Running a horse box

[katieB]

This may be quite a common question but before anyone suggests I use the search facility, it wont accept the word 'box' as its too short.
How much does it cost to run a horse box? What sort of things do you need to pay for? Whats this everyone mentions about plates or plating the box? Im not about to go and buy one but its something id like to think about in the not too distant future.

[Bozzy]

Try lorry, I've been doing similar searches on here and it's come up with quite a lot of helpful threads :)

[Laetitia]

It's an expensive way of moving one's horse around. Keeping 2 vehicles on the road - tax, Mot, plating, repairs,tyres,servicing etc. Having said all that its really wonderful to have somewhere dry to put said horse and self when its tipping down. Horse can have some peace to eat hay etc and somewhere for me to have a cup of coffee, sleep overnight. Wouldn't be without it. L

[kayjayhorses]

if you get a small horsebox like a 3.5 tonne, you dont need to pay for plating, you just pay Insurance, MoT, Tax and obviously fuel, I couldn't be without mine, I have a Renault Master 3.5t.

[eventerbabe]

if you get a small horsebox like a 3.5 tonne, you dont need to pay for plating, you just pay Insurance, MoT, Tax and obviously fuel, I couldn't be without mine, I have a Renault Master 3.5t.
i didn't know that! thanks for that info. i'm going through the whole pros and cons of boxes and trailers just now. loathe to part with my car since i've just MOT'd and serviced it.

[Bozzy]

if you get a small horsebox like a 3.5 tonne, you dont need to pay for plating, you just pay Insurance, MoT, Tax and obviously fuel, I couldn't be without mine, I have a Renault Master 3.5t.

And you could also drive one on your driving licence instead of having to take another test (anything over 3.5t requires another test to be taken)

[baxter]

i bought a box last year, a trailer on a transit jobby, 3.5tn... and it's brilliant, reliable, easy to drive, comfortable for my horse, can't take any bigger than 15.3hh and you have to be careful about weight, i have a 1 tonne payload limit, but makes me mobile, self reliant, and i'm serioulsy chuffed with it!
picked it up for £4,250 M reg, years MOT and tax.... only thing to do is get a person to check it over , floors, ramps, general mechanics etc etc.... Good luck in your hunt!:D

[Bozzy]

I thought plating was basically an MOT but for bigger vehicles?:confused:

[baxter]

it is basically, just more expensive!

[eventerbabe]

i was going to ask what sort of weight you can get away with in a 3.5t lorry. i'm not sure it would take my 2 (15.2hh approk 600kg and 13.3hh approx 380kg). i know it's easy to go over their limit.

[teabiscuit]

if you passed your driving test before a certain year (not sure when) you can drive a lorry up to 7 t i believe ( i hope so anyway)

[baxter]

it all depends on the unladen weight of the box, mine is about 2.2tn so theoritically i can carry 1.3tn of horse, human, tack , water etc.....
the renault's and newer boxes can be even lighter, but obvioulsy a LOT more expensive.

[Rob26]

I think the cut off year for 7.5t was about 96. I passed in 96 and I can drive a 7.5t but I think the law changed after that. I'll have a look on DVLA website to see what I can find.

[katieB]

So can the 3.5T only take one horse? I would have liked to fit 2 in so I can take my friend along, no fun going exploring on your own.
Milly isnt too keen on travelling in trailers or it would just be a lot easier to buy a trailer (Clio is being sold this month and im looking for something bigger)

[teabiscuit]

get auto trader or maybe a specialised horse box mag, they do very clever things with 3.5t so that peeps can take 2 horses in them.

[baxter]

nope i travel two!

[tiny]

yes depends on unladen weight. they are building the newer 3.5T to be as light as possible. Think the Theault about the lightest - as they use aircraft aluminium to keep weight down. not cheap though! A lot of 7.5T are well over weight when carrying full capacity of horses as well.

[Laetitia]

Can be a bit tiresome in very high winds, but O.K. if keep the speed right down. L

[Alibi]

Way up the number of times you'll actually use the horsebox as its a big factor, as you know we had a box but it wasn't getting much use, mechanically it cost very little but that is due to the business my parents are in, tax - we budgeted £250 a year, Plating - if you get someone else to take it , which is sometimes better, especially if its going to fail on something small and they can put it right there and then and not have to have the wagon re-tested. Fuel wise we used to get about 20mpg and it was a fairly young reg of a wagon (N reg).

Our trailer sits happilly not costing us a penny, it has its annual check with Ifor Williams and the insurance is about £120 per year.

If you start looking for a 4x4 don't forget to check out the towing capacity, to pull a Ifor 505 or 510 plus 2 big horses you'll need a vehicle that can pull a minimum of 2500kgs (if you want a list of what does I can give it to you as I did a whole load of research before I bought mine. Cost wise for a 4x4 I don't find it hugely different to my old clio, insurance about £450 including full road side assistance, including with the trailer on, tax under £200 (can't remember exactly how much), diesel I get about 30mpg around town and 35ish on the motorway, which I don't think is bad for a big car (clio got about 50+mpg). tyres about £20 difference between these and the clio.

If I had the money I'd have another wagon tomorrow, but for cost effectivness its a trailer every time.

[eventerbabe]

Alibi, think your post has just convinced me that a trailer/tow car would be the right way to go. which tow vehicle did you opt for?? ideally i'd like a defender 90 but with a limited budget of about £4-5k is there a better option out there?

ha! just saw that you had a clio, its a clio i'll be selling to make way for a tow car

[Katharine]

I'm thinking about all this at the moment too! Will need to do trailer test and all that but I like to plan ahead! :D
Alibi - Do you have a list that is easy to access of what can tow 2500? If its not easy to access don't worry about it but if you have it to hand I'd love to see what's on it!! ;)

[katieB]

ha! just saw that you had a clio, its a clio i'll be selling to make way for a tow car

LOL, all these poor Clio's being pushed aside for bigger cars.

[Alibi]

Eventually I went for a Daewoo / Ssangyong Musso for the following reasons:
*It was cheap to buy - really cheap! complete with full leather interior, heated seat and a few other gadgets (which I don't have a clue about)
*They gave me a great price for my clio
*It had a full dealer service history
*They have mercedes engines
*It pulls 3500kgs and pulls a trailer and 2 fat cobs with ease!
*Good fuel economy for the size of vehicle
*The boot is huge - fits 3 big dogs comfortably!

Bad points:
-parts mainly come from Korea so there can be a wait, but the most I've waited has been 5 days
-It rattles a wee bit, especially over bumpy tarmac!
-Not the best looking car, does absolutely nothing for street cred, but that doesn't bother me

These are weights for towing a braked trailer. Can I say that if you are thinking about buying a vehicle for towing, check the cars actual manual for exact towing weight as the vary between models, age of vehicle, etc, but here's a rough guide line. All diesel models.

Toyota Landcruiser 2800kgs
Nissan X-trail 2000kgs
Toyota Rav-4 1500kgs
Discovery approx 3500kgs
Defender approx 3500kgs
Freelander td4 1800kgs
Shogun 2800kgs
Ssangyong Rexton 3500kgs
Daewoo / Ssangyong Musso 3500kgs
BMW X5 2300kgs
Hyundia Sante Fe 2000kgs
Hyundai Tuscan 1600kgs
Jeep Cherokee 2688kgs
Kia Sorento Diesel2.5 2800kgs
Suzuki Grand Vitara 1850kgs

[eventerbabe]

I was keen on a SSangYong/Daewoo Musso. purely coz they were cheap. do you take it to a dealership for servicing etc? we had major problems with my mum's daewoo matiz when it came to servicing and getting parts. can any garage service the Musso's??

[Alibi]

Well seeing as my Uncle is a mechanic and the OH used to be a mechanic they do any work on it and service it. And my parents are in the commercial motor parts business so getting hold of parts isn't a problem for me.

I bought it from a main dealership and they gave 3 months warranty with it so it went back a quite a few times before the warranty ran out just to make sure everything was right.

Road Test taken from www.honestjohn.co.uk (good site to read about road teats for any cars)

What's Good
See Ssangyong Musso. Daewoo took over using Daewoo corporate grille from March 1999. Total 2,226 Mussos sold in UK to October 2002 by old Daewoo Cars Ltd. Daewoos generally had below average warranty repair costs in 2003 Warranty Direct Reliability index (index 85.05 v/s lowest 31.93). Link:- www.reliabilityindex.co.uk Telephone number for spare parts and service: 0800 60 60 60, or visit www.gmdaewoo.co.uk Outstanding service and warranty deal transferable to new owners.

From April 2004 parts support provided by SYUK Cars Ltd, official importer of SsangYong vehicles for Great Britain which can be contacted on 01252 775428.
What's Bad
See Ssangyong Musso.
What to Watch Out For
See Ssangyong Musso.

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What's Good
Big UK (Worthing) designed 5-seater 4x4 with elevaated back seats. 15' 3" long by 6' 3" wide, weighs 1,875kg and pulls 2,300kg. Complicated model history began with MB design 5 cylinder 2,874cc diesel developing 94bhp. Power of this went up to 98bhp in May 1996 and this engine continued alongside a 118bhp turbo launched December 1997. Also offered from Jan 1997 with 3199cc 217bhp twin cam six cylinder petrol engine and from from June 1997 with 2,293cc 138bhp four cylinder petrol. 5-speed manual or 4 speed autoboxes, auto only on 3.2 petrol. Production ended March 1999. Then Daewoo took over, building just the 138bhp 2.3 petrol and 118bhp 2.9 turbodiesel models, still listed in June 2002.

From April 2004 parts support provided by SYUK Cars Ltd, official importer of SsangYong vehicles for Great Britain which can be contacted on 01252 775428.
What's Bad
Bankruptcy blight took its toll on UK stocks and Mussos were sold at huge discounts in 1998 and 1999. This had a devastating effect on residual values to anyone who originally paid the full price, particularly iof they bought a 94 or 98bhp 2.9 diesel.
What to Watch Out For
Usual 4x4 checks, and make sure youc an find someone local to service it.

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Another road test can also be found on http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/car-reviews/car-and-driving/daewoo-musso-2002065.html

or put daewoo musso road test in Google

[Nookster]

On licence after 1997 - If you bought a lorry that is 3.5 tonne then you are ok licence wise but as soon as you load a horse on that lorry it will take it over 3.5 tonne limit? no? making you ilegal?

At the moment i have a discovery for towing. Has been expensive to run as i do a huge amount of miles to work and back each day. Towing wise has been brilliant. The car its self again great - reliable even in the worst snow and low temps.

I sadly have to part with the disco as partner has a new shogun arriving on monday so no need to have two 4x4's. Just hope the shogun is as good as the disco has been.
Personally like having the option of no taxing insuring and mot'ing a nother vechicle so would opt for the trailer option.

The land rover if anyone is interested is going to be up for sale in another 2 weeks. Black 2.5 TD. New tyres. L reg with private plate. £1700.

[katieB]

Hmmm, so what does the average trailer weigh? Do you know what yours weighs Sam?

[eventerbabe]

Nookster, i *may* be interested in your disco. let me do a bit of research and i'll get back to you :)

[Nookster]

ifor 505 weighs - 1450kg unladen

ok eventerbabe. As said won't be going up for sale for another 2 weeks or so as have ordered a new astra for myself so have to wait for that to arrive or no transport to work (actually thats not such a bad thing!):)

[Rob26]

On licence after 1997 - If you bought a lorry that is 3.5 tonne then you are ok licence wise but as soon as you load a horse on that lorry it will take it over 3.5 tonne limit? no? making you ilegal?

The 3.5 tonne is how much it can carry not the weight of the vehicle so you would be fine on a 1997 onwards licence.

[Alibi]

I only know Ifor Williams weights because thats all we've ever had.

HB505 takes 2 x 16.2hds, unladen weight 905kg, max gross weight 2340kg

HB510 takes 2 x 17.2hds, unladen weight 1000kg, max gross weight 2584kg

But you should also add your tack, hay, and anything else you take.

[Nookster]

I only know Ifor Williams weights because thats all we've ever had.

HB505 takes 2 x 16.2hds, unladen weight 905kg, max gross weight 2340kg

HB510 takes 2 x 17.2hds, unladen weight 1000kg, max gross weight 2584kg

But you should also add your tack, hay, and anything else you take.


I have an HB505 and the plate on it says unladen 1450kg ?!?!?

[Alibi]

Nookster - is it an older model with a wooden floor? I got the weights from the new Ifor brochure we got with our trailer (new May 2005).

[Nookster]

older model with new floor fitted by ifor - so gathering weight will now have changed?

[Alibi]

It possibly has - do you have a local weigh bridge? You could take it there and know for sure.

[Lgd]

Horsebox every time for me! Then again, I compete a fair amount and stay away overnight (or for several days), so it gets well used. Works out way cheaper for me as I would be paying hotel bills or sleeping in the trailer a chunk of the time.
Ours is a 7.5T, takes 3 horses and has a living area as well, now on N-reg 75e15 cargo chassis.

Annual costs:

Insurance £200 (that is with limited mileage of 5000 miles pa)
Rescue £100
Plating £50
Road tax £165
Servicing & repairs - worst was about £500 but that included a new master cylinder on the old chassis.

Tyres are £60 each
The old chassis (we've just transferred the body onto a new chassis) did around 18mpg, the new one did around 22mpg on our recent trip to Rowallan and that involves some pretty big climbs and quite a lot of stops and starts, so a straight motorway run will probably be better. (That was with two big naglets and all the gear)

I share with a friend, so that knocks the cost down a load more and makes it cheaper than both of us running big 4x4s and trailers.

Also watch out for the hidden costs with 4x4s/trailers -

Most 4 x 4s do a max of 30mpg on diesel (more expensive than petrol) as opposed to 40 - 50mpg we get from our petrol cars.

Insurance on my Fourtrak was around £500 with full no claims 6 years ago, current car is around £400 with two drivers on the insurance. Once you start towing your mileage drops to around 15mpg with a 4x4.

Trailer insurance is comparatively more because they are so nickable.

Trailers should also be serviced annually (many don't get that!)

Infinitely less stable than a horsebox and provide a less comfortable ride unless you have one of the very expensive Fautras or Equitrek trailers - some of which are barely towable with a full load unless you have a BIG tractor unit for your vehicle!