Hello All,

Owing to a new addition to the family of the four legged variety, I’m about to go shopping for a horse trailer. I just wondered whether any of the wise owls on here had any tips for a prospective horse trailer owner?

A bit of reading up on these things is pointing us towards an Ifor Williams HB506 MkII. Any thoughts on these greatly appreciated.

All the best
Tom 2004 L322 4.4 V8 Vogue Bonatti Grey
(205,500 miles and counting.......)

a quick forum search came up with this Tom, hope it helps,

https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic32281...r+williams ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Not quite the same but I've got an ifor Williams ct177 trailer. Tows pretty well, brakes work pretty well when your loaded. Gentle touch on the brakes and you can almost let the trailer slow the ffrr down.

Only tips I can offer mate is check the register with Ifor Williams for any known history such as stolen, damaged etc and get it serviced from your local dealer once a year.

Thanks Stan 👍 2004 L322 4.4 V8 Vogue Bonatti Grey
(205,500 miles and counting.......)

Besides the handy tips already, as in above posts - full front doors for offloading the beasts to me are a must have, especially when dealing with some horses when they are agitated. Most critical aspect to me, is a close inspection of the floor. We have never had an incident of floor failure, but, we have had to help other people deal with two separate incidents of failure of the floor with horses on board, the results do not bear thinking about. remove any plastics / rubber for full inspection of steel / wood etc. Last tip, sounds OTT, I once saw someone try to pull away and the ball snapped off the tow bar, from then on if a tow bar looked to have been abused, I always used spray crack detector - we always borrow or hire trailers, spray detector kit comprises three aerosols, easy method. Warning - if you are new to the equine world, it's a lifestyle choice not a hobby as I have found out, watching my daughter compete at eventing gives me bloody heart attacks. Have fun

We upgraded many years ago from Rice horse trailer to a lovely new Ifor Williams HB510 which we had for several years, then bought an HB511 (early model), then an HB511 (later model) and last year bough an HBX511. They are simply superb. The only one we had any issue with was the early HB511, the fixings for the bodywork weren't very robust and we changed it at 4 years old when one of the front ramp hinges failed. Not had any issue with any of the others and the new HBX series really is worth the extra money (all alluminium body even though the chassis is the same as the HB series). With two big (both 18hh, gross trailer weight around 2.6 to 2.7 tonnes) horses on board it just tows beautifully. The other great thing about Ifor Williams trailers is that provided you look after them they really hold their price. Drives:
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue - Stornoway Grey
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue SE - Zermatt Silver
1998 BMW E36 M3 GTII

The floor is the main one to look for, brakes, bearings, lights and hitch are all easily replaceable. If it's more than a few years old I'd check the manufacture date on the tyres, due to the mileage most trailers do the tyres may look good but could be an accident waiting to happen and a reason for a few £££ knocking off. Current
2017 Range Rover Sport SVR
2001 Porsche 911 Turbo
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2013 Range Rover Autobiography SDV8
2007 Range Rover Vogue SE TDV8
2002 Range Rover HSE TD6
+ Many other non LR products

Caravan tyres are recommended to be changed at 5 years old, look for cracking in side walls from standing in the sun.

Think about what security measures you will need to buy. Caravan suppliers will be a good source, hitch locks and wheel locks. 2012 tdv8 Westminster arrived Jan 19 gone Dec 23

200 TDi discovery bobtail gone
RR classic v8 bobtail gone
300 tdi Discovery 3 dr gone

We have one of these as a security addition to our Ifor HB510

Also worth looking at tracking devices mate.

Check the provenance of used trailers, they tend to be stolen a lot so many end up on the used market, certainly with IW flatbeds. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

All modern IW horse trailers have aluminium floors, so yes check them but they are unlikely to be poor, another reason they hold their value so well. Drives:
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue - Stornoway Grey
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue SE - Zermatt Silver
1998 BMW E36 M3 GTII

We owned a new HB511, great trailer. You really don’t notice the extra size but it’s nice to have.

They seem to hold their value really well, a new one (from a dealer willing to discount) was not much more than most of the used ones on the market. Towed it with a Defender most of the time but the L322 towed it a couple of times and it was a absolute joy!

Click image to enlarge

Had a gen 1 506, now onto our second gen2 hb511.
I’ve towed them with Defender, l322 and now l405.

I would skip the 506 unless you do have small horses/ponies, but from experience there’s always another horse appearing so future proof yourself as you can get a smaller horse in a 511 but not a bigger horse in a 506.

I have a few gripes about not so much the build quality but the attention to detail on silly little things.

New hbx range look lovely but i couldn’t justify the extra cost for the use our one gets, just local jaunts for leisure rides.

As above, a 506 will only do for ponies etc so if there is any suspicion that you may end up with larger horse(s) at any stage, I’d be very tempted to go straight into a 511.

Also as mentioned, check floors very carefully - lifting mats is not a nice process as there can be all sorts of gunge under there but will be a sound investment of time and effort.

We sold ours through the Disco4 forum and I would echo the thoughts of needing to know the provenance of the trailer as there are far too many stolen to make it comfortable as a random purchase. We used to have a wheel lock and a hitch lock on ours - the principle being to make it harder to steal than the ones parked nearby!

The bad news... it doesn’t stop - our daughter is now running around with a 7.5 tonne horse box and itching for competitions to start again!