Meath Farm Machinery has long set out its stall as being associated with quality equipment, and it has recently added Tyrone Trailers to its list of franchises, a make that it believes fits right in with this philosophy.
Tyrone Trailers is a relative newcomer to the machinery business although its founder and managing director, Declan McMoran, has been crafting trailers and other machinery for over 25 years.
Manufacturing hotspot
Co. Tyrone itself has become an engineering hub over the last few decades with a large number of companies supplying the quarrying and construction industries located there.
Little surprise then that from this pool of engineering talent and expertise there has arisen a new company with the same ethos of building strength and quality as that of the multinationals supplying the construction industry.
Like many engineering companies, pinning down an exact birth date is a difficult quest, however, Declan had started making trailers on a part-time basis for a friend in 2018, going full-time in 2019, and he has not looked back since.
Application of expertise
The impetus to go full-time came when Declan suddenly realised that he had nine trailers on order – as well as a day job.
It was sink or swim time, so he took the plunge and last year the 20 staff that now work for the company produced 280 trailers for sale in Ireland, the UK and Europe, with the Nordic countries in particular being a strong market for the company.
This is, by any measure, a spectacular growth rate and it has been helped by the arrival of Kevin McSorley as sales manager, whose experience in selling heavy equipment abroad has been invaluable.
Herein lies the key to the design of the product, it is heavy engineering scaled down rather than light engineering scaled up; there is a solidity about the trailers wherever you look.
Shopping list
Meath Farm Machinery first became aware of Tyrone Trailers when the company went out looking for a new loader to use themselves for recovery work.
They had a list of requirements in mind, the chief one being that it had to be well built and well finished, it would be seen behind a John Deere whenever it was out on the road after all.
The trailer they eventually purchased from the company has a length of 30ft and a gross weight of 30t, giving a carrying capacity of 22.5t.
It has two fixed and one steering axle, all on steel springs. As yet, no customer has requested air suspension, although Declan is by no means averse to fitting it if required.
The rear ramps are are hydraulically adjustable for width and spread to 2.9m to accommodate combine harvesters and other wide-tracked machinery, a facility bolstered by outriggers giving another 15cm to either side of the deck.
20t pull
At the front sits a 10t hydraulic winch which is mounted strongly enough to enable the use of a snatch block, thus doubling its capacity to 20t.
Big hydraulic winches are not cheap, but the beauty of running them from a tractor’s hydraulics is that they are a lot quicker than relying on a 12v trailer plug to supply the power.
The deck is of 50mm timber, except for the steel plates sitting above the wheels. These were specified by Meath Farm Machinery to avoid a build-up of mud and dirt on the wood, which would shorten its life.
This ability to fully customise the specifications of the trailer is another strong attraction for customers, according to Kevin.
Tyrone Trailers build to spec
Buying a trailer is not simply a matter of choosing the colour, there is always a discussion with the customer as to what he intends the trailer to be used for, as this will help ensure his needs are met.
In the case of Meath Farm Machinery, the recovery of large machines, such as harvesters, would be the most demanding task asked of it, and so the trailer was designed and built with this in mind.
The ramps, winch, axle arrangement, outriggers etc., were all requested by Meath Farm Machinery when ordering the trailer, and despite the manufacturer’s heavy workload, they were all incorporated into the final item.
One point to note from the rapid growth of Tyrone Trailers is that it was not overly held-up by material shortages, which is something often complained of elsewhere in the industry.
Steel supply did not hold up production to any great extent, and it appears that component availability has returned to something like normal, with shipment delays easing as more containers become available globally.
Two-month delivery
The company quotes a lead time of around eight weeks and is happily continuing to take orders for its whole range, which includes dump trailers as well as low loaders. Prices are also said to have stabilised.
As to the future then, while it is the agricultural/construction contractor market which provides the mainstay of its business, it is intending to enter the commercial vehicle sector with bespoke low loaders later this year.
Tyrone Trailers may be a young company, but it is coming from an area steeped in engineering and managed by people who know the business and how to work with steel.
As yet, despite its immediate success, it has to make its presence felt fully on the Irish market, but with the quality of build shown in this particular example, that may not be too long in coming.
