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Anon
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Help! Opinions wanted


Bessie, my 1984 TL horsebox has cost me £3500 to purchase, £3500 for a replacement engine (engine and installation) (due to previously mentioned mistake by darling husband) and now possibly £500 to revamp compressor which has to power steering as well as brakes and is now not really safe any more. My mechanic says I should really have scrapped her after the engine debacle but I didn't. He's now saying, probably rightly, that I've got to judge when enough is enough, given that she's so old. However, if I give up on her now, I wont ever be able to buy another lorry and the horses don't like a trailer (at least the old trailer we have - and no money for new trailer either). Should I give up now or should I grub around for the £500 for the recon compressor or is it just going to go on and on. I really love this lorry but maybe not having any money, I should just give up on the lot. Any thoughts much appreciated, I can't think straight any more.

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Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 09:40 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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just my opinion but.....if the horses were sick you would call the vet and spend money.same with the horse box. its not what it costs or what its worth, but what its worth to you.

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Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 11:42 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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and, just my opinion

I think that you are stuck with paying out the £500 to get the vehicle back on the road.

My thinking is:

Selling
If you are going to throw the towel in and sell it, it must be worth more, safe and on the road, than dumping it at a scrap yard for nothing/very little. Which mean you will have to fix the compressor prior to selling.

Keeping
If this is going to be your mode of horse moving for the next 10 years, then £500 doesn’t seem a lot for the peace of mind.

One advantage of having to fix a lot of things on a vehicle is that you know exactly what has been done… and to what standard. If you ditch this truck and buy another in a few years time, you might have the same problems all over again.

Nigel.
Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 12:36 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Keep - you have come this far, you like the vehicle, your horses share your opinion and you are keeping a bit of history running on the road.

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Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 14:53 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Most certainly keep it. It will save you money in the long run by finding the £500 now.

Let us know what you decide to do

Good luck!

: )
Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 16:25 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Olga, on reading your post i thought where has £500.00 come from?? any way on looking at e bay low and behold what is on there for sale in MAIDSTONE but a tk compressor Item number: 260532170036 i hope it is for the same model as yours so get bidding.or better still get down to his house. Regards David.


A Scot Lost in the Valley's.
Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 20:13 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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A bit of perspective -

Look on the purchase cost as a standing cost spread out over, say, 10 years. If it assumed that the truck has no value at the end of year 10 then that's £350/year.

Look on the total repair costs now as running costs with potential life of 50,000 mile (looking on the bad side): that's 8p/mile.

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Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 21:35 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Olga.
As you know I am fixing my TL. As others have quite rightly said, to sell the truck for more than scrap value (I would guess at around £400) you would have to spend the £500. If you fixed it you would not want to part with it. I think you could get hold of a used brake unit for a reasonable cost. The problem we have had is throwing money at it for years but the garage has been unreliable. If the only practical way for you to move the horses is with a truck then maybe you should ask what an alternative truck would cost. Ahhh! yes a re mortgage later and you have a prettier smoother truck that is actually no more reliable and even more expensive to fix. (believe me it will break just as often!) You could contact http://www.bedfordgenuineparts.com and ask them for your nearest specialist repair garage. Your truck will break again. This £500 will not be the end of it, but vehicles cost money and deteriorate over time no matter how much we wish they didnt. If you are really thinking of giving up at a £500 bill, what happens next time it breaks? It would be best to have somebody check it over and tell you, 'yes it is sound and worth keeping for years to come'. Then with that reassurance, decide on a yearly budget and hope you can stick to it.
I can give you a string of phone numbers for parts if you want. I will be running Bedfords as long as possible. They have been the backbone of our business for so many years. You have the advantage that yours is a small one. The parts are easier to get. e-bay is a life saver too.
Good luck

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Wed 06 Jan 2010 @ 22:37 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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The New old Stock Bedford TK compressor on ebay has just been sold for under £60.00 a strange difference to £500,00 fitted. Where do some of these so called mechanic's get their prices from. It sometimes makes me wonder where a lot of these people were taught about motor engineering. Or is it that they dont want to get their hands dirty and find it easier to try and pull the wool over innocent peoples eyes and line their pockets with money. regards David.


A Scot Lost in the Valley's.
Sat 09 Jan 2010 @ 23:30 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Opinions

Thank you all so much. So many considered and sensible replies. Since posting my request, my friend with her £16,000 Iveco tells me it is going to cost £1000 to get it back on the road, plated! Put like that, £500 seems a paltry (well, not to me, but you know what I mean). Bessie has a marvellous provenance, having been back up wagon on two long distance charity rides from Canterbury first to Santiago de Compostela and secondly to Rome - and of course, back. So she's crossed the Pyrennees and the Alps. I love her to bits even though she's not fitted out like these twee newer lorries. Yes, you're all right, I shall keep her. She would have flown the plating this year with no work at all if I hadn't broken the wing mirror on the way into the plating centre.

I feel I have been unfair to my mechanic over the £500.00. (Oh curses, the compressor in Maidstone on ebay, bother) He says re-vamping the compressor wont be expensive, it'll be the labour costs.

I really can't thank you all enough for all your support. I'm so pleased to have found this website but I will try not to bore you all witless.

Oh and finally, Bessie is in the book her previous owner wrote about her first trip and will be in the second she's writing. If I take her to France this year to join in part of a third adventure, she'll be in another book. Scrap her? What was I thinking of?
Sun 10 Jan 2010 @ 12:56 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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david jamieson wrote:
Where do some of these so called mechanic's get their prices from.


They just bang up the labour charges - anywhere between £30 and£100 will do, per hour.

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Sun 10 Jan 2010 @ 14:06 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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We need to set up a co-operative for garage work. Where the mechanics are paid fairly and the customers pay for work at cost! If there was over charging it would get sunk into the coffers to invest in better facilities or returned to the customer.
Like that will happen- before I have won the lottery!

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Sun 10 Jan 2010 @ 22:52 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
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