Moving from Trailer to Lorry

[MGG]

I want to move from a trailer to a lorry for three reasons

1) I can't tow our 2 ponies with the vehicle I currently have and it is becoming a nuisance. In fact on occasion I have had to have someone else take us places where we want to take both which seems daft when we do have a trailer.

2)I would like a little bit of living, just enough to stay dry and sit down for a cup of tea at those endless PC team jumping events

3) I lack a little confidence driving the trailer and have actually got worse the more I do rather than better and I feel much more secure in a lorry and the ponies seem to prefer it

So questions - did any of you do the same swap and did it work for you? And what kind of lorry would you recomend/avoid? Should I go to a dealer or just look in tack shops/horse and hound etc? Lastly when looking for a second hand lorry, other than being very careful to check out the payload (we are likely to want to carry a pony and a horse in the future) and obviously having someone check it was all safe and sound, what else do I need to watch out for?

Thank you.

 

[kick_On]

1) first thing is your budget - How big?
2) for me next thing is truck has to be well serviced and in good knick
3) is horse area and size, is floor good, does it have all storage required, does it fit size of horses we have or could have
and to me last important thing is
4) what space human have

If your confident about buy vehicles, look at all the online sites and do research, go have alook at few and then reasset, if you hate all you've seen then think about dealer, at least you'll get a bit of come back, BUT they will be atleast 2k-3k more expensive than private.........

IMO do your research first, get into many friend horseboxes as possible. Plus just be wise and not go after shiney paintwork, look for receipts of servicing and maintainance

enjoy hunt

 

[charlimouse]

Buy a lorry that has been converted by a horsebox company, rather than one somebody's mate down the road did (if you get what I mean). When i was in your situation i bought a new conversion which had only been used a couple of times, (it had been converted by the mate down the road!) As soon as we actually used it we realised why the previous owner sold it, when it leaked the horses urine into the living, the rear ramp was so stiff you sometimes couldn't even open it (and it didnt have a handle!) When my horse kicked in the lorry (she is rather impatient) the whole of the right side of the lorry bowed out! Needless to say after a year we sold it, and got one made to our specification by a well known local manufacturer. As the "man down the road" was not doing it as his profession we were not able to get him to rectify any of the problems we had with it. If you can afford a new build I would go for it, but make sure you get it put on a decent chassis, as there is no point having a horsebox that breaks down every week!