Back in '08 I dropped nearly $500 on a set of those newfangled composite shoeing boxes.

Jamie Hunt · 2026-04-05T05:05:04.894602+00:00

They were supposed to be lighter and last forever, but the first real cold snap we had up here cracked the lid clean through. Now I'm back to my old steel box, wondering if anyone else had gear fail when the temperature really dropped.

finley_lee5mo ago

Funny how they never test that stuff in real cold before selling it. The problem is those plastics get brittle as glass once you hit a certain point. My cousin works with polymers and says the temperature rating on the box probably didn't account for wind chill, which makes it way worse.

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smith.anna3mo ago

Blame the user not the gear. I've had the same composite box for 12 years through three Manitoba winters and it still snaps shut tight. You probably left it out in direct sun all summer then slammed it shut in January. Mine sat in an unheated shed at -40 and I just gave it a tap with a rubber mallet before opening. Never cracked.

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david_martin5mo ago

Tell me about it, I learned the hard way like @finley_lee said. My fancy cooler turned into a puzzle box last winter, lmao.

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