Keep or sell trailer

[InflationRising]

When I bought my horse I had grand plans of taking him out and about, cross country, pleasure rides, local shows etc. I bought a trailer to facilitate that.

The reality is that my horse is a twat who is so difficult to handle when taken anywhere that I just avoid doing so. Added to that, I now have a toddler so don't feel it's fair disappearing for a day to play horses each time there's an event. I also need another person to come with me due to the difficulty of managing on my own with a huge, strong, pain in the ass horse.

I have used my trailer maybe 5 times in the past year, twice to go out somewhere and the rest were vet trips and a yard move. Before that the use was roughly the same frequency.

I bought it brand new 5 years ago and as it's so lightly used it's in good condition and has never needed any work at its annual service. I reckon I could get up to 85% of its original cost.

With the price of fuel and the costs of running a 4x4 I've been considering selling it and getting a more economical car. Especially as I have a new job with a 50 mile commute 3 times a week, that's an extra 300 miles a week to pay for.

I like having it there 'just in case' but if it was stolen I wouldn't replace it. Would I be mad to sell it?

Sell it. If it’s an Ifor Williams they sell well

I’d get rid of it , unless you see things massively changing in the near future - like getting a pony for your toddler and wanting to take them places in the next few years .

If you’re not using it I’d sell it - you might well get more than 85% of its original cost right now as there are long waiting lists for most new trailers.

If you think you might sell at any point , now is a great time to do it.
Prices for trailers and lorries are insane.
Friend sold her lorry for £5k more than she paid for it new four years ago.
If you go out infrequently and need help, a transport service might actually suit you better as often the transporter will help you as well

Thx. It's overdue a service so I'll get that done and then stick it on Facebook.

Funnily enough I was just looking at buying a trailer or lorry because I am fed up of the stress/cost of hiring lorries every time my daughter goes to shows, which has become very frequent. I was thinking of buying a trailer, as I hate driving manual and most lorries have a manual gearbox. Ideally, I would love an automatic horsebox if I could afford one. But what sort of price should I realistically be expecting to pay for secondhand trailers/lorries in decent condition, as prices vary massively online?

@XelaM you’re following pretty much the same path as me a few years ago 😉

If you’ve got a car capable of towing and you’re a confident driver then a trailer is easily the most cost-effective way of getting your daughter plus pony out and about

I bought a secondhand IW403 (single trailer) for £3500 three years ago and sold it for £3600 - there’s a sweet spot for trailers where they just don’t lose their value.

A decent double trailer would be anything from £3500 to £5500 at the moment plus cost of getting a tow bar fitted - we got the car-specific version of the electrics for ours as it meant it was properly integrated with the car’s systems which was a bit more expensive but worth it.

Servicing cost me ~£150 a year , insurance was £10 a month and we got a rescue service for about £150 a year but that was for the car plus trailer.

The cheapest lorry I could find that I would have been happy for my daughter and her horse to travel in was at least £20,000 and then you have all the extra costs of servicing, MOT/plating (depending on size) and finding somewhere to store it as obviously lorries are a lot bigger than trailers.

In an ideal world I’d have got a Bloomfield 5 tonne with luxury living but didn’t have a spare £90k to spend on one child’s hobby 😬

Sell it

Mine's a single if you're interested!!!!

I'm pondering the same thing. My horse is old and we just have now. I'm 63 and won't buy another. But I would miss boxing over to a friends farm and hacking out with her. But between covid and lameness we've only met up a couple of times over the last 2 years. I need to give a good good clean first though.

Sold it to the first person to view it! Crazy money as I got back what I paid for it new!