Swapping horsebox bodies

measles

measles

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I've bought a "new" lorry today and fulfilled a lifelong ambition of owning an Oakley :) He's on an older chassis and I wondered about having it changed onto a newer one at some point in the future. Has anyone had any experience of doing that and the approx cost? It is a 6 horse supreme and so that will contribute to the cost.

Goes off to plan widening access to the yard and her HGV test...! Oops :D :D
 
Off the top of my head to have it done properly will be 3-5K as there is a lot of work involved it is not usually considered cost effective.
Finding the right chassis can take a lifetime as the wheelbase needs to be the same and then things like tanks etc need to be in the right place.Talk to a good bodybuilder about it now so you allow yourself plenty of time to find a chassis that is right .
I will say a HGV chassis to swap are a lot more difficult to find than a 7.5 chassis which are two a penny.
 
popsdosh said:
Off the top of my head to have it done properly will be 3-5K as there is a lot of work involved it is not usually considered cost effective.
Finding the right chassis can take a lifetime as the wheelbase needs to be the same and then things like tanks etc need to be in the right place.Talk to a good bodybuilder about it now so you allow yourself plenty of time to find a chassis that is right .
I will say a HGV chassis to swap are a lot more difficult to find than a 7.5 chassis which are two a penny.
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Yes it is a bigger job you also have to make sure the cab is the same otherwise there is a lot to alter where it fits to the main body and cut thru,
chassis and wheelbase isnt to hard to have changed about £1500 to mod the prop shaft and move the axle but it all adds up, Maybe best to make the best of what you have and do things like having it steam cleaned and waxoled underneath so it will last, my guess is if its an oakley it will have been a new chassis so rust not mecanical failure will be you main problem long term...
 
Friends of mine have an elderly Oakley and Oakley quoted them between 10000 and 12000 to swap it! Apparently they are particularly costly to swap as I was told between £3000-£4000 for my generic 7.5t
 
Eek and double eek - over 10k?! The chassis on this one has been well looked after - box was a friend's so I know it has been maintained to a meticulous standard - but it is 20 years old already hence thinking in the future about changing it. It had a rub strip down respray and new ramp about 18 months ago so should keep us going for a while but I'm just thinking ahead!

Thanks for the advice and any other advice or experiences gratefully received.
 
By saying it is 20yo you have shown up another potential problem as a few years back chassis rails were standardised so potentially you may need to put new runners under the box.
From a personal point of view I would never contemplate putting a new chassis under a 20yo box you will never see the investment back.
 
measles said:
Eek and double eek - over 10k?! The chassis on this one has been well looked after - box was a friend's so I know it has been maintained to a meticulous standard - but it is 20 years old already hence thinking in the future about changing it. It had a rub strip down respray and new ramp about 18 months ago so should keep us going for a while but I'm just thinking ahead!

Thanks for the advice and any other advice or experiences gratefully received.
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Incidentally do you find you are able to get roadside recovery on lorry that age? I notice in my NFU policy (which as you know I have had to use :o) it says you can only cover vehicles up to 20.
 
iirc one of the USPs about Oakleys is that they are almost invariably built on a brand new cab/chassis, so should last longer (iykwim) than other makes that were built on an already-used chassis.
it might be worth having Oakley do a full checkover of the chassis, floor, ramps etc, prob cheaper than changing it... as long as the engine's still good?
congrats, i've always wanted an Oakley but unfortunately I've never had enough money to interest them when I've rung them about buying a used one, incl last time when i had over £40k, they were totally uninterested in my custom!
 
I had roadside recovery on my b reg lorry previously, was never a problem? Fwiw my current lorry is now 17 and still going strong so im sure you will get years worth of use from yours.
 
I bought a skeleton 94D 18ton Scania, which was 6 years old, low mileage and full optimiser gearbox, cruise control etc for £8k, which I then put a box on.

You can find good skeleton lorries if you look in the right places. The sleeper cabs are harder to get and a lot more expensive but I suspect you could not have one of those if your existing lorry is a standard cab. No idea how much it would be to swap the box but you could call trailer refurb (Near Kelty, they do all the body work for Terry Kinnear) and get an idea. 01383 621 994
 
Thanks again. The numbers stack up so I've not completely lost my marbles ;)

ecrozier - who do you insure with? We're checking with our current lorry ins company about the roadside assistance so thanks for the heads up on that DarkhorseB.

Smurf - will keep that number and call them. Also will be onto the training company you suggested asap

I'm hoping that this lorry will do us until our ship comes in, lottery is won etc and so it's worth an investment of time and money.

Does anyone know of a company who are good at reupholstering lorry living?
 
If it's a comfort, the yard has a D reg Oakley- so nice to realise a dream! I'm very jealous- and it's on a skania 16 ton chassis. It's incredibly reliable, still very comfy and the horses travel
impeccably. No probs with break down insurance, and it travels up and down country doing at least four hour trips once a week, more ocften two or three. It's a five horse supreme and I'm envious! Only prob is ramp weighs a ton.
 
It's worth seeing if you can find anyone who is allowed to bid on auctions of insurance write-off lorries - I saw some great chassis' that way, much cheaper than second hand lorries of a similar age. Nothing wrong with the chassis or cab, it was invariably the body which was destroyed! A favourite seemed to be trying to drive a refrigeration unit under a bridge which was just a fraction too low.....
 
I insure with seib but my roadside is with autohome, know there are two schools of thought on types of cover offered re low loader recovery vs unloading onto alternative vehicle on roadside but I have been very pleased with the service offered when i did have to use them a couple of times with my 1984 Bedford, which I owned from 2006-2009 so it was over 20 years old at the time!
Probably does depend on your local agent to an extent, ours happens to be the garage I use anyway :)
 
No personal experience of swapping a body over but it's def poss if you find the right chassis

On the insurance though, we have an E ref Volvo 17 tonne so 23 years old and I'm off in it this weekend to Worcester so 8 hour round trip and I've just added roadside recovery to our insurance with Highway and it wasn't that expensive.

One thing you will have to be careful with is the Tachograph side of things, as even though it's a private HGV, you still come under the drivers hours legislation and if like me you have full time job, it can be quite difficult juggling work hours so that you can drive at the weekend legally. I have been escorted off the M6 by Vosa once as they were checking up on this and had to e-mail them my working hours for the last 3 weeks :mad:
 
SpottedCat said:
It's worth seeing if you can find anyone who is allowed to bid on auctions of insurance write-off lorries - I saw some great chassis' that way, much cheaper than second hand lorries of a similar age. Nothing wrong with the chassis or cab, it was invariably the body which was destroyed! A favourite seemed to be trying to drive a refrigeration unit under a bridge which was just a fraction too low.....
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Not a great idea sorry!! as you end up with a insurance write off horse box yes it is the body that gets damaged but once the insurance has recorded that vehicle its allways on the HPI reg and makes selling on or getting finance very hard ...
 
Measles has not mentioned selling it on, she's mentioned the box doing them till the end of their days, so if she wants to keep the cost down, that's a way to do it.
 
you are both right to a degree.When a vehicle is written off it is categorised by the insurance industry .Depending which category it is in depends on whether the vehicle can ever go back on the road.DVLA will not issue a V5(log book) for it unless it is a lower category .Higher category vehicles are still auctioned off but can only be used for their component parts so of no use in this situation.If you go down this route you need to be wary as you will be buying a chassis with no come back on the seller etc.Some insurance companies also do not like insuring vehicles previously written off hence why they can be difficult to sell.As previously said this fact cannot be hidden as It will show up in the vehicles history and on the V5.
 
I must have been mad but I bought a used chassis/cab off eBay and then swopped over my old body onto the 'new' chassis myself. I think I knew I was mad when I had the body minus chassis resting on 4 oil drums on our drive.

But then you've got to be mad to have horses so nothing new there!!
 
We've swapped the bodies on 2 lorries. The first time George Smith did it for us and it cost £2K, it was a while ago. The 2nd time was this summer and my Brother in law did it himself. My BiL does have all the tools and can weld plus it was easy for us to get the body off.

If my lorry chassis was to get an expensive fault I would just swap the body.
 
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