Founded by Colin A. Drake in 1960, Drake Trailers has remained a family owned and operated heavy transport trailer manufacturer. The business started in a small workshop in Brisbane with the aim of manufacturing the best heavy transport trailers available in Australia and creating innovative designs to best meet the needs of its clients.
History of innovation
In 1969, Drake Trailers introduced its revolutionary 100 tonne capacity ‘Swingwing’ widening low loader. Since then, this design has continued to evolve and is now available in capacities ranging from 65 to 120 tonne.
During the early 1970s, Drake Trailers began building mine site trailers, and over the last decade has produced a new generation mine site trailer capable of carrying loads of up to 400 tonnes.
By 1980, Drake steerable trailers were introduced with hydraulic widening and mechanical steering. Today, this range has expanded to include both semi and fully modular steerable platforms in various line configuration featuring remote controlled hydraulic widening, goose necks, header draw bars, suspension and steering.
The Drake Trailers range also include self tracking low loaders, jinkers, vessel carriers, speciality trailers, telescopic steerable trailers, and dolly trailers.
The range of trailers isn’t the only aspect that has grown immensely. From early days spent working from a small workshop, Drake Trailers now operates from a modern 8650 square meter manufacturing and finishing facility. Recent upgrades to the facility include new engineering and production offices complete with 3D design capabilities, new painting and finishing booths, new robot welding systems and redesigned work areas and increased staff levels of over 170 people.
Continued growth
To celebrate its 50 years of manufacturing, Drake Trailers has just unveiled a brand new logo. As a symbol of the strength present in all of its trailers, the new logo features a low, lean and tough Perentie. Native to Australia, the Perentie is the country’s largest Monitor lizard and is featured above the Drake name. Able to thrive in blisteringly harsh environments, Drake Trailers says that nothing comes close to the Perentie in terms of strength and resilience, stating that it is perfectly engineered to the Australian environment just like Drake’s trailers.
This year also has seen the introduction of several innovative new models which are set to conquer an even greater variety of challenges.
The excessive length required for the transportation of parts for wind turbines has brought about issues for many operators. This has inspired the design of Drake’s new extendable steerable trailer which has three sections that extends to over 45 meters is the first fully automated steering telescopic trailer to be built in Australia. Also support the wind farming market is our new extendable, semi modular steerable platform trailer which has been designed to carry wind tower sections and vessels.
A new mine site trailer is another product added to the range. These smaller capacity trailers are designed to carry dozers, drills and various onsite equipment with capacities up to 200 tonne. They feature access ladders, walkways, radio controlled hydraulic suspension and loading ramps, and auto greasing for ease of maintenance.
A new steering widener range in 3×4 and 4×4 configurations has also been introduced. With capacities of up to 50 tonne, these units combine regular self-tracking axles with fully widening axles to create a highly manoeuvrable and stable low loader. It is well suited to both local delivery and long distance heavy haulage.
To discover exactly what trailer will fit your haulage needs call Drake Trailers on (07) 3271 5888.
