Ten prominent farm machinery dealers have lined up behind Fastparts – the parts and components division of farm machinery distributor Farmhand – to promote the latest ‘ball-and-spoon’ hitch system made by Dromone Engineering of Oldcastle.
The dealers concerned – each one supplied with a working display module demonstrating how the device operates – are Whelans Garage (Loughrea and Ennis), Cliffords (Tralee), Jim Power Agri Sales (Tallow), Kellys (Borris), Kehoe Brothers (Camolin), Gordon Hegarty (Tullow), Mills Hydraulics (Mullingar), Garahy (Birr) and Clonmel Machinery.
Claimed to reduce costs by delivering 90% less hitch wear, compared to conventional hook and eye systems, the ball-and-spoon design is said by Dromone to have numerous other advantages. These include 35° of movement, which is said to allow for “safer, shunt-free towing in extreme conditions”.
Other benefits are said to include long service life, thanks to accessible grease points, no upward movement when tipping, “easy and speedy” coupling, and a “perfect fit” between the ball and spoon. This, says Dromone Engineering, delivers “smoother movement and eliminates noisy rattling when towing empty trailers“.
A keen advocate of the Dromone system is Baltinglass contractor, Marcus Fenton. Using it across all of his machinery, from spreaders to trailers, Fenton commented that the system is a “fit and forget” attachment that “eliminates any risk that a trailer or machine could become unhooked accidentally”.
