Irish based trailer manufacturer Smyth Trailers have just released a high capacity silage trailer to service the needs of modern day agricultural contracting.

The trailer was custom fabricated at their purpose built manufacturing facility in response to customer demands for a high capacity trailer in order to move more material more efficiently.

Smyth Trailers founding partner Sam Smyth, said: “Customers have recently being enquiring about a trailer which can carry more material each time to tackle the problem of longer hauls during the busy silage season.

"The main issue that arises when you produce a large trailer is that naturally manoeuvrability suffers.

"We are always listening to our customers’ needs and are ready for an engineering challenge.

"We contacted Cathal Deacon and Colin French from Distag QCS who developed a bolt on forced steering tri axle system for us in order to keep manoeuvrability in line with that of a standard 20ft trailer.

"This system not only steers while travelling forward but also steers in reverse further aiding its manoeuvrability."

The trailer is based on the company’s popular SuperCube range which features a sloped front design for extra capacity. The trailer in question is 25ft long and 8.3ft wide with an overall height of 12.8ft which gives it a payload capacity of approximately 50 cubic metres, other sizes are also available to suit the customers’ needs.

The entire body is manufactured from high yield steel and features removable silage sides as well as a hydraulically controlled tailboard at the rear. The body is tipped by two high capacity hydraulic cylinders which are chrome plated to reduce seal wear and increase reliability. All of which is fitted onto a high strength chassis manufactured from 250x150mm box section steel in conjunction with 100x150mm box section steel floor runners.

Underneath, the chassis is fitted with Smyths own heavy duty spring suspension which is 4” wide by 2” thick.

This heavy duty suspension reduces flex in the spring vastly improving stability.

This design is also capable of handling greater weights than the old type torque arm system used in some other trailers.

Wexford based agricultural contractor Aidan Wickham, who had the trailer out on test, said: “The biggest problem we are facing especially at silage is that dairy farms are getting bigger and land is becoming harder to get for grass, this means that silage ground is often fragmented and we have increasingly longer draws back to the pit, a larger capacity trailer is exactly what we need but it has to be just as manoeuvrable as a standard 20ft trailer.

"This new tri axle with the forced steering system does exactly that, it can easily get around anywhere the standard trailers are going but will carry up to 35% more each load, reducing costs and time for me and helping to increase efficiency. The main stand out features for me personally has to be the manoeuvrability even when reversing, as well as the stability when fully loaded making it safer during transport”.

For more information on Smyth Trailers or to arrange a demonstration of this new trailer call 00353(0)599157652 or log onto www.smythtrailers.com