Where are you? A friend is selling a compact 7.5t with 6 months plating left on it down in Surrey for the lower end of your budget, think it's a 2000 reg.
HorseQuest also seems to have alot advertised
 
If you’re SE then Thorpe might be a good place to try. Bought my basic 7.5t off him years ago and it kept going really well for years. Suspect local Facebook horse groups would be your best bet although get it checked out pre purchase unless you’re knowledgeable.
 
chaps89 said:
Where are you? A friend is selling a compact 7.5t with 6 months plating left on it down in Surrey for the lower end of your budget, think it's a 2000 reg.
HorseQuest also seems to have alot advertised
Click to expand...
I'm in Cumbria so a bit far but thanks anyway!
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
You are not being unrealistic in what you are looking for. There are loads of boxes out there & certainly one that will suit you. There is no particular place to look that is better than some other place. There are plenty to look at on Facebook, two years ago I sold mine there & to be honest the buyer got a bargain, in fact they have it up for sale again on Facebook for £3500 more than they bought it off me for (I think they're being a little greedy though). So 2 years ago I looked all over the place for what I wanted, I wanted a Tristar or similar, stick sided traditional style box. I find that smooth sided ones with fancy paint jobs soon get scraped & scratched down narrow lanes. I also wanted a powerful engine, my last one was 130hp so a bit 'gutless' on hills. I looked at Central England Horseboxes, they were selling castly overpriced rubbish. Their photos on their website looked good but in reality they were tatty. Similarly Horsebox Seller had a lot of overpriced rubbish. They take in boxes from people & sell them for them & take a percentage I believe. I found my new box of all places on Ebay! It was a '53' plate MAN 7.5 ton Tristar. The box was totally alluminium so it had a payload of 2.2 tons. It had a very small living area which was big enough for sink & twin burner hob & slept 2 in the luton. With the payload it can legally carry 3 horses but I only carry 2. The engine was 180hp so loads of power & air suspension so I can lower the back down to decrease the gradient on the ramp. It was advertised on Ebay for £13000 & no one bought. It went on again for £12000 & again no mone bought. I'd seen it by wasn't ready to buy. When I'd sold mine I contacted the owner to see if he still had it. He said yes. I asked him what it would take to buy it & he told me he's had someone come & offer £10500 but he'd gone on holiday, not left a deposit & had not committed to it. I asked him if I could come & view it & it I was interested could I have it nif I bettered his offer. The guy agreed. I traveled to Hereford, saw the lorry & loved it. Great condition, loads of power, comfortable drive, even to stalls were alluminium. I offered him £100 over the price offered by the other guy & it was accepted. A week later it was at our yard. I've been very happy with it & it's gone through 2 tests now & passed without any problem. Just goes to show you can get a good lorry from anywhere you just have to be prepared to look & spend time on your computer. I was prepared to spend up to £18000 at the time but got what I wanted for £8000 less. You have a similar budget & so you will have a load of choice. Most sellers are pretty desperate to sell so be prepared to go in with a lower price & negotiate. Many have bought a newer lorry & are still trying to sell their old one & there can be a bargain to be had.
Good luck with the search, stick withi, spend time on your computer searching & you will find what you want & hopefully under budget.

Phil
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reassurance, I'll keep looking! Good to know to avoid Central England and horsebox seller as I was considering a visit to them. I will look into Tristar, thanks again 😊
 
Bernster said:
If you’re SE then Thorpe might be a good place to try. Bought my basic 7.5t off him years ago and it kept going really well for years. Suspect local Facebook horse groups would be your best bet although get it checked out pre purchase unless you’re knowledgeable.
Click to expand...
Thank you but I'm in Cumbria! Will definitely be getting it checked 😊
 
Hack4fun, I can't remember the length of mine but it is one panel shorter than the Tristar I have shown the link for above. The payload of mine is 2.2 tons. It can carry 3 horses legally or 4 ponies although I've only carried 2 horses. The one I've shown the link for above would be a great no frills work horse & it's being sold by Tristar the company that built it. (I have no connection with the company, just a fan of their trucks.
 
I bought my lorry from Horsebox Seller, was a good price & we negotiated with them. I took a mechanic with me & we discounted the ones he didn’t think were any good. They did a few little bits & pieces & we picked it up 10 days later. I thought they were great!
 
merlinsquest said:
I bought my lorry from Horsebox Seller, was a good price & we negotiated with them. I took a mechanic with me & we discounted the ones he didn’t think were any good. They did a few little bits & pieces & we picked it up 10 days later. I thought they were great!
Click to expand...

Yep me too. Had mine for over four years now. It had hardly been used - still had the plastic on the oven and fridge. You just have to have somebody knowledgeable with you and it depends what they have in when you are looking.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
You are not being unrealistic in what you are looking for. There are loads of boxes out there & certainly one that will suit you. There is no particular place to look that is better than some other place. There are plenty to look at on Facebook, two years ago I sold mine there & to be honest the buyer got a bargain, in fact they have it up for sale again on Facebook for £3500 more than they bought it off me for (I think they're being a little greedy though). So 2 years ago I looked all over the place for what I wanted, I wanted a Tristar or similar, stick sided traditional style box. I find that smooth sided ones with fancy paint jobs soon get scraped & scratched down narrow lanes. I also wanted a powerful engine, my last one was 130hp so a bit 'gutless' on hills. I looked at Central England Horseboxes, they were selling castly overpriced rubbish. Their photos on their website looked good but in reality they were tatty. Similarly Horsebox Seller had a lot of overpriced rubbish. They take in boxes from people & sell them for them & take a percentage I believe. I found my new box of all places on Ebay! It was a '53' plate MAN 7.5 ton Tristar. The box was totally alluminium so it had a payload of 2.2 tons. It had a very small living area which was big enough for sink & twin burner hob & slept 2 in the luton. With the payload it can legally carry 3 horses but I only carry 2. The engine was 180hp so loads of power & air suspension so I can lower the back down to decrease the gradient on the ramp. It was advertised on Ebay for £13000 & no one bought. It went on again for £12000 & again no mone bought. I'd seen it by wasn't ready to buy. When I'd sold mine I contacted the owner to see if he still had it. He said yes. I asked him what it would take to buy it & he told me he's had someone come & offer £10500 but he'd gone on holiday, not left a deposit & had not committed to it. I asked him if I could come & view it & it I was interested could I have it nif I bettered his offer. The guy agreed. I traveled to Hereford, saw the lorry & loved it. Great condition, loads of power, comfortable drive, even to stalls were alluminium. I offered him £100 over the price offered by the other guy & it was accepted. A week later it was at our yard. I've been very happy with it & it's gone through 2 tests now & passed without any problem. Just goes to show you can get a good lorry from anywhere you just have to be prepared to look & spend time on your computer. I was prepared to spend up to £18000 at the time but got what I wanted for £8000 less. You have a similar budget & so you will have a load of choice. Most sellers are pretty desperate to sell so be prepared to go in with a lower price & negotiate. Many have bought a newer lorry & are still trying to sell their old one & there can be a bargain to be had.
Good luck with the search, stick withi, spend time on your computer searching & you will find what you want & hopefully under budget.

Phil
Click to expand...
Don't suppose you bought from Ryan Doris (sp) did you? I also bought a MAN from him and drove it home to Suffolk with no problems at all.
 
I'm somewhat amazed at the price people are prepared to pay for a horsebox. I've put my MAN (non coachbuilt) up for sale, sailed through test with no advisories. Have advertised it for a third of the price that the OP is looking at, and not one answer. Have I advertised it too cheap perhaps? Is it a snob thing that the more it costs, the better it will be, because that often isn't the case with horseboxes!
 
QUOTE: "I'm somewhat amazed at the price people are prepared to pay for a horsebox. I've put my MAN (non coach built) up for sale, sailed through test with no advisories. Have advertised it for a third of the price that the OP is looking at, and not one answer. Have I advertised it too cheap perhaps? Is it a snob thing that the more it costs, the better it will be, because that often isn't the case with horseboxes!"

It's very difficult to price up a horsebox as they are all so different. You mention that you think you've under valued yours. I sold my previous box on Facebook 2 years ago. I priced it to sell & to be honest it sold in 24 hours. It was a Tristar, X Reg, on a DAF FA 45 130hp chassis. It had a nice day living, good horse area stalled for 3 horses with a 1.9 ton payload. I'd fitted a safe under the seat in the living & also put 240 volt hook up with 3 double sockets & various wall lights & strip lights. I'd done repairs to the cab as it was rusting like all the DAF FA cabs. I sold it for £7,500. I was happy & the buyer was & I got my replacement.

The buyer is now selling the lorry 2 years later on Facebook, the only changes made is there is now a camera & screen to view the horses & there's a leisure battery & charger fitted. The price is now £11,000???? I suppose someone will buy it but I think it's drastically over priced, but that's just me? So who really knows what a horsebox is worth, I suppose they're only worth what someone is willing to pay?
 
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