Should we / shouldn't we (buy a lorry.)

Sarah_Sayers

Sarah_Sayers

New Member
Nov 15, 2006
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Great Yarmouth
Hello everyone.

Me and my partner are just toying with the idea of buying a lorry. (pls read; I am desparately trying to convince my partner to buy a lorry! :p)

Anyway, after plying him with a bit of booze, we've decided we'd have a little look and see what we could get for how much money. So I've had a quick look on horsemart and there's a couple I like.

I was hoping that people could give me some recommedations on things you don't see in photos. Such as: a quick search on here suggested that Ford Cargos are difficult to get bits for.

So any advice on makes and models, or any recomendations anyone has would be very gratefully recieved. We'd be looking at small 7.5ton, 2-3 horse, small living (with bed) for absolute maximum £6000.

Thanks,
Sarah.
 
It's a real buyers market at the moment so you ought to be able to get something decent for £6000 :) It's a funny price range though - I don't think you'll get a really tidy back on a 'new' (by horsebox standards) chassis for that, so you need to decide whether you'd prefer a 'new' chassis but probably a recycled or very basic box, or an oldish chassis but with a nice box + living. My first lorry was an old chassis with a nice back & full living, I wouldn't do that again because it was very unreliable and I never used the living anyway. I ended up scrapping it after a year & losing £:eek:. On the plus side, my horse went from being a dodgy loader & fretful traveller to a good loader and traveller because the horse area was very well designed and spacious, so she had good experiences in it. So maybe it wasn't a waste of money after all :rolleyes: My current box is newer (but not that new), has a low mileage and the horse area is very nice, but it has no living, just a tack area. I paid £4500 for it about 6 weeks ago, so something similar with living would probably come in at less than £6K.

My advice would be to have a really good look around, and be prepared to drive a hard bargain & walk away from anything you think is over-priced or you have any bad vibes about. In terms of makes, my Bedford was a PITA and a pig to drive. From what I can gather they can be fantastically reliable, and mine had been before I got it, unfortunately it started to disintegrate as soon as I handed over my life savings & bought it! The Leyland Roadrunner I have now is really nice to drive but I haven't had it long enough to comment first hand on its reliability, although I have heard good things from Coyote so fingers crossed! A friend of mine has a DAF 150/45 that is gorgeous to drive and has been pretty reliable :cool: He's had an issue with the brakes but it turned out to be a holed paper gasket in the air system, that kind of thing can happen to any box. He used to have a Cargo & had to scrap it because it had an engine problem that he couldn't get the bits to fix without spending :eek: I had an Iveco 75E15 'vetted' (L plate) & that turned out to be a nightmare, despite being relatively new it had a list of problems as long as your arm. That put me off Ivecos a bit, although some peeps on here seem really happy with theirs. I've also had friends with Mercs and MANs, both got very good reviews. My friend's Merc 709 has been fabulous, she's had years of trouble free motoring with it and I am very very jealous :mad:

I would always recommend getting a prospective purchase vetted by the Association of Horsebox & Trailer Owners, if it hadn't have been for them I'd be the proud owner of a wagon with a rotten cab, defective brakes, dodgy ramp, major oil leaks, four bald tyres and an engine that had to be dropped out the wagon to have any work done on it :eek:

Good luck! ;)
 
i'm looking at getting a lorry as well and have been doing the same research as you! from what i've gathered Ford ivecos are pretty much a no go- too many on the road and not enough spares for them, Mans are good but pricey and Dafs are fantastic and realistically priced and by all accounts the most reliable and easiest to drive.
I'm scouring horsemart every day as well and the prices are dropping- was away for a week and they seem to have come down again by a few thousand per lorry - i'd wait until after the new year to buy though as i think with the amount for sale that prices will keep going down.
horsedeals has a few god ones

if this link works then try see if theres anything there.

http://www.horsedeals.co.uk/horsebo...ageSize=20&S_From Price=5000&S_To Price=10000
 
Oh wow, loads of great info, cheers guys! We have a friend who is a mechanic, so he will be checking out that side of things if we find one we like the look of. We have a trailer, so aren't in a hurry.
 
We've got an Iveco dealer near us, and if we go for small things like bulbs, the guy can't be bothered to do an invoice on the computer for a few quid and gives them us for free :D
 
wish I could buy a lorry!! one day...

mine and mums old lorry was a leyland DAF... it was a great runner, and could really shift. Most people I have spoken to rate the leylands much higher than the ford cargos - the cargos rust very easily, and do not seem to have the same length of lifespan that leylands and mercedes do.

I also think it is a good time to buy - prices have really dropped in the last year - some lorries are half what they would have been.
 
Sarah - out of interest, I'm toying with selling mine. I've just had my body put on a 2000 Daf 45/150 with full Daf service history. Can't remember the mileage but it's not high by any stretch of the imagination! It's an alli purpose built horse container which will take 3x 14.2hh or 2x 16.2hh. I've had it for four years and it's a difficult discision but thinking of going to a 3.5t Renault instead. It's quite compact being about 15' overall length... not much longer than my disco! :)
 
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