Pros and Cons Of Smaller (Less Than 3.5 Tonne) Boxes

Having looked at the 3.5 tonne Euqitrek box with overnight living at the Royal Highland Show, I was quite impressed. It ahs 2 bunk beds, a small cooker, toilet, fold down table, tv. Takes two horses facing backwards in quite a roomy horse area. Only storage is for 2 saddles, no feed, etc. But it will get reasonable mpg compared to a bigger box and my current Jeep Grand Cherokke Ifor Williams set up which gets a pathetic 18.4 mpg!

Are there any disadvantages with smaller boxes? Why does everyone not have them who only has two horses to travel? Anyone had one and not liked it?
 
K

KatB

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 August 2005
Messages
23,282
Location
Nottingham
Visit site
You may find with having 2 horses in they are over weight.
frown.gif
But they are fab boxes, just not cheap to buy and not great if you do have 2 to travel regularly.
 
I have just bought a 3.5 ton lorry and it is great - you do have to make sure your not overweight but that is easy. Ours has living space but no living as we wanted to keep the weight down and dont do many overnight stops. We have stayed in it overnighta few times and a blow up air bed and a camping stove does a great job!!! We had ours made by Charlton Horseboxes its a fab job was very patient and he explained everything for all the silly questions i asked him!! Give him a ring he will help you if you want to find things out they are reasonably priced to!!
 
Pros: Anyone can drive it
Easy to park/reverse
Good mpg
Good resale value

Cons: Easy to go overweight
Expensive to get a good one
Older ones can be very unreliable and some downright dangerous
May be unstable
Relatively few will actually carry two decent sized horses legally and in comfort!
 
i have one and its great, i only ever have 1 horse in it so no worries about weight.. only con i can think of is i have no living area..
 
I'll be interested to read the replies to this as I have the same dilemma. I have a budget of 15k - 20k, and have been looking for ages for a small 7.5ton but just cant find anything so started looking at 3.5t. I usually only travel one horse, but might occasionally want to take two (total weight approx 1100kg).

Apparently Marlbourogh do an upgrade to 3.9ton with a pay load of over 1500kg but then of course it needs a full plate.

What is the payload on the Equitrek?

I saw one 3.5 ton advertised as big enough to travel 2 large horses, then in very very small writing - payload 850kg.

That would be one real horse and his inflatable friend then!
 
I have one and travel my 600Kg Show cob, me and OH and all our stuff in comfort. I wouldn't really want to carry another horse/pony as well though.
The Marlborough/Theault etc coachbuilt ones have a larger payload and IF my horse could travel with another (he can't due to balance/confidence problems) that is what I'd go for.
My MOT costs £40 a year and I get around 38mpg (up to about 40 for motorway trips) - better than my friend's 7.5Tonner that does 13-15mpg if she's lucky!!!
 
Whereabouts are you Kantor? I have a small 7.5t wagon for sale in your price range. PM if you want more details. Only selling because 99% of the time I only travel one horse and rarely stay over night so don't need living.

Re advantage of 3.5ters - their mpg is insanely good! I did Cirencester and back and various twoing and froing at the weekend on half a tank of diesel (I'm in Lancashire btw).

Disadvantage - weight - if you want to take two horses plus kit then you'll pretty much be overweight. I have two arabs and I will travel them together in the 3.5ter but carrying the bare essentials of kit and only local journeys.
If you stay overnight there's nowhere to sleep - unless you stick a camp bed in the horsey bit, which can get a bit smelly!

For what I want a 3.5ter makes sense but if I had big horses and needed to sleep over or make lots of changes of clothing at one event then a 7.5ter makes sense.

And you can get all Renault Masters/Vauxhall Movano's uprated quite cheaply to 3.9t (all they do is change some suspension bushes), which gives you an extra 400kg to play with. But then you have to pay for plating and you youngster will have to take the extra test to be able to drive them.
 
[ QUOTE ]
What is the payload on the Equitrek?

I saw one 3.5 ton advertised as big enough to travel 2 large horses, then in very very small writing - payload 850kg/quote]

Met a lady at 3 counties who had one of these with full living at the rear. Very nice, but they sold it her as 4200kg and when she got the paperwork it said different ie 3.5t.
blush.gif


Can I first recommend you get the horses to a weighbridge such as local equine hospital perhaps? Friend recently had her mare weighed at peasebrook and was pleasantly surprised to find she was about 50kg less than the weigh tape suggested and a lot less than she appears!

If you have this kind of budget can recommend Horsebox Network who are currently building one for me at the moment. It's been a bit slow due to a hiccup with the paintwork but the whole thing has been built to my spec from scratch for about £12K plus the chassis.

We've done everything we can to keep the weight down and hoping it comes in around the 2200kg mark. The build quality is very good, I've seen it take shape from the chassis up and they are very particular about the floor and strength in the bulkhead. I've compared it time and again to my buddies Chaigley and think it beats it hands down.
 
Thanks for that - I think someone else has recommended them too.

I know my bigger horse weighs around 600kg because he was weighed at the vets. Actually he fluctuates between 580kg (fit) and 620kg (very fat!). The other horse is a typical 500kg. They would rarely be travelling at the same time though.

Is it the case that you can have any chassis uprated to 4t then? Even after the box has been built? Ie could you buy a second hand 3.5t and have it upgraded?

Sorry if I have hijacked this post
blush.gif
 
I have a renault master which we had weighed and the carrying capacity is 1.2 ton so enough for 2 of our horses, although we generally only carry 1. But I would certainly get the weight checked as they do seem to vary. We also bought 2 aluminum fold up beds in case we needed to stay over which we put up in the horse area (after cleaning it of course!). OH also uses it for work (motorbike repairer) so the ramp makes it easy for transporting bikes.
 
Yes people buying from the bigger companies be careful what you can carry weight wise as thats where they have you!!!
But ours is a Renault Master and we have about 1200 loading weight so can carry 2! Also its awesum on fuel!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top