Self Building Lorry Advice please

[caro618]

Hi, we are weighing up building our own lorry against buying one (£15000 to spend). My husband is very hands on and an engineer so thought we would look into it. My question is has anyone built on a refrigerated box rather than one used for Post office etc as surely a refrigerated one would have great insulation built in and they also have generators fitted incase of defrosting emergencies! Is it a weight issue? Any experiences would be appreciated or if this has been discussed before can you point me in the right direction.
Many thanks

 

[Booboos]

I don't mean to be negative, but I think you may waste a lot of money and end up with a lorry you can't use. Building a horsebox is quite a technical operation and a number of safety issues come up, e.g. balancing the weight of the ramp on the other side so the lorry doesn't tip over, building with light weight materials (so you have the highest payload possible) but still having a box that is structurally sound and can withstand a horse kicking, rearing, etc. I would imagine the extras needed for refrigeration will just be a waste of payload in a horse box.

15k is a good budget, you should be able to pick up a nice second hand, purpose made lorry for that.

 

[perfect11s]

Hi, we are weighing up building our own lorry against buying one (£15000 to spend). My husband is very hands on and an engineer so thought we would look into it. My question is has anyone built on a refrigerated box rather than one used for Post office etc as surely a refrigerated one would have great insulation built in and they also have generators fitted incase of defrosting emergencies! Is it a weight issue? Any experiences would be appreciated or if this has been discussed before can you point me in the right direction.
Many thanks

Um dosent sound like a practical idea to use a fridge box firstly they are quite a lot hevier hence a 7.5 ton fridge lorry is rarely more than 16ft, the insulation
is about 3to4" thick so you will lose internal width and it will still need lining out which because its a polystrene core with a thin inner and outer will be a pain to cut out for doors,windows and the fridge bit isnt going to do you any good as it just cools and adds weight.. best to look for a 8ft x8ft dryfreight grp box about 18/20 ft long .. im selling my part build lorry at the moment, if you want any advice PM me ...

 

[MilosDad]

Just finished my 7.5 tonne, up for paperwork next week. I used a Ryder rental box, took the box off and rebuilt an old trashed horsebox. Now have a solid light box with good payload.
The original box was too light weight and would have required just as much work to reinforce as the horsebox took to refurbish.

Go for it

 

[OWLIE185]

Do not buy a refrigerator lorry as the front axel is designed to take take a higher percentage of the weight than in a normal lorry and you will end up with all sorts of problems.

You have not stated what weight your vehicle will be but bear in mind that there is new European legislation out which requires the new vehicle to be VOSA checked before it can be put on the road if it has been individually converted (ass a one off).

Be very careful about axel weights and ensure that the individual axels will not go overweight with a horse(s) in it.

Side ramps need to be compensated for on the oposite side which will reduce the payload.