brisbane truck show: traliers
ALONG THE TRAILER TRAIL
A truck show has to have trucks. But, trailers are just as important. Australia is home to some of the best and toughest trailer manufacturers in the world. The Owner//Driver team follows the trailer trail at the Brisbane Truck Show BYRNE’S BIG ON LIVESTOCK Byrne Trailers showcased a diverse line-up at the Brisbane Truck Show (BTS) but the standouts were undoubtedly the livestock trailers, standing tall as the only ones on show. And with good reason. The company, founded by Mick and Teri Byrne in Peak Hill, NSW, in 1974, has seen solid growth from its small beginnings, where it now claims to hold market leadership in the livestock sector. Extensive manufacturing facilities were established in Wagga Wagga in 1988, with expansion into Queensland in 1993 via a manufacturing and service depot in Toowoomba.
30 JUNE 2021
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Byrne’s capabilities were represented at the show via a B-triple unit that can cart sheep, cattle and pigs alongside a B-double cattle-only unit belonging to Shanahan’s Livestock Transport. Though not outright new releases, Byrne explains it is seeing success in recent years with these units due to their clever stainless steel design, which delivers the “same strength and ductility as carbon steel but is 250 times more corrosion resistant”, and therefore “rusts 250 times slower”. “It also makes the trailer a bit lighter and allows you to add a couple more animals on the trailer,” Byrne sales expert Sam Gwynne tells us.
A tri-axle dolly, designed for the livestock task, accompanied its headline units. Elsewhere, Byrne had a couple of aluminium bulk trailers on display, containing the Keith Manufacturing Walking Floor conveying system, where slats move back and forth in the loading/unloading process. One of units is ideal for agriculture, while the other, heavier-duty, unit, has been designed for waste and building supplies industries.
INNOVATIVE DRAKE BTS saw some of the latest Drake Group innovations across the Drake Trailers and O’Phee Trailers brands. The Drake Group show stand highlighted the fact it is still innovating, merging new technology with a century of combined O’Phee and Drake trailer-building know-how. You’d be hard pressed walking through the show and missing the Drake Group’s gargantuan Steerable Deck Widener. The latest widener from Drake features its own ‘Active Steer’, allowing for up to an additional 35 degrees of manoeuvrability – the difference between being able to fit or not! A standout feature on the latest Steerable Deck Widener, and one of the keys to achieving such significant manoeuvrability improvements, is that all axles on the trailer steer, not just the self-tracking on the rear axle. The system works via a mechanical link and is steered off the skid plate to the turntable, steering the trailer behind the prime mover. Active Steer also allows the operator to steer the trailer independently using a remote control setup, allowing the trailer to be ‘crabbed’ to achieve more steering angle than you could with the prime mover. O’Phee Trailers are all about semitrailers and its BTS display was all about showcasing performance-based
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26/05/2021 1:58:55 PM