“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”
In honour of The Drake Groups 60th year anniversary, we went searching for Drake Trailer’s oldest registered trailer. We have always talked about the long-term reliability of the trailers we manufacture here at The Drake Group, and we wanted to put that to the test.
On the hunt
We put the call out on our social media channels with some simple rules – the trailer had to still be registered and used regularly. It didn’t matter if the paint had faded or the tyres had been replaced a hundred times, it just needed to still be roadworthy and running. We were inundated with responses from many proud owners who are still using their trailers today, and reporting that they’re still as hard-working and reliable as the day they rolled out of our yard.
The winner, though, was an impressively sturdy Drake 4X8 Swing Wing and Dolly owned by John C Beaumont Earthmoving from Muirlea in Ipswich. John reports that the trailer is still put to work most days around the local area, mostly moving Cat D10 Bull Dozer and Scrapers between work sites.
The trailer has been modified slightly since it was first made. Originally, it did not have ramps and so operators added a join between the second and third axles, allowing them to flip the rear axle group over when there was no load to carry. This saved fuel and tyre wear in the long run – a great piece of ingenuity on display.
Old and new together again
We invited John to show off the aged but not caged trailer at our Open Day event recently, and excited visitors got to see it on display. It looked brilliant paired with a truck from O’Phee Trailers’ own collection, in this case, a similarly old 1973 Mercedes Benz 1418 Single Drive Prime Mover.
We thank John C Beaumont Earthmoving for showing us their trailer and look forward to seeing it operate well into the future. At The Drake Group we stand by our commitment to quality and long-term reliability of every trailer we design, build and sell from our Brisbane location. Contact The Drake Group today to talk to us about our engineering services.
