How reliable and safe have your older Rice trailers been?

[Julia0803]

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone can give any advice please. I have been on the lookout for a very lightweight trailer for my 14.2 cob to take to local shows and PC with my son on my B licence. It has to be under 775kg max, but the lighter the better.

I have been in touch with a lady with a Rice Eventer (610kg) and another person with a Bayhill pony trailer with front unload.

The Eventer lady seems very genuine, but not so knowledgeable. She bought it from ebay last year and it had had a new floor then, apparently. She has used it for PC on a regular basis since and it has been fine. She hasn't had it serviced etc as she said she has had no need. I asked about the brakes and she said, "I'm afraid I cannot tell you anything about the breaks as I do not use them. The trailer breaks easily when I break the car and I have otherwise not needed to use breaks on the trailer as we always are on flat ground.". Lights are on a board and apparently work fine and tyres are apparently in good condition.

The other trailer looks a bit smarter, and has the advantage of being front unload too. It is significantly more expensive than the other trailer, but the owner seems to have used it regularly and says floor, breaks and lights are good with good depth on tread of tyres.

I sent my local trailer specialist an email last night to ask how much it would cost for a service/ check over to make sure all is safe and well before i put very precious cargo inside!

They very kindly rang me this morning, but sadly were rather sceptic. They said they have seen half a dozen rice trailers recently that have required a lot of work, some requiring more work than the trailer was worth so not viable to fix. He said he would be wary as I readily admitted that I really didn't know very much about trailers at all, aside from having worked out my legal weights!

They said to pay particular attention to couplings and also the bowden cables which split and go toward the first axel (? i think that is what he said, i was tacking up before my lesson this morning when he called). He said if these looked corroded then it was likely that the brakes would have corroded/seized up too. He said just be very careful and the bargain trailer of 500-1000 suddenly is less of a bargain if it needs 1000 worth of work on it!!

I said truthfully I was quite surprised as lots of horsey people i had spoken to said older rices are great, and so long as the floor was in good condition they were a great first trailer, particularly on a budget.

Feeling a bit deflated now.

Just wondering if anyone else had had good or bad experiences with buying an older trailer?

Many thanks in advance

 

[pennyturner]

Rice trailers are fantastic. They're solid, and durable. They're also pretty basic, so you can see how everything works, which is an advantage.

However, at the budget end they're also ancient. If you want everything completely up together, and you take it to a dealer to fix, they'll charge you a fortune. If you're handy (or you know someone who is), you should be able to check bearings and brakes. Lights can be sorted with a new lightboard (fairly cheap), and even a whole new floor is a diy job. Just don't expect everything to be A1.

Mine has a wobbly mudguard, and an intermittant fault on the left hand indicator, which I'll fix eventually. The front ramp hinges are on their last legs (hardly use it). The jockey door is hard to open (result of home repair when my horse kicked it off its hinges). However floor is good for a few more years (replaced ~2009), and I know the brakes work because I forgot to screw the coupling down once and as I drove away the breakaway cable stopped my tow car dead.

 

[scribble]

we brought a 2nd hand rice it waas one of the eones you could put 2 and a small pony in, oh my god it was sooooo heavy we had to overhaul it new floor, matting lights the works. I sold it and brought an ifor.

 

[pennyturner]

Scribble is describing a Rice Treble, which is a huge beastie, only really towable by a landy or similar. They take 2 x 16.2 plus a 14.2 pony / cob, or 2 x 17.2. My friend had one, and it easily took 2 horses plus 2 smaller ponies at a push. Great alternative to a lorry!

 

[Tiddlypom]

I'd take careful note of what your trailer specialist said. I love Rice trailers (I think I've commented on a previous thread of yours about them) but I sold my Europa after 18 years after owning it from new because it was costing silly money getting it serviced every year. It had a lot of rust issues and the brakes were always having to be fettled. That despite it being looked after carefully, parked on hard standing and generally taken care of.

Tbh the condition of the floor is the least of your worries, as that can be easily checked and replaced. It's the mechanics where expensive nasties can trip you up.

 

[pennyturner]

Worth noting that 'not using the brake' is a good thing. More problems are caused by brakes sticking on than anything else. Even if you store it on a slope, chock it with a piece of wood or something, don't leave it parked up with the brake on. That way even if your brakes seize completely (unlikely), you'll still be able to move it!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Good advice Pennyturner to leave handbrake off when parking, a good supply of chocks is recommended!

Another is always draw forwards slightly after reversing the trailer into its parking position (if like me you have reverse to park it up) as this disengages the auto reverse brakes which are another cause of seized brakes.

 

[SuperH]

We had a rice trailer for 30 years, it was a lovely solid trailer, but very heavy. We hardly did anything to it to keep it on the road bar the one time someone borrowed it and unhitched without removing the lighting cable... I was not pleased nor did they pay to mend it. Needless to say they never borrowed it again.

We only sold it as we were offered our neighbours trailer when he upgraded and we thought we would try one that didn't need you to get in and out to put the reversing pin in.

If the one you have looked at is light then it won't be the same model, but thought I would say how pleased we had been with our rice over the years.

 

[Julia0803]

It's very difficult to make a decision, particularly as both trailers i am looking at are nearly 2 hours drive away and one is on ebay so not really able to view. (But hoping that i would be covered under ebay/paypal protection if the item was completely misdescribed)

Yes, Tiddlypom, that was more or less what he said, that it was the mechanics underneath which caused the expensive problems as parts were very difficult to get hold of, which meant you had to replace whole sections of things rather than individual parts. (Although i thought there was a rice parts specialist in warwickshire?) He said particularly something abut 2 part couplings and springs?? He was very nice about it, but just said he would rather warn me of his experiences first rather than in a week or twos time burst my bubble by telling me that a trailer I had bought was not roadworthy… I wouldn't have thought he had an agenda as they do not sell trailers themselves (unlike our other local firm).

It certainly doesn't need to be tip top and sparkly But it does need to be safe. I am happy with flaky paint, the odd dent etc (i am sure i will put a few more in as it's my first trailer!)etc, as you say Penny Turner… I just need it to get me to local shows and DS to PC safely!

The Eventer lady has asked for 450GBP and the other one has a buy it now price of 800GBP. The Eventer lady has been very honest and pointed out that she has recently put a small hole in the roof as she drove off without securing the partition and it swung round and hit the inside of the roof and made a small puncture. But it does worry a bit about her knowledge as she has been towing it with her 14.2 in it with a…. golf….. (Whilst I don't have the figures, weights and tow capacity to hand I am not sure that that is at all legal?)

I am really torn!

Thank you for your advice guys.

 

[DanceswithCows]

I have an eventer and it's wonderful. I need something light, and I think I'd be really hard pressed to find anything newer as little as 610Kgs with so much space, so I'm willing to pay whatever it takes to keep it on the road, which so far has been....new tyres. And I use it allll the time. I'm about to have it refurbished so it will look much smarter and last longer with any luck, and I don't begrudge a penny! It tows nicely too and everything's nice and simple.

 

[honetpot]

I have owned two Rice Europas, the first I sold to a friend and she still has it. They are very basic and any descent person with mechanical knowledge can maintain them, that why there are still trailers that are 30+ years old on the road and that probably why Rice went bust. Remember the trailer centre wants to sell you a nice shiny new one, there's more profit in it, I would get a general mechanic to check it out. To be honest the worst thing is the tyres as they tend to go as they are stood so long in one spot but that happens with any trailer.
I now have a very battered Europa which has shifted ponies, moved a compact tractor, furniture and just collected 30 bales of hay all for the princely sum off e-bay of £500. Its so light empty I can manoeuvre it myself and would spend more money than it is worth maintaining it as its so useful.