those who have transport for their horses..tell me all about it!!

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amandaco2

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what do you have?
how much was it to buy?
how much to insure?or what car do you use to tow it?
MOT cost?
how much do you use it?
and how much per year do you think it costs in total?

am thinking about getting a small box i can drive on a car license but need to find out lots more info on it first! (i would only take a max of 2 horses to a show)
OH has a huge bmw estate thing that could possibly pull a trailer but if he sells his car i wont have anything to pull it with (mine is a wee toyota aygo)
 
I have a 4.0L Jeep Cherokee, converted to run on LPG (definitely the way forward), and I tow 2 x 16.2hh horses in a Bateson trailer. It costs me about 20 pounds to do 125 miles, which I think is pretty good - LPG is half the price of petrol. Insurance for the Jeep is about 200 pounds a year and the Jeep itself was about 1900 pounds ready converted. MOT is standard, same as a car. If you're getting a trailer, get the lightest one you can as if reduces wear and tear on the car and costs less to tow. I wouldn't tow two horses with an estate, it wrecks the car if it's not built to tow like a 4x4.

I did look into getting a small 3.5 tonne lorry but they are expensive to buy new, rarely come up second hand and there are an awful lot of pretty dubious conversions out there. If you have big horses, you will also find you are very very close to the payload once you are loaded up with tack, passengers and water etc. Does depend how big your horses are but I'd only use one of those for 2 ponies or 1 big horse, not for 2 horses. I also felt that having a trailer was best as if I don't use it for a while, I don't feel too bad. With a box, you spend money plating it and then if you don't use it, it's just a waste of money.
 
i suppose so...................

i would be using it every/ every other weekend in the summer, every 3/4 weeks in winter for comps.

i think it would be cheaper to have my own transport with that sort of use than hire/get someone to take us-it costs about £70 per local trip never mind further afield!

only thing is i would have to take the towing test and also i do a fair bit of the motorways and i always feel safer with them in a box than trailer.
and the car for towing + trailer would have to stay in mums drive LOL. (and we already have 3 cars in there) as i cant keep them at mine(i live on site at work)

ive had a look on the sites and there are some nice looking smaller boxs for under 15k.
maybe they will come down more with the credit crunch
smile.gif
 
Ive opted for the 3.5T lorry route and have found a few second hand cheaper ones.

No need for plating because its the same as a car (just MOT and Tax) and im hoping to get a VW LT35 as i was advised these are the better ones (obv very old!)
 
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ive had a look on the sites and there are some nice looking smaller boxs for under 15k.
maybe they will come down more with the credit crunch
smile.gif


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There is an excellent market at the moment for decent 3.5 boxes (by decent, I mean like the racehorse type boxes rather than the transit with trailer tops on!) so I don't really think prices will come down that much TBH.

You need to weigh up the outlay against the amount of useage you would get. After having a wagon, I personally wouldn't go back to a trailer but then again, it gets a lot of use so it is worth the extra to have it tested and taxed. I am needing to upgrade mine to something newer myself so have been trawling the sites too. A lot of the ads seem to be dealers though who are more likely to hold out for their price.
 
I downsized from 7.5t to 5T with lovely living, amazingly lots of payload left, on VW chassis, and very smart reliable little lorry. Cost 6k, insurance £150 fully comp, breakdown around £90 a year. Great on diesel, I will tell you how the plating goes again in June!!
 
Bateson Derby - cost 1800 second hand three years ago. Car is a nissan primera - trailer is very light and my 15.1 cob is 500 k so not a huge combined weight.

Used twice a month at least. Have it serviced every other year at £80, pay £2.50 per week to park it at yard. Insurance is £80 per year.

Have just put tow bar on the works van which tows 2.2 tonnes. OH's horse is 17 hand clyde, who weighs 700 k so needs bigger trailer and vehicle.

On the odd occasion we want to transport Farra, we will hire a larger trailer and tow with the van. It does mean using two vehicles/trailers but far cheaper than (a) buying and running a 7.5 ton lorry - 3.5 lorry too small or having a big 4 x 4 capable of pulling 3 tonnes which is what we would need for both of them and a large trailer.
 
52 plate Nissan Navara Twin Cab 2.5td , cost £8k 3 years ago. Reasonable on fuel for what it is.
Cheval Liberte 2003XL trailer, lightweight, v good spec (emergency release chest bars, pullman suspension, headguards as standard, full size grooms door) £3200 new

Trailer fits 2x17.2 apparently but fine for our beasts. Lovely to tow, easy to handle. Insurance on that cheap, but truck costs me £500 a year to insure.

First time we've ever had transport, Dad was mean when we were kids!

Much as a small box would be more convenient - some of them look decidedly ropey and its the maintenance costs that put me off...

Not been used a lot lately but thats cos Asti was having Finny. Will be out more soon when showing season starts up!
 
If you want to be able to take two horses, you wil need to do either your trailer test or your C / C1 test for a lorry over 3.5 tonnes max weight
Keeping a lorry ready to go (no diesel costs) is about £1K per year in tax, MOT, insurance, maintainance.
 
Don't diss the transit with the Ifor Williams back. I have one and it carries two 16.2 horses and it does the job.
It's not the quality of the transport it's the quality of the horse that steps off the ramp!
 
Mitsubushi L200 2.5 diesel and a 510 trailer. Pulls my trailer with two horse in no trouble. Dont use it much in winter but handy to have. No cost to store it, doesnt need mot or tax, and use 4x4 for fetching feed, work, etc so works out cheaper.
 
We have a B reg 7.5T Ford cargo 0811 (I think?!) It carries 2 horses/3 ponies and has a neat little living and has actually been fab over the 10 years we've had it.

Think cost about £6K at the time (was v smart compared to our previous wagon). We have recently re-painted it ourselves so it looks a lot smarter again now. Had the odd niggle over the years but generally v reliable - except at the moment the brakes have stuck on so it ain't going anywhere! hehe. No idea on cost with regards to MOT/Tax as the parents pay that. It is nice and easy to drive though.

Personally I'd go for a small box if you have the cash. Is 3.5T the limit you can drive on a normal car licence these days? i would never go for a car/trailer now as heard too many horror stories and my sister was in an accident not very long ago in a friends trailer where it flipped over on the M1 with two horses in. They were towing with a discovery so should have been fine. i have hated every journey I have ever been in towing trailers and one of my horses used to fall over in them so it was pretty terrifying.

It would be a wagon for me all the time from now on. I think you can get some nice ones at the moment. I would try go for a purpose built horse box if you can though or from a decent horsebox conversion company. These 'homemade' conversion look rather scary!
 
I have an LT35, I normally only carry one horse in it, although it can take two small ones. It drives like a large car and does not need plating. Apparently with a little adjustment it can be reclassified as a LT45, I possibly would do this and would then feel happier about taking two larger horses. I use it 2/4 times a month.

We actually bought a chassis and had it converted, the whole thing came in under £10K, this was about 7 years ago and apparently it has held it's value.
 
hi there,
I bought a 3.5 tonne Ford Transit horsebox last year it cost me £52 to put it throught the mot (inc fee) tax is same as the car and the insurance is £160 with two named drivers, £75 for full breakdown/recovery. Also costs less than my car (ford escort) to run as it only has a 2ltr petrol engine. Last year i travelled a 16hh TB and a 13.2 welsh and all my gear and it still only weighed 3.3 tonnes ( i checked cause i run it onto the weigh bridge at work not sure the horses thought that bit fun but i had to check)
It starts first time every time and i use it for everything, its a pickup truck in disguise!
The box was made as a horse box from the start so no dodgy conversions. and a great luton for storing kit.
I love my box its 23 yrs old and has only done 52,000 miles.
Best of all i only paid £3200.
There are good boxes out there if you look very hard.
Good luck with your search.
 
We have a Bateson Ascot trailer. Had it a few years now, think it was £4k or £4500 at the time as it was brand new. At the moment we tow it with a Nissan Terrano (3dr) which tows ok, we normally tow just one horse but have towed 2 horses in it ok. However, we are now planning to buy a Touareg 3litre so that should tow easily. MOT cost-wise, we dont need one! However, we do generally get our local garage to thoroughly check the trailer once a year for wear and tear. I use the trailer usually once a week.

Id say a trailer is the best way forward IMO unless you plan to drive really far or sleep over a lot. We have driven all the way down to Warwickshire with our trailer from NE Scotland before (once off though I have to say, lorries are best for that!!). Generally the max we drive is 3 hours away. The odd time we've stayed over (say for a BE thing) then we've just put blow up beds in the trailer!
 
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