Nissan X-Trail for towing? Or 3.5t Renault Marlborough-type box?

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BeckyD

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I'm seriously going round and round in circles. I currently have an old Focus, and no horse transport. I want a newer car as I will now be driving to work - likely to do about 24,000 miles per year
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I also now have a horse and really need horse transport. I do not have a big budget. My dream would be a 3.5t Renault Marlborough box conversion (the hunter model). But a new one is out of the question, due to ££.

I then thought of getting a Nissan X-Trail to tow with, plus a trailer like a Cheval Liberte one (my friend's just got one and said they're the best). I'd be looking at an 04/54 aged X-Trail.

I have one 16hh TB to travel.

My OH wants me to get a 3.5 t lorry, or a 7.5t (I am an old-age licence holder). Financially though, I don't think it's viable.

What kind of maintenance costs am I looking at for say a £7-10k 3.5 or 7.5 t lorry?

Can anyone give me any guidance? I've read all the previosu posts that I can and am now more confused than ever
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Thanks sooo much, I'm sure you're all sick of this problem!!
 
I had all these issues last year. I considered the X Trail too, but it isn't powerful enough to pull the trailer and a large horse (even the Nissan rep acknowledged that!), so that was out of the question. To do the job safely you need something the size of a Land Rover Discovery. The costs involved in maintaining and running one of those as a day to day vehicle made it far more cost effective for me to go the Renault Master 3.5 coversion and a small car route! Its fab to drive, very comfortable for the horse and not expensive to run. I asked NFU to give me the equivalent of full no claims bonus (although I already had it with another company on my car) and they did, so fully comp insurance costs about £300 a year (value of box £17000), breakdown cover with horse recovery £130 (you'd need that anyway) and diesal lasts forever with it (it doesn't seem to use any more than my little clio!).

Hope that helps
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i had a nissan x-trail and it was fantastic for towing horses and boats! not that cheap to run/insure though. now have a nissan navarra which is even better but even more expensive to run.

cant help on the lorry thing - but i'd imagine its quote expensive to have one and you'd need to use it alot to justify insurance and MOT.
 
I'm very suprised to hear that a Nissan X-trail isn't recommended for towing as my friend has one(which she is ever so pleased with) and has towed my 16HH Shire X and her daughters chunky 14.2HH with it. I beleive it has a 3 litre + engine so should be very capable of towing. I am not sure of its fuel consumption.
 
Please remember a suitable tow vehicle should not be judged purely by its engine capacity, more important is the weight of the tow vehicle itself. The combined weight of a trailer and its occupants should ideally be not more than 85% of the tow vehicles kerb weight, so you need to work out weight of car/4x4, unladen weight of trailer plus weight of horse/s. If the weight of trailer and horses is more than the vehicle pulling it, the whole thing could be quite unstable.
 
My understanding is that the manufacturers max towing weight on some X-trails is 2000kg (some models are less).

I think you would be fine with one TB, but I'm not sure about 2 horses.

As you are doing 24k per year you will have a lot of fuel/servicing costs for your everyday vehicle, it may prove more cose effective to have small "cheap to run" car and a lorry.
 
I must admit I thought the Nissan would be ok for towing a trailer - the maximum towing per the manufacturer is 2000kg, and the trailer I'm looking at is 750kg - so that plus horse (currently 450kg but probably growing so allow say 600kg) would be 1,350kg. However, that would be 86% of the min. kerb weight of the vehicle - which I hope I might be able to get away with...but only one horse obviously (I only have one anyway).

The engine is a 2.2 litre turbodiesel. It's very economical to run (combined mpg supposedly 37.2 - which is better than I'm getting from Focus!
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). However, servicing likely to be v expensive compared to Focus, even if it is the cheapest of the 4x4's - that's not saying much!

I would really prefer a lorry, I'm just concerned as to the running costs. How much would say a 10-year old vehicle cost to service annually?
 
A Nissan x-trail is not really suitable for towing a trailer and horse(s). We had a Terrano and the salesman told us that they do not recommend the X-trail for towing horses. You have to remember that its not just towing, its the fact that the vehicle must be able to brake the trailer going downhill. Unfortunately I knew somebody who was towing with something unsuitable and the trailer overtook her going down a hill. As for the lorry. We have a 7.5 tonne non-HGV (am ancient too
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), you should budget on £1000 each year to get it through the plate (probably will cost a lot less), Tax is £165 per year and insurance probably around £250. The one thing to check is the unladen weight as Trading Standards are now doing spot checks. We have had a horsebox made - and we took it to a weighbridge recently. With two passengers and a full fuel tank it weighs 6 tonne that is before any horses. As it is only going to carry our big horse, we have plenty of weight in hand - but it is something to check.
 
i had a 7.5ton lorry cost £13k new conversion on a P plate. cost us over £2500 in first year with plating/insurance batteries etc. sold it and bought new ifor 510. went straight to nissan as i needed something that would be capable of towing and also be my every day car. was told NO WAY would an x-trail be any good by nissan dealer. ended up with shogun and was costing me £550 per month in diesel. it did 25 miles to gallon. now have nissan navara aventura but have had engine chipped and i get much better BHP and nearly 32-33 to gallon so have got cost of chip back in first three months.
 
Marlborough Horseboxes all the way! Just sold it mine, there are second hand ones about and mine was a fantastic little box. The box was 2.2 ton unladen and fitted two 16.2's in with ease. It had saddle racks and a seat too. Be careful with the weights with a 3.5 ton box; if they advertise to have living as you can't go over 3.5 gross laden. Also, I personally think alot of the Fords roll too much because their built too tall. Mine was an R reg Renault Master, I have some piccies if you'd like to see them. It was cheap to run, quite similar to car really and less than £40 to fill up. Loved it!
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[ QUOTE ]
now have nissan navara aventura but have had engine chipped and i get much better BHP and nearly 32-33 to gallon so have got cost of chip back in first three months.

[/ QUOTE ] I've never heard of this
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What does it mean?
 
I've just gone through all this!

I went for a Nissan Terrano - quite reliable and not that juicy on petrol....not bad looking either.

I brought an ifor williams 510. I don't really like the CL - too plasticy and cheap looking - the Ifor will hold it's value better aswell.....

I looked at a box, but unless you use it every week (atleast) they can be a bit unreliable for starting (apparently)....
 
That does sound like exactly what I'm looking for! If you don't mind me asking, how much did you sell it for, and how much did you spend each year on the MOT/servicing? I'd be using a box probably twice a month or so, don't want it seizing up on me!
 
As I keep my eventer with my trainer for the past year I was only using it every few months to take my horse at home to the vets, and it started everytime; all year, never once let me down.. It was an R reg and I sold it for £8500 on Horsequest, in my experience the non - metallic, older ones can be from £4000 up though. Marlborough are exceptionally helpful if you give them a call too. Their site is here. MOT and servicing.. um.. MOT was about the same as a car because it was 3.5t and the max I ever paid for a service was £400. I had it 5 years and would thoroughly recommend the brand. Some piccies..

BruceHBxJune.jpg


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Oh! if only I had seen that it would have been ideal! That looks just the sort of thing, and within price range too.

Thanks for all the help, if I can get one for that sort of price, it's a very real option.
 
Do you know why the Nissan dealer said no way to the X Trail? I've just spoken to three different Nissan dealers around the country and they all say they're perfect for towing horse trailers, and that they sell quite a lot for that purpose. I'm getting a bit confused! Was it due to the engine size?
 
Hi meltdown, thanks very much for the guidance on costs for the lorry. That's not as bad as I feared for getting through the plating.

I'm very surprised about the X Trail though - just spoken to three Nissan dealers around the country and they all said great to towing horse trailers. Can you remember why yours said no?
 
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Oh! if only I had seen that it would have been ideal! That looks just the sort of thing, and within price range too.

Thanks for all the help, if I can get one for that sort of price, it's a very real option.

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We had a lot of interest, it only took me a few months to find a Marlborough when we first started looking. They come up in HHO every few weeks. Give Marlborough a call, a new build doesn't cost as much as you might think and they might have a second hand one in too. Best of luck!
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