MACHINERY

Multi-purpose tracking trailer impresses

KELLY Engineering's tracking trailer won the Best New Australian Designed and Built Award at the Henty Machinery Field Days last week.

Mark Saunders
Multi-purpose tracking trailer impresses

Developed to transport harvester fronts, the Kelly Tracking Trailer can also be used for carrying liquid fertiliser, chemical shuttles, hay and a wide range of header fronts.

The trailer features steering front and rear wheels which can track perfectly behind the towing vehicle. This allows for turning within tighter spaces as the Kelly Engineering team recognised that machinery is getting bigger, and negotiating narrow roads was becoming increasingly difficult.

Judge of the Award Mark Bowyer said the tracking trailer impressed the judging panel with its uniqueness. He said the mind boggled at the varying applications for a single trailer.

“I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere whereby the steering mechanism runs up through the middle of the machine to steer the front and back axles,’’ Mr Bowyer said.

“Long comb trailers behind headers tend to cut in on corners and it can be a bit of a problem. The steering mechanism allows the rear of the machine to follow quite well.

“The machine is also suitable for other applications – it can take any form of header front from the bigger draper style to the smaller canola pick-up fronts.

“The cleverly designed brackets can be interchanged on the chassis, or they can be removed to use the trailer for other purposes, such as a chemical trailer behind a self-propelled sprayer."

Kelly sales manager Cavin Osborn said the trailer had evolved from a header comb trailer to a universal machine.

“Header combs are getting bigger and harder to manoeuvre around so we wanted to design a trailer to make it easier,’’ Mr Osborn said.

“We thought if the attachments were adjustable or removable, we could put enviro drums or hay bales on the trailer as well.  It has an extendable hitch and there is a linkage from the front wheels to the back wheels to ensure it tracks right behind the tow vehicle,’’ he said.

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