Plant Trailer (Model 11017)

Model 11017 is an 8x5 tandem heavy-duty plant trailer: a 3500 kg ATM deck with four-wheel electric brakes, 5 ft drop-down grid-mesh ramps, an angle-iron bucket rest and drop-down stabiliser legs at the rear, built for moving skid steers, mini excavators, trenchers, compactors and attachments between sites.

Plant trailers take a different kind of abuse to box trailers. Machines are loaded with a bucket or a ramp, the weight lands on the deck in one place, and the trailer is often standing on soft or uneven ground while it is being loaded. This model is specified for that: a 5-6 mm thick chassis rather than a light frame, a reinforced 1 800 mm drawbar, a full checker-plate body, and angle iron positioned so a machine bucket rests on structure instead of on a panel.

Tie-down rails run into the guards so chains and binders anchor to the frame, and there are dedicated points for securing tracks or wheels. The rear stabiliser legs drop down while loading so the trailer does not tip up on its drawbar when a heavy machine runs up the ramps; once loaded, the legs fold up and out of the way. Ramps are 5 ft grid mesh, which gives grip for tracked machines and keeps the ramp light enough to handle by hand.

Running gear is commercial: 50 mm square axles on heavy-duty rocker roller suspension, four-wheel electric brakes with an electrical breakaway unit, and new 14 inch Sunraysia wheels with new light-truck tyres. A spare wheel and jockey wheel are included. Braking on all four wheels is not optional at this ATM with a machine on board - it is what keeps the combination controllable on a downhill.

Typical buyers are plant hire companies, civil contractors, municipalities, farmers and equipment dealers who move machines by bakkie rather than by truck and want the trailer to do it legally and repeatably.