My lorry breakdown experiance..... :o((

Perissa

Perissa

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I drove to the Wales and West Arab Horse show on Friday with no problems. Left the showground Saturday afternoon and as soon as I started climbing a hill on the motorway I said to my hubby - the lorry feels funny, then saw black smoke in my mirrors and I pull over a quickly as possible with hazzards going. From the stink it is obvious it the clutch - GROAN.

Phoned the breakdown people and they promise to send out send out a recovery van. The van turned up almost an hour later - I was on the M4 motorway!!!! No highway police were sent and I thought motoway was a priority!!!! - anyway the very nice man said that he would be able to tow me off the motorway but would then have to leave me at the services to make my own arrangements to get home because his company were not licensed for livestock. There was no way he could or would tow me just over 100 miles to southern Hampshire at 10 miles an hour.

I phoned the breakdown people again who basically said tough, that company had to sort me out or nothing. As you can imagine I was having a melt down. MANY MANY phone calls later the breakdown people said they would send out another company and would meet me at the services.

So the first company towed me the 17 miles to the next services.

A MASSIVE articulated lorry turned up with 60ft trailer, plus a smaller lorry. I knew instantly this big lorry would not fit down the lane to my yard so a few phone calls later I arrange to leave the lorry at a friend's yard.

My lorry was winched onto the back of the trailer. Luckily my horse is a seasoned traveller and nothing fazes him (unless he runs out of food!). My hubby stayed with him, my friend went in the cab while I went the smaller lorry. Turns out that there is a disclaimer saying that they are not liable for anything that happens to my horse or my hubby. They had to send a smaller lorry as well because there were not enough seats for us in the artic cab. I went ahead in the smaller lorry.

7 hours after breaking down we finally pull into my friend's yard BUT artic lorry is so big the yard isn't big enough to get in and turn round!! So they lower the back of the trailer. I then have to unload my horse into the trailer and then unload onto the ground. I am so lucky to have such a trusting boy, please bare in mind it was pitch black and a strange place to him. I put him in one of the stables where he immediately eats hay!!! By the way he is a pure bred arab - who said they are scatty!

They then have to wheel my lorry off the back of the trailer into the road so it is totally blocking the road. I am stationed there with a torch to warn traffic - luckily no cars come along. They then move the big lorry foward and freewheel my lorry round into the yard and park up.

I should say at this point that my friend's yard is on a hill. He then can't reverse his big lorry because the wheels keep spinning on the scalpings! Eventually the tyres get the big trailer moving and he reverses out of the yard and promply puts the trailer in the bank on the other side if the road smashing his entire block of lights.

After performing about a 10 point turn he gets on his way.

My friend and I have to then lead my horse along the road in the pitch dark - I took his rug off even though it was cold as he is white and more easily seen. Thank god we don't see a single car - it is midnight by now!

We get to my yard and my 4 other horses greet us demanding their dinners!!

I quickly feed them all and return to my friend's yard to get the tack etc out of the lorry.

I spent most of Sunday sleeping..........
 
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Jesus Christ, I'd have had kittens! What a good boy you have. I'm not surprised you needed some kip after that!
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Sooo how was the show? lol

Poor you, sounds like you were more upset than your horse! What a nightmare! xx
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That wasn't so good either - hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We've been trying to get him to lose some weight and get fitter so he's been worked hard. He didn't put a foot wrong with his regular rider but with the judges he wasn't forward going enough. Mind you the ring was on a slope with a double camber and was slippery as hell.

He got 7th in the HOYS class and 4th in the Novices.
 
good grief what a nightmare. who are you insured with? pm me if you prefer

ps no wonder you spent time sleeping, I would have too

your horse is a star for going through all of that
 
Crumbs i would of also needed the emergency services for me to sedate me, well done an the fact you all kept you heads and the pony was so well behaved.
hope you had a very relaxing sunday and a large glass of wine
 
I'm with Anthony Evans, who, up until I broke down with a hore on board, have been brilliant in the past.

No wine but I did have some chocolate!!
 
Perissa said:
I'm with Anthony Evans, who, up until I broke down with a hore on board, have been brilliant in the past.

No wine but I did have some chocolate!!
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Not sure that's quite what you had on board but did make me laugh, out loud, at my desk!!
I'm with them but not had to use the breakdown bit yet (touches wood)

Hopefully this is a one off, your boy sounds great.
 
Sounds like a really horrid experience for you and your boy, but I have to say you can really rely on an arab when the going gets tough :):)
 
Maybe if you said on the phone you had a "hore" on board, they may have got to you a bit sooner ;)

Sounds a nightmare, glad you all got sorted safe and sound.
 
Well I am afraid that would be a very annoyed call to the breakdown company this morning. You need a specialist lifestock recovery, My breakdown conver ensures my horses are transported in a horse lorry, not stuck in a lorry on the back of a breakdown lorry which is not insured to carry livestock. You need to discuss your breakdown policy with them and basically it should ensure your horses, yourself and your lorry are carried in an appropriate fashion
 
Oh dear.... a similar thing happened to us on way from beach ride, cylinder head went..
Our 2 had to wait at a lay by on busy road for 4 hours, my recovery could not get us home either had to make own way. The insure company for the breakdown ins did refund the £190 for replacement cattle truck!!!! horses were not impresses by replacement!!.
Hope you can get some recompence for stress..
 
I had a terrible experience with Anthony Evans breakdown service last year when they also sent a van to my horsebox which is a 3.5t one. The company couldn't fix it - I had already told them on the phone that they wouldn't be able to fix it at the roadside as it had shat all the gearbox fluid on the motorway, but they sent this man in a van who confirmed that indeed it was not repairable. He then told me that his company are not insured for carrying livestock. AE then contacted another company who FRONT LIFTED the box on a rigid tow. I was sitting next to the driver and he was in the middle lane doing 80mph. This was after a four hour wait on the motorway. I made several complaints, but didn't get anywhere and I contacted VOSA who said that they don't allow front lifts of horseboxes, so I gladly passed on Anthony Evans' details to them. I have since moved to Equine Rescue who are more expensive, but offer a far better service. I wouldn't touch Anthony Evans recovery with a *****ty stick.
 
Hi newbie here so hope this works, what a horrible experience for you & your
horse.As transporters ourselves we know the practice of winching your horsebox with the horse on board is not advisable,certain companies Anthony Evans included will try this on to keep their costs down. You can insist they send a horsebox out to transfer your horse on to. We would recommend P.R.P,Horsebox & trailer owners or Equine Rescue Services all of these companies provide a good service and will always send out a horsebox to put your pride & joy onto.
Regards
 
Thanks for that. Ive just had a quick look at the Horsebox and Trailer cover and its quite reasonable. I think I pay more than that at the moment with my insurance company.
Not sure if I have one of the 'bad' companies but can you insist on a seperate vehicle to recover your horses. I know when I started my policy I said I had to have a horsebox and not a trailer to rescue my horse and they said that was fine. It does make you wonder what you are paying for.
 
What a nightmare! Glad you finally managed to get home and your horse was so sensible about it all, but what crap service! To be honest this is the first bad report I have heard about AE. I was with them for years, and although never had cause to use them I did assume I was paying for a service more suitable to horseboxes and not a generic recovery service. Shocking!
 
I'm with the NFU Breakdown service.

Has anyone ever had to use them? What do they provide?? It should be a separate horse transporter... but luckily I've never had to use them. Yet!
 
My mums with NFU.... We were trundling up the A1, when the hose from the bottom of the radiator detached itself and emptied the contents on the motorway. First we heard was a noise, we looked at eachother then all the alarms went off and thermostat went to the top.
We were very luckily that it happened quarter of a mile from a junction so limped off onto a busy slip road as we were in roadworks with no hard shoulder.
We rang NFU, who prioritise motorway recovery, and will be there within the hour.
In the meantime Motorway maintenance chap arrived, told us they were recovering us as we were still in roadworks, and that his 35ton recovery truck was on it's way.
Two 4x4s, a pick up truck, the 35ton lorry plus the traffic police for good measure, between them all they delivered a new jubilee clip and lots of water. I have photos of 3'men lying under the front of the lorry fixing it as they wanted us off. The cops were relieved too because if the horse had to come off they had to shut the A1 in both directions.
This all took about an hour and we were on our way, and the NFU man arrived as we we set off (I'd rung NFU to cancel him 15-20'minutes prior). We also then get a call from professional horse transporter company to see whether the horse needed recovery.
NFU are very good, although my mum did raise the length of time it took for their own recovery to arrive. Especially as he travelled from the same place as the 35'ton lorry who was with us for over half an hour and they were meant to have left at the same time.
We were so lucky it happened where it did... and to top it all off, the motorway maintenance chap turned up in the carparkmat Richmond to make sure we got there. It was actually a very entertaining breakdown, but he had some shocking stories of people breaking down or having blow outs with no recovery whatsoever (he'd even used his own personal RAC cover to get a woman back on the road after a blow-out and no way to change the wheel)
And to OP, what a nightmare,my mum would have suffered a Nervous breakdown in your shoes
 
By the way, the professional horse transporter had been arranged by NFU too.... Just didn't need them all in the end, but they were very good at the end of the phone and answered the phone promptly, and checked we were ok once back on the road too.....
 
millimoo said:
My mums with NFU.... We were trundling up the A1, when the hose from the bottom of the radiator detached itself and emptied the contents on the motorway. First we heard was a noise, we looked at eachother then all the alarms went off and thermostat went to the top.
We were very luckily that it happened quarter of a mile from a junction so limped off onto a busy slip road as we were in roadworks with no hard shoulder.
We rang NFU, who prioritise motorway recovery, and will be there within the hour.
In the meantime Motorway maintenance chap arrived, told us they were recovering us as we were still in roadworks, and that his 35ton recovery truck was on it's way.
Two 4x4s, a pick up truck, the 35ton lorry plus the traffic police for good measure, between them all they delivered a new jubilee clip and lots of water. I have photos of 3'men lying under the front of the lorry fixing it as they wanted us off. The cops were relieved too because if the horse had to come off they had to shut the A1 in both directions.
This all took about an hour and we were on our way, and the NFU man arrived as we we set off (I'd rung NFU to cancel him 15-20'minutes prior). We also then get a call from professional horse transporter company to see whether the horse needed recovery.
NFU are very good, although my mum did raise the length of time it took for their own recovery to arrive. Especially as he travelled from the same place as the 35'ton lorry who was with us for over half an hour and they were meant to have left at the same time.
We were so lucky it happened where it did... and to top it all off, the motorway maintenance chap turned up in the carparkmat Richmond to make sure we got there. It was actually a very entertaining breakdown, but he had some shocking stories of people breaking down or having blow outs with no recovery whatsoever (he'd even used his own personal RAC cover to get a woman back on the road after a blow-out and no way to change the wheel)
And to OP, what a nightmare,my mum would have suffered a Nervous breakdown in your shoes
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All this could have been avoided by proper maintenance.
 
A lil harsh Mike007. Normally agree with your posts on many tough subjects.. Still a lil harsh on this one IMO... ***** happens...

Just glad OP got home safe n sound - will be reviewing my insurance policies n scrutinising the small print first thing in the morning... May even include a few "pointed" phonecalls :)
 
Nope, Jubilee clips corrode. A good mechanic will check and replace before they go. They cost PENCE.Fail to replace one and the system pressure blows the hose clean off, dumps all the coolant and bang.It doesnt need to happen.incidentaly there are about 35 of these on the average truck.
 
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I am insured with Anthony Evans. We broke down on the M4 with diesel all over the road due to the bottom falling out of the fuel pump. Waited an hour on the hard shoulder, which was how long we'd been told it would be. The recovery driver winched the front up VERY CAREFULLY, the horses just shifted their weight slightly but were absolutely fine. He towed us back to our yard at a very reasonable speed and drove incredibly smoothly, dropped the horses and us off and then took the lorry to our normal mechanic which was 20 miles away.

I was very happy with the service we got. Wessex Recovery were the company who took us. Our horses were OK, never got stressed and got out of the lorry absolutely fine.
 
Mike007 said:
Nope, Jubilee clips corrode. A good mechanic will check and replace before they go. They cost PENCE.Fail to replace one and the system pressure blows the hose clean off, dumps all the coolant and bang.It doesnt need to happen.incidentaly there are about 35 of these on the average truck.
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Mike007, how judgemental are you......
The lorry had been serviced and plated 4 weeks prior to this and had been out on 3 long journeys in the meantime. And yes, it was a corroded jubilee clip, and it went straight back to the mechanic to re-check everything - I had diagnosed the problem before anyone arrived.....
And for your information, the lorry is very well mentained, the chassis has even been steam cleaned and wax oiled this year. My mum has a fantastic mechanic, and has used him for years - and one thing she's very hot on is maintenance of her lorry.
She is not one of these people who leaves the lorry standing, with minimum maintenance and expects it never to breakdown.
In 12 years of lorry ownership this is the first time - I think we can forgive the mechanic just this once.
 
Sadly I knew exactly who you were talking about before you named the 'service'!!!! Absolute nightmare! Glad you got home eventually and in one piece!

Anthony Evans uses AUTOHOME who are based in Northampton. If you look at Anthony Evans website they ACTUALLY state on their website that they just pick up the lorry and tow with horse on board!

An article a couple of years ago in HH ask the expert actually said that this practise of towing up in the air AND sticking on a low loader with the horse on board was not legal!

They are cheap! That's why people use them! Then you hope and pray that you do not need them!

We only use Equine Rescue Services!

http://www.equinerescue.co.uk/

They are Horse Lorry Recovery Specialists!!! They have people in their Control Room that actually KNOW about horses!!!!

They will always send out a professional horse transporter and keep your waiting to a minimum! If you are on a dangerous bend/road/ or motor way they will always contact the HA or the police to get someone with flashing lights behind you and make sure that you don't become a casualty as well!

Having used their service 3 times in the last 10 years I WOULD NOT CHANGE!

My horse means the world to me and if I take him out I NEED to know that I can get home!
 
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